Until you’re speaking about Michael Jordan, Ken Jennings, or grandma’s cooking, the title “greatest” will be fairly subjective. That’s no much less true with regards to the perfect watch manufacturers, which span a mind-boggling vary of types, value factors and options, from the easy utilitarian attraction of the Casio G-Shock to the unapologetic outrageousness of a seven-figure Richard Mille. To make sense of all of it, we’ve assembled a number of the key gamers within the GQ watch universe, damaged down into eight distinct classes, every of which is on the very high of their specific sport—whether or not that’s making limited-edition tourbillons or the quartz beater you put on to the seashore. Luckily, in contrast to the NBA or Jeopardy’s Event of Champions, the world of watches has room for multiple GOAT.
Need to brush up in your terminology and discover your subsequent dream timepiece? Do not miss GQ’s final information to watches for males.
The Greatest Inexpensive Watch Manufacturers
Based mostly on what’s in your Instagram feed it may be simple to concentrate on the type of top-shelf grails flexed by guys who sit courtside at Lakers video games and have their very own tequila manufacturers, however don’t despair in case your funds has fewer zeroes in it. Actually, there’s by no means been extra choice or higher worth within the entry-level, with dozens of long-established manufacturers and startups working onerous to earn a spot in your wrist. Whether or not it’s your first watch or your fourteenth, these manufacturers supply Patron high quality at Pepe Lopez costs.
Timex
Your dad in all probability had a Timex (and his dad, too) however the model has come a good distance for the reason that days of “It Takes a Licking and Retains on Ticking.” Now, with inspiration from their in depth archives and artistic enter from the likes of Todd Snyder and Nigel Cabourn, Timex’s lineup has by no means been extra trendy and various. And simply as again within the day, they’re nonetheless constructed like tanks.
Tissot
Swiss-made high quality at affordable costs is the secret at Tissot, which has been making old-school mechanical watches in Le Locle, Switzerland since 1853. No matter your type, you’re more likely to discover one thing you need of their in depth catalogue spanning pocket watches, pro-quality dive watches and traditional ‘60s chronographs.
Swatch
Swatch modified the sport within the early Eighties by proving that Switzerland may make cheap quartz (i.e. battery-powered) watches in addition to high-end mechanical ones. Forty years later they’re nonetheless on the high of their sport, producing a number of collections yearly of their signature colorful-quirky type.
Casio
Aspiring multi-hyphenates take notice: this Japanese model’s providing spans a whole lot of G-Shock fashions and solar-powered analog wristwatches (plus a bunch of very good digital pianos) all of that are executed with the identical mixture of modern expertise and excessive consideration to element.
Seiko
Within the Venn diagram of affordability, dependability and stylishness, Seiko’s sports activities watches are dead-center.
Orient
In the identical vein as Uniqlo and their famously glorious selvedge denim, this under-the-radar Japanese watchmaker makes a speciality of good wanting mechanical wristwatches at budget-friendly costs.
The Greatest Large-Time Watch Manufacturers
Whether or not by advantage of their craftsmanship, their historical past, or their astronomical costs, some manufacturers command extra respect (and hype) than others. That is the A-list of the watch world.
Richard Mille
Constructed like Formulation 1 vehicles out of carbon nanotubes, titanium cables, and different such space-age supplies, this Swiss model introduced haute horology into the twenty first century. Sure, you learn the value accurately.
Cartier
If a Richard Mille is a mansion in Calabasas with its personal go-kart monitor, a Cartier is a gilded age property in Newport. A lot of this French jeweler’s fashions haven’t modified a lot for the reason that Twenties, and that’s precisely why folks like them. Cash talks, they are saying, and wealth whispers.
Audemars Piguet
With years-long ready lists, exorbitant gray market costs, and extra flexing than Muscle Seaside on a summer time Saturday, this model’s watches—significantly the Royal Oak—are in a category of their very own. Beneath the hype, nevertheless, are a number of the refined actions created by essentially the most expert watchmakers within the enterprise.
Rolex
With the type of broad, common goodwill normally reserved for Patagonia fleeces and Dwayne Johnson motion pictures, Rolex has comfortably held its place atop the pyramid of watch manufacturers for many years. Its actions and ending are top-notch, after all, however (very like The Rock) at this level they don’t require any introduction.
