Best watches under £500: budget-friendly watches

A £500 budget puts you in a fantastic position to buy a wide range of watches. At this point, you can safely graduate away from so-called fashion brands – clothing companies that also put their name on the dial of a watch – and purchase legitimate, Swiss-made timepieces from some of the biggest names in the business.

This guide includes watches from well-known brands like Seiko and Tissot, as well as Swatch, Orient, and a handful of lesser-known but equally interesting boutique companies. It also includes a range of watch types and styles, but, if you’re after some more expensive watch, check out Stuff’s guide to the best watches for men.

Some even have automatic mechanical movements, 200 metres of water resistance and GMT complications, while others come with a choice of straps included in the box, and others borrow some design details from the biggest name in watchmaking.

A £500 budget ensures you’ll get a watch that is built to last. Many of these options use stainless steel for their case, and most even have a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal protecting their dial. You’ll even find watches with exhibition case backs in this price range, giving you a view of the mechanical movement within. It’s a truly exciting sector of the market, and we’re sure you will find something you’ll love.

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Quick list: What is the best watch under £500?

The best watches under £500 you can buy today:

1. Tissot PRX 40mm

Retro watches packed with 1970s design cues are having a moment. One of the first to embrace the trend was the Tissot PRX, which is available in a wide range of colours, and can be bought either with a quartz battery or automatic power. For a sub-£500 budget, you’ll be looking at the quartz version, which is still a mighty fine watch, complete with date window sapphire crystal and 100 metres of water resistance.

The 70s-style stainless steel case is relatively compact, at 39.5 mm, and comes with a set of quick-release lug bars if you fancy swapping to a different bracelet or strap.

A smaller 35mm model is also available, along with gold-coloured pieces and dial colour options of green, blue, black, pink, pale blue, graduated blue, mint green and more. In all, the PRX family comprises a whopping 56 different models, at the time of writing, giving you plenty of choice at an affordable price.

2. Seiko 5 Sports ‘Blueberry’ GMT

Another watch where its looks outpunch the price tag, this Seiko blends vintage diver looks with the practicality of a GMT.

Like the Citizen above, it might be borrowing a fair few design details from a certain Swiss brand, but the familiar date magnifier and blue/black colourway are balanced out by the quirky screw-down crown position and GMT markings.

Being a GMT, this watch has a second-hour hand that laps the dial once every 24 hours. Once set correctly, a glance at this hand, along with the minute hand and the 24-hour scale around the dial, is enough to see what time it is at GMT (Greenwich Meantime). This can be particularly useful for frequent travellers, and you can even use the rotating bezel to track a third time zone – perfect for when you’re away from home, or work with colleagues across multiple time zones.

The watch is powered by an automatic mechanical movement with a power reserve of 41 hours. The stainless steel case measures 42.5 mm in diameter, making this a fairly large timepiece, and it’s also quite thick, at 13.56 mm. The case is topped by a sapphire crystal, while the rear houses an exhibition case back giving a view of the movement within.

As well as the ‘Blueberry’ blue and black colours of the model shown here, the watch is available with a black or orange dial. Water resistance is 100 metres and the watch comes fitted to a stainless steel bracelet with a three-fold clasp and secure lock.

3. Citizen Tsuyosa Automatic

It might look a lot like a certain famous Swiss watch, but there’s no denying this Citizen offers fantastic value for money. The date magnifier is a detail seen elsewhere, but we also like the quirkiness of how the crown is hidden away at the half-past-four position, giving the rest of the 41 mm stainless steel case a cleaner, simpler look.

We’ve gone for the green dial, but other options include a bright yellow-orange hue, black, dark blue and a pale blue not far off the famous Tiffany Blue.

Protected by a sapphire crystal, the dial has a date window beneath a magnifier at the three o’clock position, while the baton-style indices give the watch a classy, timeless aesthetic. Turn it around and the automatic mechanical movement with 40 hours of power reserve is visible through an exhibition caseback. There is 50 metres of water resistance, so it’s safe for swimming but not diving.

We reckon this is a cracking watch for the money – just £299 as we write this – and love the variety of dial colours available. The triple-link bracelet adds a serious dose of sophistication, but the relatively simple case design means this is a watch that can be worn with almost any outfit for any occasion.

