{"id":761582,"date":"2026-06-26T13:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761582\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:10:18","slug":"10-new-watches-id-actually-buy-at-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761582\/","title":{"rendered":"10 New Watches I’d Actually Buy at Retail"},"content":{"rendered":"

When someone asks me about a new watch, I often say something like, yes, that is a nice watch. But then I whisper, as if I don\u2019t want the ghost of Hans Wilsdorf<\/a> to hear me: <\/p>\n

But you should probably just buy it used.<\/p>\n

Luxury prices have become so luxurious that it\u2019s almost a truism to point out their insanity<\/a>. The problem isn\u2019t price increases alone, but when the watches don\u2019t really get better. Since this newsletter talks plenty about vintage and pre-owned, are there any watches I\u2019d buy new for that glass of champagne and the promise of \u201cbuilding a relationship\u201d? <\/p>\n

Of course!<\/p>\n

Before we get there, a few notes:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a brawl under $1k. The entry level of the Swiss industry is mostly sad. But it\u2019s a lot of fun when you look at Asian brands (Casio, Citizen, Seiko), or microbrands that mostly produce in Asia. <\/p>\n

I limited my picks to one per brand, though I wouldn\u2019t discourage you from a new Tudor Black Bay Chrono, 58, or 73. That said, if a brand makes one watch I\u2019d buy at retail, there\u2019s a pretty good chance it makes a few. This goes for Nomos, Tudor, Rolex, and plenty of others.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much from like $10k-25k. Nothing pulled me towards the classic \u201cmid-tier\u201d\u2014IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Omega, etc. (Okay, one JLC and one Omega juuuust missed the cut.) I also put the question out on Instagram, and they didn\u2019t get a single mention.<\/p>\n

The brands subscribers mentioned the most, in order: Longines, Tudor, Rolex, Sinn, Nomos. A bunch of smaller brands also got multiple mentions, including: Frederique Constant, Farer, Serica, Baltic, Unimatic, Squale. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about indies or limited editions, though there\u2019s plenty of reasons to buy these at retail. Collective Horology<\/a> has curated a solid roster of indies. Today, we\u2019re focused on watches anyone could walk in (or click through) and buy.<\/p>\n

More important than the what is always the why. As much as I like vintage and pre-owned, I get that they can\u2019t match the feeling of having your name on the warranty card and peeling those stickers off for the first time. As one subscriber told me:<\/p>\n

\u201cA watch I\u2019m buying to mark a significant moment in my life I\u2019ll always buy new.\u201d <\/p>\n

Subscribers get: (1) 2 newsletters\/week; (2) 10% off in the Unpolished Store, and (3) $50 off any service at Watchcheck, and can access all comments and Q&As. <\/p>\n

\"55 new watches I\u2019d recommend to almost anyone.<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Just a few of the watches under a few hundred bucks that I got new. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start affordable and work our way up. As another subscriber put it:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll buy new: (1) if it\u2019s cheap (< $400 for me), (2) for a special occasion, or (3) if it trades close to MSRP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once you get below a certain price, it\u2019s not worth the hassle of pre-owned. Go forth, buy your Casio F-91W<\/a>, G-Shock 5600<\/a>, Swatch Gent<\/a>, Citizen Eco-Drives<\/a>, etc. fresh out of the box. These watches are, as Jack Forster recently wrote<\/a>, \u201calmost pure signal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guilty pleasure: I picked up a MoonSwatch 1965 at an airport last year. For $265, you could do worse, though I\u2019ll readily admit a MoonSwatch is hardly pure signal. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our first mechanical pick. <\/p>\n

People are sometimes surprised that I like Timex, but I like Timex! It makes a ton of watches, and many of them are deliberately trendy. <\/p>\n

But the Marlin Hand-Wound is a classic, a watch that looks more like something my grandfather would\u2019ve worn while selling insurance door-to-door than some TikToker making ends meet on affiliate links.<\/p>\n

When it came out in 2017, the Marlin was the first mechanical watch Timex had made since 1982. Timex says it\u2019s $259<\/a>, but the street price is more like $209.<\/p>\n