Omega
Greater than half a century after Neil Armstrong made what may be the most important watch flex in historical past, Omega’s Speedmaster remains to be the model’s most-wanted creation. Powerful, refined, and technically-advanced mechanical sports activities watches are what this model does greatest, and there are a lot of to select from—with or with out ties to Apollo 11.
Hublot
Hublot was the primary model to place a stable gold watch on a rubber strap, which in 1980 was as revelatory and transgressive as sporting sneakers with a swimsuit. Forty years later the model remains to be experimenting with supplies, just lately determining tips on how to carve a complete watch case out of a single block of lab-grown sapphire.
Bulgari
Gerald Genta’s designs for Patek and AP at the moment are a number of the most sought on the earth, however they solely signify a fraction of the legendary designer’s output. Amongst his different hits is the “BVLGARI BVLGARI” watch he designed for this Italian jeweler in 1975. Bulgari continues to tweak the small print of this iconic piece (impressed by an vintage Roman coin) most just lately re-imagining it with a black and white aluminum case.
Patek Philippe
As their well-known tagline says, you by no means truly personal a Patek Philippe, you simply deal with it for the subsequent technology. And in case your grandkids need to flip your cloisonné enamel World Time to pay for school sometime, they in all probability may.
The Greatest Insider Watch Manufacturers
Watch nerds, like music nerds, get pleasure from nothing greater than geeking out over the stuff nobody else has heard of. These are the watchmakers that get them fired up.
Rexhep Rexhepi
You’ll be able to consider Rexhep Rexhepi because the Zion Williamson of Swiss watchmaking: unimaginable expertise, comparisons to a number of the greatest names within the sport, and a particularly promising future. Sadly for you, meaning the watches he makes—each underneath his personal identify and underneath his model Akrivia—are tougher to get than good seats on the playoffs.
Unimatic
The watch fam loves this Italian micro-brand for its dive watches impressed by classics from the Fifties with clear, ultra-minimalist dials. Functionally, they’re as removed from an Apple Watch because it will get, however Steve Jobs would nonetheless approve.
anOrdain
“Grand feu” enameling (the method of fusing powdered glass to steel) is a type of vintage crafts practiced by solely a handful of the world’s high watchmaking craftsmen. That makes this Scottish model, whose limited-edition watches function expertly enameled dials in a rainbow of hues, an outlier in the perfect type of approach.
Laurent Ferrier
Laurent Ferrier is a third-generation watchmaker who spent 30 years within the workshop of Patek Philippe earlier than launching his namesake model. With old-school craftsmanship and understated up to date seems, his watches are proof that it pays to check the classics earlier than you create your masterpiece.
Ressence
Watches had been roughly the identical for a century or extra till this model got here alongside. By utilizing a sequence of rotating discs, Ressence’s watches inform time in a completely new approach—with out arms or a standard winding crown. They usually look as unconventional as they’re.
The Greatest American-Made Watch Manufacturers
It’s been a very long time for the reason that greatest names in American watchmaking have been American-owned (a lot much less American-made). Lately, nevertheless, a handful of manufacturers are shifting manufacturing again onshore and offering a bunch of how to indicate your patriotism with out bumper stickers or T-shirts with eagles on them. Whereas most “made in America” watch manufacturers nonetheless depend on Swiss and Asian producers for key elements, those beneath are dedicated to doing as a lot in-house as potential.
Waldan
Oscar Waldan discovered the watch business from the within, working with the highest names in Switzerland earlier than establishing his personal model within the Seventies. Now run by his son, Waldan’s latest fashions mix midcentury styling and Swiss ending with American-made quartz actions.
Shinola
The Detroit renaissance has been a very long time coming and this model has been main the cost since 2011. A decade later, they proceed to show that the Motor Metropolis could make watches with simply as a lot type and swagger as they did Mustangs and GTOs.
Haven Watch Co.
Based by a horology-loving English trainer in Indiana, this model started as an experiment to see if it was potential to design and assemble watches by hand within the Midwest. It’s, they usually’re beauties.
