The Best Watches Under $1,000 Look Great for the Perfect Price

Men’s Journal aims to feature only the best products and services.  If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.

The sub-$1,000 watch category has never been more interesting. In the past, timepieces at this price point were considered starter watches. But now that the recent successes of small brands have pushed the creativity of larger brands, you can find watches under $1,000 that you'll own for a lifetime—timepieces that are their own pinnacles of watch collecting. The best watch under $1,000, the echo/neutra Averau, is our favorite as the Italian-designed, Swiss-made moon phase watch is in a class of its own.

The Best Watches Under $1,000

In selecting the 12 watches below, I focused on a few different criteria: Is it from a new brand but a brilliant reworking of a classic style, like the Nezumi Aviera or the Baltic Aquascaphe? Or is it a classic watch from a legacy brand at a great value, such as the Citizen Promaster Dive or the Bulova Lunar Pilot. If it’s more modern in style, does it stand out in a way that will become a classic, like the Farer Exmoor field watch? Or in the case of the newest G-Shock Mudmaster, does it stand out for sheer capability and features?

Each of these watches has aspects of greatness and are worthy of the investment. Now comes the fun part: seeing which one speaks to you.

Why You Should Trust Me

In addition to writing for Men’s Journal, I have been covering gear and style for outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Maxim, Gear Patrol, Playboy, and Fatherly for over a decade. I first started writing about watches because I was intimated by them. So, I used watch writing as a way to learn about the world of watchmaking and collecting.

Over the years, I've interviewed the best vintage watch dealers in the world, founders of watch magazines steeped in the world of collecting, and the designers and entrepreneurs behind many watch brands themselves—from the smallest micro brands to Swiss conglomerates. My biggest takeaway from these different voices of the watch world, is that anyone can be a watch collector. Because no matter your budget, the most important thing is knowing what you like and what makes you happy.

Best Overall Watch Under $1,000: echo/neutra Averau 39 Moon Phase Black

The Averau Moon Phase from echo/neutra is a modern field watch with a moon phase complication for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and a date window at 3 o’clock. Echo/neutra is based in Italy, but their watches are Swiss made, so you get Italian design and Swiss precision. Add all this up, and the result is a watch under $1,000 for which there is no upgrade needed, ever. It’s slightly more expensive with a steel bracelet but considering that the bracelet was designed specifically for this case and it’s still under $900 all told, it’s a worthwhile upgrade. The dial, with Super-LumiNova hands and indices, is available in black, blue, and white dial versions. The blue dial version is like an optical illusion—deep blue on the top half of the dial that fades as seamlessly as the night sky to black on the bottom, where satin black surrounds the moon phase complication. Choosing which echo/neutra to include on this list was tough, because their 1956 Cortina is also swoon-worthy, and my recommendation for anyone who prefers a more vintage look.

• CASE: Stainless steel

• DIAL: Black, blue, white

• MOVEMENT: Swiss Sellita self-winding

• SIZE: 39mm

• STRAP: Textile, buffalo leather, stainless-steel bracelet

Best Value Watch Under $1,000: Nezumi Aviera GMT

A perfectly proportioned vintage-inspired GMT for $400 (or lower depending on your choice of strap) is an easy decision to make. The watches produced by Stockholm-based Nezumi Studios are all designed in-house by founder and designer David Campo and assembled in Germany, and they are all vintage inspired but have their own fresh personality. Even the box the watch comes in is a work of art, speaking to a remarkable attention to detail. The matte black dial with cream-colored hands, indices and numerals seems timeless, but the oversized skeletal yellow GMT hand is distinctly modern and makes it easy to track a second time zone on the 24-hour fixed steel bezel, which evokes the bezel of a vintage Rolex Explorer II. Any watch designer can mimic the past, but it takes a great designer to fold elements of the past into a modern watch in a way that feels new—and only a very savvy one can do this for under $500 without any perceivable compromises.

