Please help me find my first "nice" watch!

[jds049]

So I am currently looking to buy my first "nice watch". I'm a bit of a watch noob and as of now I wear a Fossil chrono and I like it, but I'm ready for something a little nicer, preferably stainless steel chronograph with swiss automatic movement. I like the idea of a darker face, but am open to something lighter.

Unfortunately my price range is a little lower than it really should be for the type of watch that I'm looking for. I can pay between $500-1000 but would like something closer to $700 or less. Hard to afford nice things on a college budget. As of now I'm dreaming to afford a Tag Heuer Aquaracer automatic chronograph if that helps give you an idea.

Below is what I'm wearing now. Thanks for your help!

[Oilers Fan]

First off I will say WELCOME to WUS!! I hope you enjoy your time here. For suggestions, first I think you should look at Hamilton. They make a few automatic chronos but they are a bit different than what you are looking for. I looked around a bit and found a Bulova Marine Star which looks nice, there are some made by Swatch, and Victorinox makes some really nice chronos. You might be able to find a larger range of choices if you look into hand winders as well. If you could be open to Chinese movements, take a look at the chinese mech forum. There are many nice watches that could be suggested there. As far as I know, you will get more watch for your money buying a quality chinese mechanical over a Swiss. The choice is yours.

[thename]

Couple weeks ago I've seen a Victorinox in Nordstrom Rack that satisfies all your criteria including price. If you have Nordstrom Rack in your area you can give it a try.

[ckot]

There are only a few makers of automatic chronos for under $1000. As Oilers Fan mentioned, Victorinox (VSA), Swatch and Hamilton are three of them. Tissot is another from the Swatch Group (owners of Swatch, Hamilton, Omega, Longines, and more). Swatch provides the movements that are used in virtually all sub-$5000 chronos. For the most part, that is the Valjoux/ETA 7750. They also have a new movement, the ETA C01.211, that is only available in Swatch and some Tissot models. It is based on another classic movement, the Lemania 5100, and is supposed to be excellent.

In addition to looking at VSA, Hamilton and Tissot, you might want to look at Uhren von UHR, who do the cheapest 7750 movement watches (no sapphire crystals on some models, however).
UHR 354 ($650 shipped to the US)

Also Steinhart and Christopher Ward, who make beautiful quality watches at reasonable prices.

[jds049]

Thank you for the warm welcome! I've been doing a fair share of reading on WUS but this was my first post.

In terms of the Hamiltons, I find that I love the X-Wind, the Field Auto-Chrono, the Lord Hamilton, and the Railroad Auto-Chrono. Do you have any reccomendations or advice pertaining to these models. They match almost exactly with what I am looking for in a watch. As for hand-winders, I think I may wait a bit before experimenting in that territory (if I ever do).

As for Chinese brands, do you have any favorites? I know the asian brands like Seiko, Orient, and Citizen, but kind of want to stay away from those brands, IMO they have less character than the swiss brands, possibly due to the wide array of models they offer.

As for the Victorinox I have been looking. However I find that the only model I really like, in terms of a chronograph, is the Maverick. The other Chronos have the small dials (is there a name for these I don't know?) covering the numbers, and it it somewhat turns me off. Furthermore the Automatics for Victorinox are quite costly, and I don't think I could find an auto Maverick in my price range.

Do you think it's worth while giving up on automatic until I have the opportunity to broaden my price range?

Thanks for the advice so far!

[arktika1148]

Could be worth a look on russia2all.com if you would consider an hand-wind

[Oilers Fan]

For chinese watches I would look at Sea-Gull. I do not own one, but there are many people on here that do. I have read pretty much all good things about them. Ask in the Chinese Mechanical Forum and you will get a lot of suggestions. Also as arktika mentioned you could look at russia2all.com If you open up to manual wind watches, there are a bunch of russian made chronos you can choose from. Also opens up the option of the Alpha Newman mechanical chrono. I have heard nothing but praise for these watches. I believe they are around $150 shipped.

[jds049]

I really would rather stick with a swiss made watch for this purchase. However now I question my original preference for automatic, is it worth the price tag associated with it? Or for my first nice watch am I better off with something less expensive with more bang for its buck?
I am loving the Hamilton and Tissot watches I have been looking at, but automatic movment is FAR more expensive than the quartz. I am not sure which to continue pursuing...

[ckot]

IMHO, you should consider a non-chrono if you like the idea of a quality auto. It opens up a lot of options, rather than the small number of chronos. In fact, for $500-$700, you could get a great auto and a wide range of high-end quartz chronos.