4. Orient Bambino 38 mm

Falling well within our £500 budget – and actually sneaking in below the £300 – is a simple but sophisticated dress watch from Japanese watchmaker Orient. The Bambino collection includes various case and dial colours, but we’ve gone with a model with a beige dial and blue hands on a dark brown crocodile leather strap.

The beige colour gives the dial a vintage, slightly patinated feel, while the blue hands add a splash of colour to what is otherwise a very simple watch face. There’s a date window at the three o’clock position and a simple ‘Water Resistant’ marking below the hands. The stainless steel case has an exhibition case back, giving a good view of the F6724 automatic mechanical movement within, which has a power reserve of 40 hours.

As to be expedited at this lower price point, the Bambino has a mineral glass crystal instead of sapphire. So, while it’s pretty strong, it won’t be as scratch-resistant as some other watches in this roundup.

5. Mr Jones Watches A Perfectly Useless Afternoon

There’s quirky, and then there’s Mr Jones Watches. Based out of a small workshop in South East London, this boutique watchmaker has built a reputation for timepieces that use coloured, semi-transparent discs to tell the time in unusual ways.

This watch is called A Perfectly Useless Afternoon and it’s the company’s best-seller. Featuring a person lounging on an inflatable ring in a swimming pool, the time is read by their outstretched foot, which points to the hours, and a floating rubber duck that points to the minutes. The realistic colour of the swimming pool will make you yearn for a holiday every time you glance at your wrist, while the quick-release lug bars make it easy to swap out the standard strap for anything you like.

The dial was designed by Belgian illustrator and artist Kristof Devos, who says the dial was inspired by a quote by Chinese philosopher Lin Yutang, who said: “If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learnt how to live.”

This watch has a unisex-sized 38 mm stainless steel case with 50 metres of water resistance – so it’s safe to swim with, and of course lounge in an inflatable, but you shouldn’t take it diving. Despite the relatively low price – the quartz model shown here is just £225 – the watch is protected by a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.

An automatic mechanical version is also available, with a larger 40 mm case, but at £595 it’s slightly beyond the budget of this buying guide. Top tip: head to the Mr Jones store in Covent Garden, London and there’s often a selection of prototype watches available at a discount and with unique colourways, so you could bag a watch with a swimming pool different to any other.

6. Seiko Prospex Compact Solar Scuba Diver

This is a lot of watch for the money. It’s a stainless steel diver from Seiko, complete with a unidirectional rotating bezel (with blue and red ‘Pepsi’-style colour, no less), 200 metres of water resistance, a sapphire crystal and a guarded screw-down crown.

What’s more, this watch uses Seiko’s solar-powered tech, which means it uses natural and artificial light to power its calibre V157 movement indefinitely. Even if you leave it in darkness, the watch will keep time for up to 10 months when fully charged.

Other features include a date window at the three o’clock position and a stainless steel bracelet with a three-fold clasp, secure lock and push-button release.

As we said, there’s an awful lot of watch here for under £500, and on the wrist, it looks a lot like drive watches that cost considerably more. The case has a 41 mm diameter and is 11.3 mm thick, which is roughly on par for a dive watch, and at 157 g it’s got a nice, premium weight to it too.

7. Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms

It wasn’t going to be easy to follow the MoonSwatch, but Swatch pulled it out of the bag with the Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection. A partnership with fellow Swatch Group brand Blancpain, the Scuba Fifty Fathoms is available in seven colour ways, ranging from subtle black or light grey, to bolder green, coral, orange and blue options.

Although fairly pricey for a Swatch, at £350, these watches look fantastic thanks to their Blancpain styling, and back this up with a mechanical automatic movement, 91 metres of water resistance (that’s 50 fathoms, of course), a rotating bezel and an exhibition case back.

Swatch claims up to 90 hours of power reserve, meaning you can take the watch off, not wear it for 3.5 days, and it’ll still be keeping the correct time. Like the MoonSwatch collection, these watches have cases and glass made from a type of plastic Swatch calls Bioceramic. There’s also glowing Super-LumiNova for nighttime visibility.

A fairly large watch, the Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms has a case that’s 42.3 mm in diameter and 14.4 mm thick.

