The military watch has been around at least since the First World War and has remained ever since as a highly popular genre for men. Whether you are paintballing or merely pizza delivering, a military watch gives you the aura of an adventurer and an urban warrior while at the same time being one of the easiest and most reliable ways to keep track of time.
Wave upon wave of affordable luxury brands, too numerous to mention let alone feature, have been quick to cash in on the manly appeal of the military watch, and offer several versions. The luxury military watch, a military watch at its core but with designer good looks and a luxury finish has become one of the hot selling genres on Amazon and many an online watch website and is likely to remain a favourite throughout 2014.
The appeal of the military watch is its sober good looks, macho bloodline and its affordability. It's hard to spend a lot of money on a military watch, even the best of them should cost you under $2,000 - and most of them are well under $500. Here is a selection of affordable luxury military watches that could you see you being right up to the minute in 2014. Prices are shown in euros or dollars.
Swiss Military Hanowa
This Swiss brand is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It's noted for its quality military watches all of which run on Swiss quartz movements, although they also have a line of automatic watches too. This is a 42mm three hander with a date window at 3 o'clock and easy to read Arabic numerals. This watch is available online for just $85.00.
Seiko 5 SNK807K2 Military Stainless Steel Men's Automatic Blue Dial
Seiko make a number of different military style watches. This particular one is from the ultra reliable Seiko 5 series of automatic watches. This 38mm black dial watch features silver toned hands and a day/date window at 3 o'clock. The watch comes on a blue Nato style strap. Available on Ebay for just $99.99.
Toy Watch Vintage collection canvas NATO military olive strap
Toy Watch is a successful Belgium based fashion watch brand. It's military style watch shown here is inspired by the haute horlogerie of the 60's and 70's, maintaining its main features, brushed steel, rounded glass and a date aperture at 3 o' clock. Just €166.00
Wenger Swiss Army Military GST Chronograph 78256 Watch
Swiss brand Wenger make some great quality products, and they are not limited to just watches, they are equally if not more famous for their Swiss military knives. This quartz powered military chronograph features a scratch-resistant hardened mineral crystal, easy-to-read analog dial with bold markings, and luminous hands and hour markers. The date is at 4 o'clock with sub dials at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. You can pick one of these up on Ebay for $199.00 in spite of a suggested retail price of $400.
Avio Milano BK5502 Black Collection Chronograph
Italian brand Avio Milano has a reputation for creating durable and extremely practical timepieces for aviators, divers and other adventurers. Fulvio Locci, who founded the Avio brand, was inspired by the world of aeronautics. With a case constructed of anodised aluminum, the 40mm watch features a black dial with contrasting orange indices that is easy-to-read, without being heavy on the wrist. $1,425.00
Victorinox Swiss Army Alpnach Special Edition Mechanical Chronograph
Victorinox is another Swiss brand equally famous for its Swiss military knives as it is its watches. The Alpnach is one of its top of the range military models. This 44mm watch runs on the much trusted ETA 7750 chronograph movement with a 46 hour power reserve. Waterproof to 100 metres, the watch is scratch resistant and features a unidirectional bezel with a countdown scale. At close to $2000, it's certainly at the higher end of the affordable military watch market.