28 Apr 2014

Great Swiss Automatic watches for under £300

If you are into watches and are hanging around some of the watch forums and watch blogs, you will meet a lot of guys who kind of look down on anything which is not "Swiss made" and not an "Automatic". The expert opinion also seems to be that you need to spend at least US $1000 (or £ 595.20) to get a great watch. But as I have blogged about earlier, you can actually buy 4 great Japanese watches and 3 Swiss watches for less than £1000.

As I have mentioned before, I am not a watch snob. In fact, I prefer electronic watches  with multiple functions. However, if you really want a Swiss watch (they do make some of the best watches in the World) which has an automatic movement but do not want to (or can't) spend more than £300 (or $504), I can help you point in the right direction.

I have a few specifications:
1. Stainless steel straps &
2. Date function and

If you are not choosy, there are several Swatch automatic watch models for well below £300. A lot of people tend to look down on Swatch watches but they forget that Swatch owns several luxury watch brands including Omega, Longines, Breguet and Blancpain. ETA movements which are made by their subsidiary, ETA Manufacture Horlogere, power models of other brands including Tag Heuer and Hublot. Anyway, among the various Irony automatic watches, I really liked this one called Midday Sun
(REF. YAS409G) which retails for only £120.50. However, the watch is selling for much lower in Amazon UK  for only £114.0.Made of stainless steel, the case diameter is 37mm and it is 10mm thick. Water resistance is only 30 meters  / 3 BAR.



However, let us say you are a bit choosy and you also want a watch with Sapphire crystal and is a more "upscale" brand. It gets a bit harder but you can still get a watch that ticks all the boxes and looks great as well.

First, is one from my favourite watch brand, Tissot. The Tissot Carson Jungfraubahn Gent's watch (model: T95148391) retails for £275.00. I really like the simple classic white dial which is very similar to my old PR50 watch. Would look good on a crocodile strap as well. The Watch is powered by the ETA 2824-2 movement. It is water resistant up to 30 m. The bracelet is held in place with a butterfly clasp.  The watch was produced for the Jungfrau Railway’s Centenary in 2012 and you might be wondering why is it is this cheap for a limited edition watch.



The watch is rather small, measuring only 35.5 mm in diameter and 8.8mm thick. You would have probably guessed the reason by now why it is priced this low. Currently, the trend is to go for big diameter watches (some going up to 50mm) with even 40mm considered as medium. It has a power-reserve of 42 hours).

Finally we come to our last choice, the Bulova Bulova Accutron 63B156 Men's Gemini watch (code:63B156). It originally retailed for £795.00 but you can get it for much less on the H.S. Johnson store and on Amazon UK for only £219.


Water Resistant to 50m and with Case Size: 42mm Diameter and 12.5mm Thickness. Some people do not like the position of the date window (between 4 and 5) but believe me, this is the best automatic watch you can get at this price.

Any more suggestions?

NOTE: Prices are correct as of 28 April 2014.

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