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Brands

Watch brands

Seven brands, compared on warranty, published service pricing and parts — not on heritage copy.

Brand pages usually rehearse a founding date and a story about craftsmanship. This section does something else: it compares the seven brands on the only three things that decide whether your watch is still running in twenty years — how long they warrant it, whether they publish what a repair costs, and whether an independent can get parts.

That comparison produces some uncomfortable results. The brand with the longest warranty is not the one with the best reputation. The brand that publishes the most transparent service pricing charges less to overhaul a mechanical movement than one of its rivals charges for a partial service. And one very well-loved brand will not tell you what movement is inside most of its automatics.

The comparison, in one table

Warranty and service data read from each manufacturer's own published documentation.
BrandStated warrantyPublishes service prices?What that means for keeping it
Seiko3 yearsYes — a full list by caliberThe most predictable ownership cost in the category. $176 for a 4R overhaul, published.
Citizen5 years (excludes cell, case, bracelet, strap)No — every repair quoted after inspectionLongest cover here, but you cannot budget a repair in advance
Orient3 yearsNo US list publishedBest specification-per-dollar; service pricing you have to ask for
Hamilton2 years internationalEuropean list only€230 for a full mechanical service in Europe; no equivalent US figure published
Tissot2 yearsYes — US prices, plus a 24-month warranty on the work$210 complete service on a mechanical three-hander, and they warrant the service
CasioSee brand pageNoCasio does not serve its specification pages to us, so we publish no Casio spec table
Timex1 year (excludes crystal, strap, case, battery)NoShortest cover, widest exclusions, and most automatics ship with an unnamed caliber
Warranty and service data read from each manufacturer's own published documentation.

Every page in this section

Start here

What the table is really telling you

Seiko and Tissot are the only two brands here you can budget for. Both publish a service price list before you buy. That sounds like a small thing and it is the single largest predictor of whether a mechanical watch gets serviced or gets put in a drawer — nobody posts a watch off for an unknown number.

Citizen's five years is the longest cover in the category and it comes with the widest carve-outs. The power cell, the case, the bracelet and the strap are all excluded, which is most of what physically wears. It is still five years on the movement, which is more than anyone else offers.

Timex's exclusions are the ones to read twice. One year, and it explicitly does not cover the crystal, the strap, the case or the battery. On a $50 quartz that is academic. On a $400 titanium automatic — which Timex now sells — it is worth knowing before rather than after.

Japanese, Swiss or American

Five of these brands are Japanese (Seiko, Citizen, Orient, Casio) or American-named and Swiss-made (Hamilton, now part of the Swatch Group and manufacturing in Switzerland). The Japanese brands generally win on specification-per-dollar and on warranty length; the Swiss ones win on power reserve, finishing and stated accuracy tolerances.

For a watch you intend to keep, the more useful axis is parts and service, and there the Japanese brands have a structural advantage: their entry calibers are made in enormous volume and every independent watchmaker already stocks them. Japanese vs Swiss goes into it properly.

A note on what is missing

These seven are the brands with meaningful presence in the affordable-luxury range and enough published documentation to assess honestly. Others — Bulova, Certina, Mido, Longines, Victorinox — are legitimate and will get pages as we can source their specifications properly. We would rather have seven brand pages built on documents we read than twenty built on recollection.

Questions people actually ask

Which watch brand has the best warranty?

Citizen, at five years, though it excludes the power cell, case, bracelet and strap. Seiko and Orient both state three years. Hamilton and Tissot state two. Timex states one, with the crystal, strap, case and battery excluded.

Which brands publish what a service costs?

Seiko publishes a full price list by caliber — $137 for a 7S, $176 for a 4R, $296 for a 6R. Tissot publishes US prices, $210 for a complete mechanical service, and warrants the work for 24 months. Hamilton publishes a European list. Citizen, Orient, Casio and Timex publish nothing.

Are Japanese watches better than Swiss ones?

For specification per dollar and for parts availability, generally yes at these prices. For power reserve, finishing and published accuracy tolerances, the Swiss brands here lead. Neither is more durable in a way that shows up in a twenty-year horizon.

Why is there no spec table on the Casio page?

Because Casio's US product pages do not serve specifications to us, and we do not publish numbers we have not read on the manufacturer's document. The Casio page covers what we can source and links Casio's pages so you can check the specifications yourself.

Sources

Every specification and figure on this page came from one of these documents. Where a manufacturer does not publish something, the page says so rather than filling the gap.

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