It’s job-hunting season and, despite the Zoom interface, you want to look your best (at least from the waist up). And if you’re a hand waver like I am, there’s a decent chance your wrist will be on display. Just because we’re going to be shackled to Scotiabank, TD, and various provincial loan agencies for the foreseeable future doesn’t mean we can’t find cool yet affordable watches to wear. Sure, an Apple Watch is functional, but it lacks a certain degree of sex appeal.
In building this list of five budget-friendly watches I had three main considerations: first, whether the watch is versatile (if you only have one watch it better be able to look as good with jeans as it does in a suit); second, whether it’s unique (the world doesn’t need another Rolex ripoff); and third, whether it’s affordable (this one is pretty self-explanatory).
Skagen: Jorn (SKW6546)
It’s clean, it’s elegant, it looks like something from IKEA. It’ll look great with just about any strap you toss onto it – and if you only have one or two watches, swapping out straps becomes very important. Skagen is considered by many to be a “fashion watch” (which is snob-speak for “not overpriced” and Swiss), but if you’re looking for interesting and price-friendly designs, this is a great company to keep on your radar. Skagen was founded in 1989 by a Danish couple who had moved to the United States while working for Carlsberg. Though it’s now a subsidiary of Fossil, Skagen continues to bring Danish aesthetics to watch design.
The Jorn is on the bigger side at 41mm, but because of its slim profile it should look good on most wrists. The dial is a deep, almost sunrise blue, with hour and minute markers that look as if they’ve taken inspiration from Morse code. It’s water resistant up to 50 metres, so if you splash it while washing the dishes your watch won’t be ruined. At just a touch under $103 on Amazon, you can’t go wrong.
Even though some descriptions for this watch call it a men’s timepiece (I suspect because of the 41mm width), it’s fundamentally a tool—it would seem strange that such an object would have to fit into gender norms. I just picked it because it looks good irregardless of gender.
Swatch: SO29B100
This is a plastic watch. It costs $105 from Hudson’s Bay. Perhaps ironically, this is the only Swiss watch on our list.
The watch industry is inextricably tied to Switzerland, and while many are likely to associate both Switzerland and watches with brands like Rolex, Omega, and Audemars Piguet, it was Swatch that saved the Swiss watch industry from extinction during what is dramatically known as the Quartz Crisis.
The Quartz Crisis was the period in the 1970s and ‘80s when Seiko, Citizen, and Casio (yes, the brand that made your high school calculator) began producing quartz watches, commonly known as battery-powered watches. These watches were much more accurate, reliable, and inexpensive than the mechanical timepieces the Swiss industry fought to save.
Enter Swatch.
In 1983, a little Swiss brand called Swatch released a plastic quartz watch for only 50 Swiss francs, and (skipping a whole lot of history which is likely uninteresting to Obiter readers) the Swiss were back in the game.
On the black dial of the romantically named SO29B100, big, colourful letters read: “DON’T BE TOO LATE!” The relevancy for a profession that charges clients in six minute intervals is clear.
Timex: Marlin line
Everyone knows Timex. Many of you probably grew up with Ironman watches strapped to your wrists. Timex has a long and storied past, beginning in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Company hailing from Waterbury, Connecticut. I won’t get into all the details of how the current iteration of Timex came to be, but one of the company’s most important contributions to the watch world came in the 1960s in the form of the Marlin: a highly affordable, manually- wound mechanical watch.
But in 1982, in the midst of the Quartz Crisis, Timex stopped producing mechanical watches. That is, until four years ago. In 2017, Timex reissued the Marlin, and the line has now expanded to include automatic movements and a variety of dial variations. There’s a handful of MLB designs (though there’s yet to be a Blue Jays release), a plethora of Peanuts dials (who doesn’t want to look down at their wrist and see Snoopy at his typewriter?), and plenty more.
The Marlin currently comes in 34mm and 40mm options, and all of them can be easily dressed up or down to suit the occasion. They’re not hyper inexpensive, ranging from $259 to $349 directly from Timex, but these watches are a playful piece of watchmaking history that you can keep on your wrist without making your friends question your financial choices.
Paulin: Commuter Numerical
One of the most exciting watch brands out there today is a young Glaswegian company called Paulin. It was founded in 2013 by three sisters who happen to be the great-grandchildren of the Scottish sculptor George Henry Paulin. Talent for design apparently runs in their family’s bloodline since their watches embody an unlikely fusion between the German Bauhaus aesthetic with the British Art Nouveau style of Mackintosh.
The Commuter Numerical line, the most versatile of Paulin’s offerings, features an original typeface designed specifically for the dial. Pick any of the Commuter Numerical watches—they’re all fantastic! They’re 37mm in diameter which will accommodate most wrist sizes, and have an atmosphere (“ATM”) rating of 5 (fancy-speak for a 50 metres of water resistance) so you should be safe to jump into a pool without risking a leak. For £180 you can get something extremely unique, with an interesting backstory, and I can nearly guarantee that you won’t run into anyone else who owns one this side of the Atlantic.
Charlie Paris: Concordia
We’re going to finish off our list with another young, independent brand. Charlie Paris was founded in 2014 in – as the name would suggest – Paris by two childhood friends who had a passion for watchmaking. The brand is gradually gaining traction, but has yet to become mainstream in the admittedly less-than-mainstream world of horology.
The Concordia is Charlie’s line of adventure watches, joining the ranks of multi-function sports models. While it may not have the storied history behind it that the Rolex Explorer or the Omega Speedmaster have, the Concordia is building up an exciting legacy of its own. In January 2019, explorer Matthieu Tordeur completed a 51 day solo trek in Antarctica with his Concordia strapped to his wrist.
Of the many models in the Concordia line, my personal favourite is the 38mm Concordia – Blue. It has a fixed, smooth bezel, which means it’s not technically a dive watch, but it has a water resistance rating of 300 metres. Beating inside of it is a Seiko quartz movement. The deep blue dial and white geometric hour indices are certainly reminiscent of Tudor’s Black Bay 36, but the Concordia is more restrained in its design, making it suitable not just for weekend adventuring, but for standing in front of a jury as well.
If you’re interested in getting a watch, but nothing here quite fits the bill, please get in touch or stop me in the hallway and I’d love to hunt down your perfect watch with you. For those of you who think watches are archaic and pointless: I’m sorry, we probably can’t be friends.