The best watches to buy once and keep

The SPB317 is the point at which Seiko stops making compromises. Sapphire instead of Hardlex, a 200m diver's rating instead of 100m, 70 hours of reserve instead of 41, and — the thing nobody else in this price band offers — a published accuracy tolerance of +25 to -15 seconds a day, which means Seiko is prepared to be held to a number.

For a keep-it-forever buyer the decisive detail is less glamorous. Seiko publishes a $296 overhaul price for the 6R family. That is $120 more than a 4R36 and it is a number you can plan around for the next thirty years, which is more than can be said for any Swiss watch at twice the money.

At 41mm across, 46.9mm lug-to-lug and 12.3mm thick, it also happens to be one of the more wearable 200m watches on this page.

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.

Orient's Kamasu does something the rest of this category does not: it fits a sapphire crystal, a 200m rating, a screw-down crown and an in-house hacking, hand-windable automatic at a price where its direct competitors are still using mineral glass.

The F6922 is Orient's own caliber, a descendant of the 469 series, and it can be hand-wound and hacked — two features Seiko withheld from its own entry movements for years. Orient's three-year warranty is longer than Hamilton's or Tissot's.

The one thing it does not give you is a published service price. Orient publishes no US price list, so when this needs an overhaul you will be getting a quote rather than looking one up. That is the single reason it sits second rather than first.

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.

Hamilton fits Nivachron across the Khaki Field line — an antimagnetic balance spring that addresses the failure mode which used to send affordable mechanicals to the bench. Combined with an 80-hour reserve, it makes this a watch you can leave off for three days and pick up still running.

38mm and 11.1mm thick is the size that fits almost everyone, and the plain black dial is the version of this watch least likely to look dated in 2046.

Hamilton publishes a European service price list — €230 for a full mechanical service — but no US equivalent, which is a gap on an American-named brand and the reason it does not out-score the Seiko above.

Hamilton fits Nivachron across the Khaki Field line — an antimagnetic hairspring, addressing the failure mode that used to send affordable mechanicals to the bench. This is a watch designed around the twenty-year case.

The Turtle is a proper ISO-style diver: screw-down crown, screw case back, unidirectional bezel, and Seiko's "200m diver's" marking rather than a plain water-resistance rating. That construction is what keeps a watch alive through twenty years of showers and washing up.

It reads 45mm on the spec sheet and wears considerably smaller, because the cushion case has no protruding lugs at all. If you have written off divers on size, this is the one to look at again.

Hardlex rather than sapphire is the compromise, and it is a real one — it will pick up marks that cannot be polished out. What you get for it is a $176 published overhaul price on the most widely serviced mechanical caliber in the United States.

Seiko rates this at 200m as a diver's watch, not merely water-resistant — screw-down crown, screw case back, unidirectional bezel. The 45mm figure is misleading: the cushion case has no protruding lugs.

Tissot is one of only two brands on this site that publishes a US service price list: $210 for a complete service of a mechanical three-hand watch, with a 24-month warranty on the work itself. That is genuinely unusual and it is worth more than most of the finishing differences at this price.

The quick-release bracelet is the practical detail. Most Swiss automatics at this level need a spring bar tool and a steady hand; this one comes off in half a minute, which over twenty years of ownership matters more than it sounds.

The 21mm lug width is the annoyance. Straps come in 20 and 22, so you are paying more and waiting longer for anything aftermarket.

The quick-release bracelet is the detail worth paying for: this is one of the few Swiss automatics at this level you can re-strap in thirty seconds without a tool.

Sapphire, 200m and an automatic movement on a steel bracelet, at a price that undercuts everything else on this page with the same three specifications. On the numbers alone it is remarkable.

The problem is what Timex does not publish. There is no caliber named anywhere on the product page, which means you cannot look up what an overhaul costs, or whether parts will exist in fifteen years. For most watches that is a detail; on a mechanical watch you intend to keep, it is the whole question.

Timex's one-year warranty explicitly excludes the crystal, the strap, the case and the battery. Read that list twice before deciding it does not matter.

Sapphire and 200m for the money is real. What Timex does not publish is the caliber — which means you cannot look up what an overhaul costs before you buy, and that is exactly the number this site exists to check.

Until Seiko put the 4R34 into the 5 Sports line, a mechanical GMT started around $2,000. This is a genuine, independently settable 24-hour hand on a movement that sits in the same $176 published service band as the rest of the 4R family.

It is a caller GMT rather than a flyer, which means you set the 24-hour hand and leave the local hand alone. For somebody tracking family or colleagues in another zone from home — which is most people who buy a GMT — that is exactly the right mechanism.

Hardlex, 100m and 42.5mm across with a 46mm lug-to-lug. Not the most refined watch here; comfortably the best value in its complication.

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.

Sapphire and an in-house hacking automatic with a 42-hour reserve, at a price where most of this category is still fitting mineral glass. Citizen's five-year warranty is the longest here by two years.

Then read the lug width: 9.1mm. That is not a strap size, it is an integrated bracelet, and it means the bracelet is structurally part of the watch. When it wears out — and bracelets do — no strap shop on earth can help you, and Citizen will be your only option.

For a watch you intend to keep for decades that is a genuine structural risk, and it is why a watch with excellent specifications sits this far down the list.

Sapphire and an in-house automatic for the money is genuinely rare. The catch is structural: Citizen lists the lug width as 9.1mm, which means the bracelet is the watch. When it wears out, no strap shop can help you.

The strongest argument for this watch is the one Citizen makes on its own page: there is nothing to replace and five years of cover. No winding, no battery changes, no three-yearly overhaul. If "buy it for life" means "never think about it again", this is closer to the ideal than any mechanical watch on this page.

The mineral crystal is the compromise and it is the one that will show. It scratches where sapphire would not, and unlike acrylic it cannot be polished out.

The other honest limitation: Citizen publishes no service prices at all — every repair is quoted after inspection — so you cannot budget for the day the cell finally gives up.

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.