Best sports watches

The ISO 6425 diver's marking means this case went through condensation, thermal shock and submerged-operation testing rather than a static pressure check. Add sapphire, a 70-hour 6R35 and a published tolerance of +25 to -15 seconds a day and nothing here matches it on paper.

41mm across, 46.9mm lug-to-lug and 12.3mm thick is unusually wearable for a 200m watch, and the 20mm lug width keeps straps at commodity prices. Seiko publishes the overhaul cost before you buy: $296.

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.

Sapphire at a price where Seiko fits Hardlex, plus 200m, a screw-down crown and a 120-click unidirectional bezel. On the four specifications that decide whether a sports watch survives, this matches watches costing several times more.

41.8mm across, 46.8mm lug-to-lug, 12.8mm thick, three-year warranty, 22mm strap fitting. Orient publishes no US service price list, which is the one thing keeping it off the top of this page.

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.

42mm of titanium at 11.45mm thick weighs roughly 40% less than the same case in steel, which is the difference between a large watch you wear all day and one you take off at a desk. Sapphire, 100m and Hamilton's Nivachron hairspring cover the rest.

The black PVD coating is the thing to think about: a coating on a soft metal wears at the edges, and unlike brushed titanium it cannot be refinished without removing it.

Titanium plus PVD is the combination to think hardest about: the metal underneath is light and hypoallergenic, but a coating is a consumable — once it wears through at the lug edges, it is a refinish, not a polish.

The SSK line put a genuine GMT caliber into an affordable case, and the 4R34 shares the 4R family's published $176 overhaul price — the cheapest mechanical GMT to keep running that we know of.

42.5mm across, 46mm lug-to-lug, 13.6mm thick, 100m, 22mm strap. Hardlex is the compromise, and the second zone is set through the 24-hour hand rather than by jumping the local hour hand.

The 4R34 is a caller GMT — the 24-hour hand is the one you set, not the local hand — but it is a real mechanical second time zone on a movement whose service price Seiko publishes.

Titanium, sapphire, 200m and an automatic movement in one watch is a combination that normally costs three times this. Timex publishes 41mm across, 50mm lug-to-lug and 13.5mm thick, so you know what you are getting.

Two published cautions: 50mm lug-to-lug is long for a 41mm case, and Timex neither names the caliber nor publishes service prices, so you cannot find out what an overhaul costs before you buy. The one-year warranty excludes the crystal, strap, case and battery.

65 grams, sapphire and 200m is a spec sheet Timex has no business hitting. The one-year warranty is the reason to think about it: everything else here is covered for two to five.

No battery, no winding, no overhaul interval and 200m of water resistance, with the longest warranty of any brand on this site. For a watch that lives on a wrist through the gym, the sea and the shower, the running cost is essentially zero.

The mineral crystal on a 44mm dial is a large area of glass that will collect permanent marks, and on a watch worn this hard it will happen sooner rather than later.

The strongest argument for this watch is the one Citizen makes on its own page: nothing to replace, five years of cover. The argument against it is the mineral crystal, which will scratch where sapphire would not.