Not more than 1k usually. I am not really able to appreciate top-of-the-line inhouse movements, so I shop by finish and design. When it comes to case or dial quality, I feel like even some 300 $ watches can compete with 5 figure ones.

I’ll typically go 6-10k but I don’t buy many. I focus more on ones that I can pass down to my son someday

Watches have a weird relationship between price and functionality because watches are almost completely unnecessary for anyone to own, full stop. So you end up with the weird curve where the more functionality you want, the less you probably want a watch at all, or if you do, you probably want a relatively affordable one because you’re either buying a smart watch that does a zillion things or something with a quartz movement which tend to be vastly more affordable than mechanical watches.

So it’s a bit of a bimodal system. You either ignore 99% of the available watches because you’re purely a pragmatic buyer, or you accept that you’re buying an inherently impractical luxury product and then you have your own curve where you do get more for spending more, and some of that “more” is functionality, but it ignores the fact that most vastly cheaper watches are more accurate and robust.

So if you’re not a watch person, or at least, not a mechanical watch person, you’re probably spending at most… however much an Apple Watch Ultra costs. What is that, $800? If you’re a “dumb” watch person but you still only care about practicality, you probably are spending no more than a couple hundred bucks, and most likely you own a sub $100 Casio of some sort. Then there’s the mechanical watch buyers, where suddenly the market gets huge and the prices go up insanely high.

Within this market, the labels and prices associated with them are flexible, but there’s still some fairly ubiquitous information:

“Entry level” means the most affordable mechanical watches, generally somewhere below $500. “Affordable” generally means below $1k but has been creeping up to maybe $1,500. “Mid range” tends to mean anything up to around $5k. “Luxury” means > $5k, and then there’s a fairly vague notion of the highest end watches where the sky is the limit, but at lot of people tend to start that around the $10k mark.

Depends on the watch. On a whim, it’s $200. If I’m willing to save up and make it a goal, I’ll save up whatever it takes. Currently the most expensive watch in my collection was $4300

Most of my watches are “affordable” watches $200-400 but I promised myself I would stop accumulating unnecessary crap and save up to have maybe 3 expensive watches. Have one so far.

I found a Citizen Promaster Aqualand on sale for about $500 and so far it’s the most expensive one that I own. I switched up from SEIKO to Citizen after a local retailer told me one of my watches wasn’t worth the money to repair since they sold Rolexes. But I don’t think I’d honestly pay over $700 for a watch no matter what my income level was.

3k.

Im in the same boat as you. 250-300. I also am pretty rough on my watches for work so i feel bad beating up my more pricey pieces. I’ve got a great little tuna that is so comfy. Great intro diver imo

200 EUR. Im the homage type of the customer.

I just ordered my first “nice watch” for about $240, all others before that have been around $100 or less (all quartz). I like watches, but I’m not a big spender of things that aren’t true necessities

I have a 30 watch collect with some valuable pieces but the watch I wear the most is a $149 Garmin Vivosmart healthier monitor that’s on my right write all day/night. (It’s tiny like one of those yellow rubber livestrong bracelets). I wear a nice watch on my left wrist sometimes

i only make 12k a year as an apprentice but as im 16 i have legit no expenses so im in like the 200-500 but the CH ward im looking at is 800 but i really really like that and im going halves with my dads on christmas for that

3k to 5k range

My limit is around $500.

I have a wishlist of watches in that range. I’d rather have a collection of 10-15 watches with a wide variety, than 2-3 more expensive ones.

I don’t think I’d go over 700 Canadian. If I spent over 1k on a watch, I’d get a mouthful from the wife. That being said, alot of enthusiasts have pointed out that the variation in fit and finish of a <1000 watch is not going to be that much. Once you start pushing a thousand, you start to see more superior craftsmanship; greater attention to details. Someone correct me if I am wrong.