A generous subscriber recently gave me a limited-edition Marlin for The New Yorker\u2019s 100th anniversary. It\u2019s got plenty of flaws: The small crown is partially recessed and hard to wind. It\u2019s on time about as often as a flight out of O\u2019Hare. The leather strap is only slightly better than what you\u2019d get from a Canal Street knock-off.<\/p>\n

But the seconds hand is capped with a bagel and isn\u2019t that delightful? Sure, I fondly remember the days of getting a mechanical Seiko for $64.99\u2014<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ah, when you could get a mechanical Seiko for $64.99. <\/p>\n

But those halcyon days are sadly gone, a casualty of some cruel combination of inflation and brands \u201cpushing upmarket.\u201d The equivalent today is more like $250<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"watches\"watchesSwatch Gent and Merci LMM-01, two more in the green light category. The Merci has a manual movement, 37mm case, and simple designs that feel French but aren’t so pretentious about it. <\/p>\n

At this price, I wouldn\u2019t recommend: Tissot PRX. I\u2019ve owned a couple, and they never stick. Feels like it\u2019s trying to be something else, and the fit and finish don\u2019t match what some competitors offer. Check out some of those microbrands, maybe a Brew Metric<\/a>? I almost forgot about Unimatic, but they just dropped their Swimming Pool capsule<\/a>, which looks like more fun than downing a pack of High Noons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The most basic of recs. The Khaki Field comes as an automatic, manual, and most recently, quartz. I have an automatic one, albeit a limited edition, but the Khaki Field\u2019s not really about the movement, so I don\u2019t have a problem going quartz.<\/p>\n

I spent a bunch of time with a few Khaki Quartz samples last year\u2014both 33mm and 38mm. I can pull off either on my 6.5in wrist. With new purchases, I usually say to go for the bracelet, but the Khaki Field\u2019s an exception. Hamilton\u2019s bracelet is kind of like an airport lounge in 2026\u2014good in theory, underwhelming in real life. I also wish the Khaki Field Quartz had a domed crystal instead of flat, but it\u2019s a solid field watch.<\/p>\n

$445 on Hamilton<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>God bless WatchBuys. <\/p>\n

As a general rule, any website that\u2019s as charmingly outdated as WatchBuys<\/a> is worth buying from. That\u2019s the site where you can buy Sinn and a few other German brands in the U.S. Sinn introduced the 544 this year, an update to the 244, but in steel. <\/p>\n

The predecessor Sinn 244 Ti, made from 1994\u20132007, is rad. The simple Sinn for those of us who can\u2019t pull off an EZM. The baby 344<\/a> (25mm!) might be even better. But pre-owned Sinns can be genuinely tough to find, and not many make their way to the States.<\/p>\n

The updated 544 is 38.5mm, larger than the old 36mm, and I don\u2019t really like hooded lugs, but a few watches get a pass. One is the Rolex Bubbleback, another is this Sinn. <\/p>\n

$2,170 on Watchbuys<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Spirit Zulu Time 39mm in Titanium. <\/p>\n

The Longines Spirit Zulu Time is kinda like every Wilco album after Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Longines today might not be hitting the same highs it used to (the 13ZN<\/a> being its Yankee), but the music\u2019s still good, sometimes even surprisingly so. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d almost forgotten that I covered the Spirit Zulu Time 39 for the Mothership in 2024<\/a>. I liked it then, and I like it now, though I had a fair amount of nits. To be expected for a watch that\u2019s $3,550. <\/p>\n

Fun fact: that titanium Zulu Time, when sized to my wrist, weighs the same as my 80s Rolex Explorer with its solid-link bracelet (96 grams). When did stainless steel get so heavy?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a flyer GMT with a ceramic bezel. The bracelet\u2019s solid, though you\u2019ll have to break out the tools for any microadjustment. Longines makes good watches at a fair price, sadly held back by the nonsensical boardroom strategy that it must be a mid-range luxury product, totally at odds with the brand\u2019s historical significance. <\/p>\n

$3,550 from Teddy<\/a><\/p>\n

[Below: More watches I\u2019d actually buy at retail from Tudor, Rolex, Cartier, and Lange.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When someone asks me about a new watch, I often say something like, yes, that is a nice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105],"class_list":["post-761582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}