Folks, I need some recommendations on a new watch. My 24 year old Citizen Eco-Drive has bitten the dust and I don't think it's worth fixing.
I'm looking for an Automatic or Solar Powered watch. I would like a 43mm case with a stainless bracelet. NO CHRONOGRAPHs! It must be Water Resistant to 200 Meters. I would like the price range between $500 and $750.
Making useful or competent recommendations requires more information. Even then, I can't make a recommendation that includes design because my tastes include a dislike for polished cases, silver hands, non-plongeur hands on a diver, etc. I would be able to make recommendations only based on specs and suitability for a particular usage.
Water resistance is generally misunderstood. I will explain in a separate post. A proper diver should have the appropriate ISO rating or you just can't trust it in critical applications such as actual diving. So, desk diver, dish-washing sink diver, pool swimmer, snorkeling activities, skin diving, scuba diving, saturation diving, or what? What about low air pressure resistance? Important or not? The Crystal popping off while nose-diving in your Cessna isn't fun. What style of dive watch? Monobloc, screwback, true compressor? Or you don't care? Why don't you care?
In case of an automatic do you require hacking? Sadly, Seiko still does not implement hacking on all their movements. Plus, Seiko has Terrible QC with hands, index markers, and bezels more often than not misaligned.
In case of solar-powered, do you prefer a digital watch, an ana-digi, or an analog watch?
The price point doesn't leave too many options, especially if you want a mechanical movement. You'll be stuck with a bread-and-butter movement like a Seiko/Epson NH35 or a Citizen/Miyota 9075. While there's nothing wrong with these movements - they are just meh, not that there's anything wrong with meh. Better meh than gah.
My friends and fellow water rats know I'm a watch enthusiast and I get frequently asked for recommendations. I realize most people, even those who want a watch, don't care what they wear. They just want it to be inexpensive, durable, reliable, and have a decent feature set. In that case I always recommend the Casio GW 5000U-1. Solar-powered, radio-controlled, digital GH-Shock with an internal metal case with metal screwback, 200 m WR, and it has a premium strap that is softer and more pliable than a standard Casio resin strap. The MSRP is around $400 but street price is more like $250 to $300.
For an inexpensive mechanical diver, I'd probably look at Squale, but I don't think you'll find one for under a grand.
If you are open to mechanical watches, why don't you want a kinetic watch? You get the best of both worlds, the precision of a quartz watch combined with the satisfaction of at least a few gears whirring. Let's not focus on the drawbacks. Or shall we?
