I am new to watch collection. I couldn’t afford any brand earlier. Now i have started with Casio Protrek and a simple analogue beside one NaviForce.
There is a general split between watches that are made to be good watches, and those that are made to be nothing more than a fashion accessory.
Brands like Casio, Seiko or Omega sell based on their brand name as a manufacturer of watches - if they make poor quality watches their brand reputation gets hurt and people stop buying their watches. So while every model won’t necessarily be flawless, they are aiming for a high quality piece that does its job well
Fashion brands however trade based on their brand name. Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss or Coach don’t sell watches because they are good quality, they sell watches because people know the brand name from making clothes, handbags and other fashion items, and want that same logo on their watch face. This means there is no real incentive for the brands to actually make a good watch - they can cut every corner possible to pad out their profit margins and people will still buy them based on their reputation as a manufacturer of desirable handbags.
So as a rule of thumb, if you know a brand as a manufacturer of watches (or in the case of Casio, other electronics) you are probably pretty safe. If you know the brand primarily as a fashion icon, you may want to look elsewhere.
the only exception was Calvin Klein which made a partnership with swatch group for their watches… so you could find ck watch swiss made with same quality as Tissot…but also the same price…who will buy ck watches @300-500$ ? nobody😅
so it was a failure akd you could find on joma for mess than 200 even 50 for quartz model and the watches were good quality…it was surprising🙂
the deal with swatch is over so now i think the ck watches came from china like other fashion.
Thank you for such an elaborate answer. What is your opinion on Automatic vs Quartz for a new watch lover especially when my budget is not more than 500$.
Automatic versus quartz will really depend on what you want or if a watch.
Quartz will be the practical choice for someone who just wants a watch that just works - it is accurate, reliable and does the job with the minimum of fuss. If you don’t wear a watch every day for example, you can just grab it when you need it, knowing that it will still be ticking away at the correct time.
Automatic is the enthusiast’s choice. In most technical ways it is the worst choice - it is much less accurate, more delicate, generally thicker, and only has a power reserve of a few days so will stop if you don’t wear it and need reset. Yet somehow most of that doesn’t really matter, and the daft appeal of that sweeping second hand and the knowledge that your watch is powered by a physical mechanism rather than a small computer chip and battery are just appealing.
I own both - the watches that appeal to me the most are generally automatics, but I still have a few quartz models kicking about for the practicality.
A $500 budget also puts you nicely on the border of both - for a quartz model something like a Citizen Eco-drive is a superb place to start, plus you also have things like some of the Seiko models, Casio and a few models from the likes of Tissot. There are also a range of automatics available - the Seiko 5 range is a superb starting point, some of the budget models from brands like Hamilton or Tissot, done citizen models, and a vast array of models from the Chinese brands like Pagani, Steeldive and so on.
If you already own something like a Protrek as a rugged, outdoorsy (digital) quartz watch, something like a Seiko 5 would probably be a nice place to dip a toe into the world of automatic watches…
Brands like Casio, Seiko or Omega sell based on their brand name as a manufacturer of watches - if they make poor quality watches their brand reputation gets hurt and people stop buying their watches. So while every model won’t necessarily be flawless, they are aiming for a high quality piece that does its job well
I agree and also agree with the rest of the comment…but we kinda had a jump in tiers here didn’t we?
The so called fashion brands are just rebranded made in china cheap watches.
It’s better to get a Timex or Casio or Seiko mostly because although yes the Tommy looks fantastic, they don’t have anything substantial inside basically. This is the same for most fashion brands.