Weiss
You recognize that saying, “Do one factor and do it nicely”? Cameron Weiss does for certain, and you’ll see the proof in each watch that comes out of his Tennessee workshop, every of which takes 35 hours to assemble by hand.
The Greatest Costume Watch Manufacturers
Even when you don’t put on a swimsuit to the workplace, including a traditional costume watch—that’s, one with an unfussy dial, a leather-based strap and possibly some gold—to your workday matches helps make weekdays really feel somewhat extra particular.
Vacheron Constantin
Virtually 250 years of steady operation, distinctive motion ending (the hand-polishing and ornament painstakingly utilized to every element), and a good bit of shortage are the inspiration of this top-shelf model. Their watches aren’t too bad-looking both.
Piaget
Watchmakers, like highschool seniors, love superlatives. Piaget earned its status because the maker of the world’s thinnest mechanical watch actions within the Fifties and has been upping the ante ever since. At simply 2mm skinny (solely a smidge thicker than a penny), its newest Altiplano is a mind-bending feat of watchmaking, albeit one you would not need to put on to the fitness center. For that, look to the Piaget Polo, a criminally underrated metal sports activities watch from the ’70s.
Breguet
It’s been a minute since a descendent of Abraham Louis Breguet was in cost at this historic watchmaker, however holding up the legacy of the founder remains to be precedence primary. Look right here for exceptionally well-crafted, insanely complicated watches that includes Breguet’s namesake arms (aka those with somewhat circle close to the tip).
Jaeger-LeCoultre
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s most well-known creation, the Reverso, was designed for polo gamers within the Nineteen Thirties. It was additionally the watch Don Draper purchased when he obtained his identify on the door at Sterling Cooper. Wherever you are sporting yours, say it zhey-ZHER leh-KOOLT or threat being mocked by advert execs and horse folks alike.
Grand Seiko
Grand Seiko makes a number of the most correct mechanical watches on the planet (significantly these that includes their revered Spring Drive motion) and their consideration to ending is equally exact.
A Lange & Söhne
Germany’s reply to Patek Philippe produces a few tenth as many watches per 12 months and assembles each twice to make sure absolute perfection. This has earned them a loyal following of hardcore watch collectors who dig their asymmetrical dials and quirky outsized “digital” dates.
The Greatest Pilot Watch Manufacturers
You don’t should be sporting a shearling jacket and a jumpsuit to rock a traditional aviator’s watch (you may get some sideways seems on the grocery retailer when you did). All that’s required to understand these flyboy-approved manufacturers is a love of traditional software watches.
IWC
IWC redesigned their Large Pilot watch this 12 months, however to see it subsequent to those they made for British pilots within the Nineteen Forties, you won’t have the ability to inform which is which. Every part else about this watch—and each different watch made by IWC—is an train in top-down luxurious, from the sand-colored ceramic case on the Mojave Desert version to the tide indicator on the Portugieser Yacht Membership.
Breitling
After many years of catering to guys who put on epaulets and aviator shades to work, Breitling now has loads to supply these on the opposite facet of the cockpit door, too, together with current collabs with Kelly Slater’s Outerknown and fashionable reproductions of classic dive watches from the ’60s.
Bell & Ross
Like Supreme’s field emblem tee and the piano key necktie, the brilliance of some concepts lies of their relative simplicity. That is positively true of Bell & Ross, who pioneered the sq. pilot’s watch within the early ’90s and have been riffing on that signature aesthetic ever since.
Zenith
Zenith rocked the watch world in 1969 when it dropped the unique El Primero, one of many world’s first computerized chronographs. That accomplishment might not sound as spectacular lately, however their signature chronograph seems simply as contemporary because it did again then—and its legendary motion has solely gotten higher.
The Greatest Dive Watch Manufacturers
Powerful, trendy and extremely versatile, dive watch is sort of a classic Land Rover Defender. And in contrast to that beloved British off-roader, a traditional diver from any of the manufacturers beneath goes to run for many years with out breaking down.
Ulysse Nardin
This Swiss heavyweight earned its status by making a number of the world’s most correct marine chronometers which, within the days earlier than GPS, have been as important to maritime navigation as charts and lighthouses. That experience is clear of their lineup of refined sports activities watches, that are as nautical as Breton stripes (and far simpler to put on with a swimsuit).