7. Tissot T-Sport PRC 200 Chronograph

Larger than most other watches in this guide, the 43 mm Tissot PRC 200 is a quartz-powered chronograph with a tachymeter and striking yellow hands set against a smart black dial.

Although Tissot doesn’t make a point of it, the aesthetic is clearly one of a motorsport-derived watch, thanks to the car dashboard-like dial design, and how the tachymeter can be used to calculate the average speed of a vehicle travelling a known distance – such as a car lapping a race track or sprinting through a timed quarter-mile.

Water resistance is an impressive 200 metres, while other features include a screw-down crown and caseback, and a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. The quartz movement has an end-of-life indicator for the battery, while the subdials include readouts for a 30-minute timer, a 1/10th of a second stopwatch and seconds. The stopwatch is controlled with two push buttons at the two and four o’clock positions.

Lastly, the matching stainless steel bracelet has a folding clasp with a safety latch and diver extension. We reckon it would look equally smart on a black leather strap, too, and give off some serious Omega Speedmaster vibes for a fraction of the price.

9. Brew Watch Co. Metric Gold & Black

Seventies retro is the name of the game with the Metric by US startup Brew Watches. We’re big fans of all of Brew’s colour ways, if we’re being honest but this black and gold number stands out like no other.

Granted, it’s perhaps a bit Wolf of Wall Street, but the case is actually pretty compact, with a 36 mm diameter, helping to take the edge off slightly. Inside you’ll find a battery-powered hybrid VK68 meca-quartz chronograph movement, driving the hour and minute hands, and a pair of recessed sub dials.

As with other Brew watches, the 25-35 second section of the 60-second dial is highlighted – this is because, according to Brew, that’s the ideal time for making a shot of espresso. Water resistance is 50 metres. The watch comes with a matching stainless steel bracelet, with a micro-adjustment buckle that lets you lengthen or shorten it slightly to find the perfect fit without adding or removing links.

If the gold look is a bit too much for you, this watch is also available in grey titanium, black with gold details, and a host of other playful colourways.

10. Mondaine Grand Cushion Set

We love a watch with a backstory, and Mondaine is one of the most well-known. Mondaine produces clocks for the Swiss railway system, and you probably recognise the simple, black-on-white design of this watch from clocks on train station platforms across the country. This watch also features Mondaine’s iconic red second hand with its circular tip.

There’s a bit more detail here too, thanks to the chronograph movement with three subdials and a pair of push buttons. We think the cushion-shaped stainless steel case also adds intrigue, and while looking quite large its 41 mm case width should make it comfortable for most people.

Being a kit mens this watch comes with two straps. You get the standard black grape leather strap, which is vegan and has a red underside, plus a Milanese mesh stainless steel strap. Although we’ve featured the classic white dial here, other options for the Mondaine Grand Cushion include blue and green, each with a matching strap.

Other features include a double-domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, a Ronda 5030 quartz movement with up to 54 months of battery life and 50 metres of water resistance.

What to consider when buying a watch under £500

Under £500 is a great price point because it opens the door to some serious watches with great specifications from very established brands, like Seiko and Tissot. But it’s also a price where you can still have a lot of fun, and it’s easy to pick up watches closer to the £300 mark from startups and boutique brands like Brew and Mr Jones.

As we’ve shown in this list, some watches under £500 borrow a lot of design cues from much pricier timepieces, while others very much go their own way. And remember, you can always make any of these watches your own by picking up some different straps.

At this price you should be looking at the inclusion of a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, instead of less strong mineral glass, protecting the dial. Most options on this list use sapphire.

You’ll also want to understand a little about watch movements. Some sub-£500 use battery-powered quartz movements, while others have automatic, mechanical movements. These certainly feel more exotic, but be aware of their limitations; their power reserve is how many hours they can run accurately for, when not worn. In many cases, this will just be a couple of days, so if you plan to switch between several; watches frequently, you may find an automatic watch runs out of power and needs winding up (and the time/date resetting) with each visit to your wrist.

Lastly, with a £500 budget, you should have some fun. Pick up a watch that intrigues you, one that stands out from the crowd and one that can have its entire personality changed by simply swapping out the strap.

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