Watches That Punch Above Their Price Tag

Regardless of price, their added value can be calculated by unexpected mechanics, elevated and inspired design, or even a particularly personal sense of connection and the interpersonal connections your new wrist companion might open up. Here’s a top ten list of watches that makes no bones about over-delivering.

It’s really no one’s business what you paid for your watch (unless you are overly concerned with being publicly flashy). But in a relative sense, you don’t need deep pockets to wear something very special, even at the higher end of things. A big-brand vibe and impression can be had for less than a big-brand price if you do your legwork.

Perhaps a watch can give you an easier entree into a new level for your wrist presence or collection. Maybe it carries an extra sense of place and memory that goes beyond its price tag. It might offer some iconic style connected to loftier themes and history than its cost might indicate. Or maybe the watchmaker just does a better job of offering more, for less. In each instance, these timepieces all swing much harder than their prices might hint at (even if their prices are relatively high).

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar 38

In an attempt not to confuse the word “value” with the word “budget, ” we lead our list off with an exquisite example of a beloved, collectable watch model, from a “Holy Trinity” watchmaker, with the grand-daddy of exacting watch complications.

However, even at a low six-figure price point, this execution of the fabled Royal Oak gets you entry into the “AP” club, the “RO” club, and the “QP” calendar club in an alluring modern execution with an ice-blue “tapisserie” dial.

Limited to 150 editions, this 38mm Royal Oak sports an exquisite perpetual calendar complication tallying the month, day of the week, date, and leap year status that does not need to be manually adjusted for accuracy until the year 2100. And that goes for the sophisticated moon-phase indicator at 6 o’clock, as well.

This is a masterful timepiece execution that is often reserved for production in more noble and more expensive metals. The savings-secret here is that this Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar 38 is crafted in gleaming stainless steel.

Price: EUR 104’300

Trilobe Trente-Deux Blue

Similarly, this gorgeous 39.5mm artful timepiece from French watchmaker Trilobe comes with a serious price tag. But, seriously, you are bringing beaucoup exclusivity, elegance, and behind-the-scenes mechanical mastery to your wrist (again, in cost-saving, but vibrant, stainless steel).

The Trente-Deux Blue’s deep blue dial, sleek bracelet, protected crown, and knurled bezel present almost as a perfectly nice-looking, elevated sport watch. However, the movement gymnastics to load up the left side of the dial with a regulator-style stack of a circular running seconds indicator above a rotating circular minutes gauge (a minimalist trefoil arrow indicates hours), is just not something you’re going to on a lot of wrists when you are out and about.

That sort of double-agent presentation of something familiar and contemporary outside with something horologically amazing inside, it where the added value of this Trilobe lives.

Price: EUR 21’000

Tudor Ranger 36

For an entry-level model that is often under-appreciated, Tudor’s classic steel adventure watch has been revised and updated quite frequently, especially in recent years. And these seemingly slight adjustments can create telling “sweet spots” for collectors that can increase a watch’s value.

The signature large-cardinal numeral, stubby-handed visage of the Ranger first debuted officially in the 1960s and has generally carried era-appropriate case sizes throughout its history (from a vintage-y 34mm to a “maybe too big” 41mm).

In 2022, Tudor rested on a 39mm steel case, but this new model, debuted at the recent Dubai Watch Week show, rolls back to a more heritage-authentic, “just right” 36mm case—and carries a striking new “Dune White” dial color, to boot. This Tudor might deliver some “extra-ness” as a watch to hold onto, and track what the collector market has to say about it down the road.

Price: EUR 3’420

BENRUS Ultra-Deep

When it comes to authentic, frankly bad-ass, military-inspired timepieces, a modern Swiss-made BENRUS watch always crushes its execution—and without being strictly a “reproduction” or “reissued” timepiece. The brand’s history started as a timepiece supplier to the U.S. military from the 1920s to the Vietnam era (veterans in your family may well have been issued one if you live in the States).

Today’s BENRUS revival (now Swiss-made under U.S. ownership) brings the latest modern movements and materials to handsome watches with just the right amount of vintage authenticity. This Ultra-Deep’s 36.5mm steel case size lies close to its mid-century “dive watch boom” beginnings, as does the multilink bracelet, use of lume, and technical hand design and index gauging.

But take a look at the outside of the case: The main crown is swept down to 4 o’clock to allow for better wrist motion in a wetsuit, and the other crown at 2 o’clock manipulates the internal dive bezel on the dial’s outer ring. While both of these features make a diver’s heart beat faster, most modern dive watches utilize an expected rotating outside-the-dial dive bezel. This internal-bezel approach is a vintage feature that actually feels like something “new.”

Price: EUR 1,120

Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Tradición

Bear with me on this, but the right watch can almost provide an extra sense of a needed vacation when you strap it on your wrist.

Cuervo y Sobrinos was founded in 1862 as a watch repair operation by Spanish immigrant Ramón Fernádez Cuervo in Havana, Cuba, thriving and growing into watchmaking until the Castro era. Now based in Switzerland, its watches carry so much Cuban ambiance and sense of place and time that you can practically smell the cigars, taste the rum, and bask in the tropical ocean breezes.

