Best 42mm watches

A 42mm titanium case 11.45mm thick, with sapphire, 100m and an 80-hour H-10 with a Nivachron hairspring — light for its size, and the thinnest published 42mm here.

The black PVD coating will wear at the edges, and Hamilton does not publish the lug-to-lug.

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.

Hamilton's pilot's watch with the specification most of the style skips: sapphire and 100m, on an 80-hour H-40 with day and date.

11.85mm thick. Hamilton does not publish the lug-to-lug.

Hamilton fits the same Nivachron hairspring here as on the Khaki Field line, and the H-40 runs 80 hours. Sapphire and 100m on a watch this legible is the pilot-watch specification sheet most of the category never manages.

A 46mm lug-to-lug makes this 42.5mm Seiko 5 wear like a much smaller watch, with 100m and the published $176 4R overhaul behind it.

Hardlex, and 13.4mm thick.

The 4R36 is the most commonly serviced mechanical caliber in the United States and Seiko publishes a flat $176 price to overhaul it. That single fact does more for a twenty-year horizon than any spec on the case.

The same short-lugged case with a 24-hour hand — a caller GMT on the same $176 published overhaul.

Hardlex and 13.6mm, on a 22mm strap.

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 on a Super Titanium case, with Eco-Drive and Citizen's five-year warranty — the lowest-maintenance 42mm here.

Citizen publishes neither the thickness nor the lug-to-lug.

Sapphire is the upgrade the 37mm Chandler never got, on a Super Titanium case with Citizen's five years of cover. Citizen publishes neither the thickness nor the lug-to-lug, so try it on before you commit to 42mm.