Best watches for teenagers

The Seiko 5 field watch is legible, 39.4mm at 48.1mm lug-to-lug, rated 100m and built around the most widely serviced mechanical caliber in the country.

Seiko publishes $176 to overhaul it and warrants it for three years — a first watch that can still be worn, and fixed cheaply, at thirty.

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.

The dive-styled Seiko 5 with a rotating bezel that teenagers love to use, at 46mm lug-to-lug. It is not a certified diver — 100m covers swimming, not diving.

Same 4R36 and $176 overhaul as the SRPG39.

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.

Sapphire and 200m make this the watch most likely to survive a teenager unmarked.

Timex does not name the caliber, and the one-year warranty excludes the crystal, strap, case and battery.

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.

At 36mm and 44.5mm lug-to-lug, this suits a younger teen's wrist, and solar power means it never needs a battery or winding.

Sapphire and 100m. A one-year Timex warranty.

The smallest genuinely good watch here. Sapphire, solar, 100m and 44.5mm across the lugs — if you have a small wrist and want to stop thinking about batteries, start here.

No battery, no winding, 100m and Citizen's five-year warranty — the lowest-maintenance first watch here, in a 37mm field case.

Mineral crystal.

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

The Bambino is the classic first dress watch, with proportions of a far more expensive watch: 38.4mm and 44mm lug-to-lug.

Rated 30m with mineral glass — give it as a watch for occasions, alongside a tougher everyday watch, not instead of one.

A 44mm lug-to-lug is genuinely small by modern standards, and this is the Bambino to buy if the 40.5mm versions never sat right. The domed mineral crystal is the compromise, and it is the one Orient never fixes on this line.