This 40mm steel limited-edition Historiador Tradición is not only the maker’s first COSC-certified timepiece but also features a tobacco-shaded strap, vintage glass-box crystal, deep burgundy “frappage” textured dial, cursive badging, and classic double-cartouche emblem; it just feels like decadent mid-century Havana. And, let me tell you, that is a pretty good feeling to have.

Price: EUR 3’400

Ralph Lauren Stirrup Petite Link

High-fashion alignment in a watch doesn’t necessarily need to also mean high prices. Even loaded up with 56 brilliant-cut diamonds bathing its case and 84 paving its interlocking links (and with an exquisite mother-of-pearl dial), this Stirrup Petite Link timepiece brings along a tremendous amount of signature RL style and iconic symbolic design association for under $10K.

The diminutive stirrup-shaped steel-and-diamond case, the artful play of the bangle-y steel-and-diamond bracelet…this is a watch that you can imagine putting a smile on any fashionista’s face. With a precision-caliber 976.001 quartz movement, the Stirrup Petite Link’s over 1 ct of shimmering gems turn your stylish wrist into an extravagant runway.

Price: EUR 9,900

NOMOS Glashütte Tetra Ochra

The artful, Bauhaus-inspired timepieces produced by German watchmaker NOMOS are generally accessibly priced for the minimalist-design/maximalist-color package you get. When you go back into its catalog, however, the price story gets even better.

First introduced as part of the brand’s inaugural collection in 1992, the Tetra makes a strong “what are you waiting for?” case for anyone interested in acquiring a square watch. This version, in a pleasing double-tone of organic ochre for its dial, framed by a 29.5 by 29.5mm steel case, provides the thin, stripped-down gauging and numeral fonts and structural simplicity of the design movement that serves as the brand’s primary inspiration.

But the red and yellow detailing on the contrasting telltale small seconds indicator at 6 o’clock is a perfectly restrained-but-potent exemplar of NOMOS’s exceptional design approach. With a hand-wound in-house DUW 4001 automatic movement, it is poetry—and art—in motion.

Price: EUR 2,180

Hamilton Khaki Aviation Pilot Auto 36

Don’t sleep on Hamilton. While the watchmaker’s origins began in the American watch center of Lancaster, Penn., near the turn of the last century, its estimable heritage and expertise has lived under the Swiss umbrella of the Swatch Group for nearly 50 years. Its historical heyday of producing superb aviation watches (especially from the 1930s to the 1950s) provides a rich library of inspiration for its current Swiss producers.

Powered by a modern 80-hour power-reserve H-10 automatic movement (with an edgy Nivachron balance spring for added precision), the modern heart in a vintage flying suit vibe of this Khaki Aviation Pilot watch is undeniable. But the real extra here is that the heritage steel case size of 36mm and the pale colorways of white, peach, and beige make it a perfect gender-neutral choice for any wrist that wants some authentic pilot watch capability, for far less than most pilot watches cost. Ready for take-off?

Price: EUR 1’095

DOXA SUB 750T Whitepearl

The dive watches from Swiss maker DOXA occupy a special place in the hearts of serious SCUBA folks. While it has been producing watches since the 1880s, DOXA’s focus on creating purpose-built, pro-grade dive watches began in the early 1960s and was done in consultation with the original “SCUBA-saint” Jacques Cousteau (he and the whole Calypso crew famously wore DOXAs under the sea).

This 45 by 47mm stainless steel automatic dive watch may best exemplify the brand’s uncanny combination of legitimate diving functionality, heritage-true details, and a splash of stylish fun. For its accessible price tag, you get a whopping, brag-worthy 750 meters of water resistance, with if-you-know-you-know authentic details like a superbly thin rotating dive bezel that works well with a wet-suit gloved hand. Also available in vintage design notes with a slinky-but-strong “beads of rice” bracelet, meeting a fashionably technical dial approach in gleaming white. Dive in!

Price: EUR 2,650

DeBethune DB Kind of Two Jumping GMT

We finish our list with something special that exemplifies the idea of a timepiece adding in more than its price-tag, even if that price tag is close to a quarter million dollars. That’s because in this new masterpiece from acutely distinctive and artful Swiss maker De Bethune, you are actually getting TWO watches.

Even if you downplay the 43.3mm watch’s exquisite craftsmanship and finishing, titanium construction, and uniquely complex “jumping GMT” function, De Bethune has used its signature floating lug case design crafted for wrist comfort to, literally, flip the script on double-faced reversible watches.

An easy, satisfying swivel allows you to switch between two dial options, which are profoundly different in design and intention: A more-classic, sober traditional flavor in understated domed anthracite with gilded Arabic indices and hands, and a more futuristic, technical, movement-view centered face based around the watchmaker’s elegant, signature, “deltoid” bridge design.

Furthermore, the GMT function splits its delivery between home time displayed on the modern face, and the second time zone displayed on the classic face. Yet, incredibly, both sides use a single hand-wound Calibre 2517 movement (a unique set of gears and pinions drive both sets of mirror-image hands from a single mechanism).

Price: EUR 210,000 excluding tax