Panerai
Panerai’s first watches have been created for the Italian navy, with dials that glowed shiny inexperienced due to Radiomir, their patented luminous paint. Radiomir turned out to be radioactive, however Panerai’s authentic design particulars and bulked-out proportions are pretty much as good as they ever have been.
Blancpain
The watch world’s equal of the Beatles vs Rolling Stones debate (or Xbox vs Ps, when you’re underneath 40) entails Blancpain, Rolex and the invention of the diver’s watch. Whereas the Rolex Submariner could also be extra well-known lately, Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms (created for French navy divers and that includes the primary uni-directional rotating bezel) truly got here out a 12 months earlier, making it the official OG. As with the Beatles and the Stones, nevertheless, it actually simply comes right down to what you want, and there’s loads to love right here.
Doxa
Together with a crimson beanie and a pipe, Jacques Cousteau’s Doxa diver’s watch was a vital aspect of his now-iconic uniform. You’ll be able to skip the pipe (and possibly the hat, too), however Doxa’s watches nonetheless look simply pretty much as good as they did onboard the Calypso.
Zodiac
Other than a set of flippers and a automobile with sand on the seats, nothing says “I dwell for the seashore,” fairly like one in all Zodiac’s colourful vintage-inspired divers.
The Greatest “First Actual Watch” Manufacturers
Any watch that tells time is a “actual watch,” however some manufacturers pack somewhat extra gravitas than others. When you’re able to graduate into the world of grown-up timepieces, listed here are a number of good locations to begin.
Longines
Whenever you’re spending hundreds of {dollars} on a watch, the concept of “good worth” turns into greater than somewhat subjective. That stated, Longines presents all the things {that a} top-tier Swiss watchmaker ought to (heritage, high-quality Swiss actions, distinctive design) at a (comparatively) attainable value level. If you’d like one thing with classic seems and fashionable reliability, look no additional.
Baume & Mercier
Like a variety of high-end Swiss manufacturers, Baume et Mercier has been within the watchmaking sport for practically 200 years. In contrast to most different manufacturers with that a lot heritage, their costs stay comparatively accessible.
Hamilton
Very similar to In ’N Out, Hamilton is broadly revered for its dedication to serving up the classics at affordable costs. When you’re trying to get into your first mechanical watch, chances are high you’ll discover one thing you’re keen on of their assortment of rugged midcentury-inspired designs.
TAG Heuer
You do not have to know what a chicane is or be conversational within the Prost-Senna rivalry to understand TAG Heuer, nevertheless it helps. Because the Sixties this model has been trackside at each main motorsports occasion on the planet, and most of their watches rejoice that legacy in a technique or one other. For many who choose their races to contain banana peels and Koopa Troopa, in addition they simply launched a sequence of collabs with Nintendo.
Tudor
Like many youthful siblings, Tudor has spent greater than its share of time dwelling within the shadow of its older, extra established sibling, Rolex. Lately, nevertheless, this model has actually come into its personal with a strong line of chronographs and dive watches to rival the perfect on the earth. It’s not Rolex, however in some methods (together with the value) that’s factor.
Enicar
One of many coolest issues about stepping into watches is the sheer variety of small manufacturers on the market quietly placing their very own spin on actions, dials, and circumstances. Enicar, which was based in Switzerland in 1914, is an ideal instance of one in all these, and a primary contender to your first mechanical watch.
Common Genève
Again within the Sixties, this Swiss model made a number of the greatest actions within the sport. After gathering mud for a few many years, they’ve quietly relaunched with a brand new assortment that hearkens again to that golden period in seems and efficiency. When you’re in search of one thing with rock-solid provenance that nobody else within the room goes to have, that is it.
NOMOS Glashütte
Combining the minimalist restraint of Bauhaus, the technical prowess of Mercedes-Benz, and the cross-generational enchantment of Birkenstock, NOMOS has helped to unfold the gospel of German watchmaking far and huge. Their austere designs will not be everybody’s cup of schnapps, however there’s a lot to understand of their in-house actions, uncommon dial colours, and accessible pricing.
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