• CASE: Brushed stainless steel

• DIAL: Matte black

• MOVEMENT: Seiko self-winding

• SIZE: 40mm

• STRAP: Rubber, leather, stainless-steel bracelet

The Best GMT Watch Under $1,000: Baltic Aquascaphe GMT Orange

Baltic Watches was founded in 2017 by Etienne Malec in Paris, a young entrepreneur inspired by his late father’s love of watches. Originally launched with the help of Kickstarter, Baltic has since grown into a well-respected global watch brand over the past six years. Baltic watches are assembled in France, and they have a very clean vintage aesthetic. This Baltic Aquascaphe GMT is a good example of how the brand has matured, evolving from more consciously vintage styles to a design that feels both vintage and modern. The 39mm case will fit well on most wrist sizes, and the gloss black dial along with the domed crystal and colorful bezel make this watch stand out on the wrist. The GMT hand matches the orange of the bezel, and there is a date window at 6 o’clock. For a little more expense, you can get it on a rice bead steel bracelet, which really suits it. It’s water resistant to 100 meters and has a global time zone engraving on the caseback if you want to reference it when setting the GMT hand.

• CASE: Stainless steel

• DIAL Gloss black

• MOVEMENT: Swiss self-winding automatic

• SIZE: 39mm

• STRAP: Tropic black or blue; rice bead, flat-link stainless-steel bracelets

The Best Adventure Watch Under $1,000: G-Shock Mudmaster GWGB1000-3A

G-Shock makes the ultimate “beater” watches, and their new Mudmaster is made for serious adventure. It has a built-in compass, a barometer that can alert you to any sudden changes in pressure if a storm is headed your way, an altimeter, a thermometer, and a bearing finder that lets you set a home point that it will always guide you back to. It’s mud-proof, shock-proof, and water resistant to 200 meters. You can control it manually or with a Bluetooth connection on your smartphone, to help make sure you have your feet and meters and Fahrenheit and Celsius chosen correctly before you head out into the wilderness. Other useful functions include an LED light, and a world timer setting that lets you scroll through cities around the globe, then pick one and the clock instantly resets to that city’s time. With radio-controlled accuracy and solar power, it’s an infinity watch with only minimal light needed to keep it going.

• CASE: Stainless steel/resin

• DIAL: Grey

• MOVEMENT: Solar, with radio-controlled accuracy

• SIZE: 52mm

• STRAP: Resin

Best Dress Watch Under $1,000: Hamilton Boulton Mechanical

A dedicated dress watch may not be as versatile as other categories, but owning one is a bit like owning a set of cufflinks, the fact that you have one is a statement in itself. Putting on a dress watch adds to the feeling that you’re doing something special, and to those around you, it’s saying that you take dressing well seriously. Hamilton is now owned by Swatch Group, and they’re made in Switzerland, but it’s originally an American brand dating back to 1892. Martha Gellhorn, the third Mrs. Hemingway, gave Papa a Hamilton wristwatch as a gift. For a watch brand, the Swiss are as good of caretakers as you could ask for, and this is a reimagining of a 1940 Hamilton design. Its Art Deco style is distinctive, with the feel of a tank watch, but also curved edges, bold Roman numerals with blue hands against a white dial. Inside is a hand-winding movement with a remarkable 80-hour power reserve.

• CASE: Stainless steel

• DIAL: White

• MOVEMENT: Hand-winding mechanical

• SIZE: 34.5mm

• STRAP: Crocodile-print leather

Best Field Watch Under $1,000: Farer Exmoor

Designed in London, Farer watches always stand out for their bold use of color. They are some of the most beautiful watches you can buy, but they are not even close to being the most expensive. Yet, they are handmade in Switzerland, so you get the fun London design with stoic Swiss finishing at a very reasonable cost. Field watches can sometimes be a little plain, but in true Farer style, this one is anything but. The Exmoor has a textured olive dial with a date ring, an orange date pointer hand, white hour and minute hands, and a two-tone blue and white lollipop seconds hand. It comes with a steel bracelet, a NATO strap, and a Horween leather strap, which makes the investment that much easier to justify. Three different moods, three different straps, and one eye-catching olive dial to rule them all.

• CASE: Brushed stainless steel

• DIAL: Textured olive

• MOVEMENT: Swiss Sellita self-winding

• SIZE: 38.5mm

• STRAP: Horween leather, NATO, stainless-steel bracelet

More Watches Under $1,000 We Love