Best everyday watches

The Alpinist is the rare watch that meets every part of the everyday brief at once: a 41mm case at 46.9mm lug-to-lug and 12.3mm thick that slides under a cuff, sapphire, a certified 200m rating and 70 hours of reserve that survives a weekend off the wrist.

Seiko publishes the $296 overhaul price, so the one thing an everyday watch needs more than any other — regular servicing — has a known cost.

This is where Seiko starts publishing an accuracy figure (+25/-15 seconds a day) and fits sapphire. A 6R35 overhaul is $296 against $176 for a 4R36 — a real difference, and one you can plan for.

Everything the Alpinist offers that affects survival — sapphire, 200m, a screw-down crown — at a price that makes wearing it to the gym a non-decision.

It is a diver in appearance, which is the one place it is less versatile than a field watch. Orient publishes no US service price.

On paper this is the best value in the category and it is not close: sapphire and a hacking, hand-windable in-house caliber at a price where Seiko still fits Hardlex. Orient's three-year warranty is longer than Hamilton's or Tissot's.

If the Alpinist and Kamasu read as too sporty, this is the answer: a 38mm field watch at 11mm thick and 47mm lug-to-lug that works with a suit and a T-shirt equally well, with sapphire and 100m.

80 hours of reserve and an antimagnetic Nivachron hairspring. Hamilton publishes a European service price list but no US one.

Mechanically identical to the Murph and usually cheaper, because it does not carry a film's name. 47mm lug-to-lug on a 38mm case is a genuinely versatile footprint.

If you track another time zone, the SSK023 adds a GMT hand to a 39.4mm field case with 100m and a 20mm strap — at the same published $176 4R overhaul as a plain Seiko 5.

Hardlex and 13.6mm thick are the compromises. As an everyday watch for someone with family abroad, it is the most useful one here.

Identical movement and identical service cost to the SSK001 in a case 3mm narrower. If the 42.5mm SSK001 is too much watch, this is the same purchase in a size more wrists can carry.

At 35mm and 10.93mm thick, the PRX is the smallest everyday watch here that still has sapphire, 100m and an 80-hour movement — and Tissot publishes its $210 US service price.

The integrated bracelet is the long-term trade: the 11mm fitting is not a strap size, so it will always be a bracelet watch. For a small wrist that wants something dressier than a field watch, it is still the answer.

An 80-hour Swiss automatic at 35mm with sapphire and 100m, backed by Tissot's published $210 service price. The integrated bracelet is the long-term trade — an 11mm fitting is not a strap size, so you keep the bracelet the watch came with or you keep nothing.

No battery, no winding, no service interval, 100m and Citizen's five-year warranty, in a 37mm field case. For someone who wants a watch and not a hobby, it is the most everyday watch on the page.

Mineral crystal is the cost, and Citizen publishes neither thickness nor lug-to-lug.

37mm, 18mm lugs, 100m, no battery, five years of cover. There is very little here to go wrong and almost nothing that will date.