Best value watches

Sapphire at a price where Seiko fits Hardlex, plus 200m, a screw-down crown, a 120-click unidirectional bezel and the in-house F6922 with hacking and hand winding. There is no specification here that a watch three times the price would improve on in a way that affects survival.

41.8mm across, 46.8mm lug-to-lug, 12.8mm thick and a 22mm strap fitting. Orient does not publish a US service price list, which is the one thing keeping it off a perfect score.

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.

Seiko may only print "diver's" on a dial if the watch meets ISO 6425, which is a harder regime than the general water-resistance standard. Very few 200m watches carry it and this is the least expensive one that does.

The 4R36 overhaul is $176, published, which over twenty years at a three-year interval is the lowest running cost of any mechanical watch here. Hardlex is the trade — harder than mineral, softer than sapphire, and it cannot be polished out.

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.

The Seiko 5 field case at 39.4mm and 48.1mm lug-to-lug is the most useful shape Seiko makes: small enough for a slim wrist, legible enough for a work site, and 100m means you can forget about it in the rain.

Same 4R36, same $176 overhaul, same three-year warranty. Hardlex again — and a 20mm lug width that keeps strap costs at commodity level for the life of the watch.

The 39.4mm case reads small, but the 48.1mm lug-to-lug does not — this wears longer than its diameter suggests. Measure your wrist before you buy on the diameter alone.

Sapphire and 200m on an automatic is the specification combination that normally costs three times this, and Timex publishes 41mm, 48mm lug-to-lug and 14mm thick so you know exactly what you are getting.

What Timex does not publish is the caliber, which means you cannot find out what an overhaul costs or whether parts will exist in fifteen years. The warranty is one year and excludes the crystal, strap, case and battery. Buy it for the specification, not for the paperwork.

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.

No winding, no battery changes, no overhaul interval, 100m of water resistance and the longest warranty of any brand on this site. Over twenty years this is the cheapest watch here to own by a wide margin — the running cost is essentially zero.

Mineral crystal and a 37mm case. Citizen publishes no thickness, no lug-to-lug and no service prices, which is the recurring frustration with the brand and the reason it does not score higher.

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