11 Best Affordable Elegant Watches For Men
Hello everyone, today we’re taking a look at some of the most popular elegant watches for men. I’ve decided to focus on affordable watches rather than luxury timepieces because I suspect that’s what many of my audience prefer to read about.
Also read: Best Homage Watches To Luxury Watches
In the past, I’ve featured various lists like our best watches under 500 or even the top 100 best automatic watches for men that could also come in useful to you so that’s an option for some after reading.
There’s quite a nice variety of designs and styles available in today list so it should hopefully give you a little inspiration for your next elegant timepiece.
1. Emporio Armani Men’s AR2447 Stainless Steel Watch
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First up on our list of the best elegant affordable watches is this extremely stylish timepiece from Emporio Armani. Armani are known for their large range of elegant watches available in a variety of designs. This model also featured in our best watches for teenagers.
This Armani men’s watch is built with a round stainless steel casing that has a 43mm diameter with a thickness of 11mm. The strap is genuine leather and fastens with a buckle clasp.
On the dial, we have this clear and easy to read display with the silver coloured hands and baton style hour markers standing out against the black background. There are also 3 chronograph subdials on display as well as a date indicator.
This stylish watch is powered by a Japanese quartz movement which gives you both reliable and accurate timekeeping. A mineral crystal glass also gives you a good amount of resistance to scratches and shattering.
The Emporio Armani AR2447 has a water resistance rating of 50m.
2. Fossil Men’s Watch with Blue Leather Strap
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Up next we have Fossil’s take on a sophisticated watch with this stunning PVD rose gold and deep blue combination that works just brilliantly. If you’re after an affordable yet luxury looking watch, this is a good place to start.
This Fossil watch features a rose gold PVD plated stainless steel casing with a large diameter of 44mm with a thickness of 12mm. The strap is made of genuine leather and is finished in this beautiful deep blue colouring. The strap on this Fossil watch fastens with a buckle style clasp.
The Fossil Grant is a chronograph watch with three subdials on display. They’ve used Roman numeral style hour markers finished in the same rose gold as the casing which again works well with the deep blue background of the dial.
A Japanese quartz movement is used to power this Fossil watch and provide it with both accurate and reliable timekeeping. They’ve gone for a mineral crystal glass to give you a good level of scratch and shatter resistance too. This timepiece also comes with a 50m water resistance rating.
You can read my full FS4835 Fossil watch review here.
3. Bulova Special Edition Precisionist Moon Watch
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Up next we have one of my favourite Bulova Precisionist watches. The Bulova Moon Watch is a special edition timepiece which takes inspiration from the original Bulova watch that was worn during the August 2, 1971, Apollo 15 mission.
The Bulova Moon Watch is built with a 43mm stainless steel casing that has a thickness of 14mm. Two straps come with the watch, one is a textured black leather (pictured above), the second is a black nylon with nubuck leather patch.
The dial features a very easy to read elegantly design display with three chronograph sub dials and a small date indicator tucked between the 4 and 5 o’clock hour markers. The hands and hour markers are coated in lume for better visibility in dim lit conditions.
Powering this watch is one of Bulova’s impressive Precisionist movements that beat at a frequency of 262 kHz for unparalleled accuracy and a lovely sweeping second hand. A sapphire crystal glass gives you excellent protection from scratches with a Mohs hardness rating of 9. The water resistance rating of this stunning Bulova watch is 50m.
You can read my full Bulova Moon Watch review here.
4. Daniel Wellington DW00100139 Simplistic Minimalist Watch
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When it comes to affordable minimalist and simplistic watches Daniel Wellington are one of the leading brands. They have a variety of designs available in various colours with leather and nylon straps available.
This slim line watch is built with a 36mm PVD rose gold plated casing that has a thickness of just 6mm. Note that the 36mm casing makes this Daniel Wellington watch suitable for both men and women. The soft genuine leather strap fastens with a buckle style clasp.
Daniel Wellington are known for their minimalistic dial designs and this model is no different. They went for a black background with slim baton style hands and hour markers. You’ll note they’ve gone without the seconds hand, a common aspect of minimalistic watches.
Powering this elegant Daniel Wellington watch is a Japanese made quartz movement that gives you both reliable and accurate timekeeping. The mineral crystal glass gives you shatter and scratch resistance which is handy to have. A 30m water resistance rating is handy to have, but nothing special.
You can read my full Daniel Wellington watches review here.
5. Rotary Automatic Skeleton Style Watch
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Possibly one of my favourite brands for stylish yet affordable skeleton watches is Rotary. This is just one of their many beautiful elegant watches that feature automatic movements and mechanisms on show.
This Rotary skeleton watch is made with a 40mm stainless steel casing that has a thickness of 11mm. The strap is made of genuine leather with contrasting white stitching for an added extra detail.
I love the use of the blue detailing for the hands and hour markers of this Rotary watch. If you like see through watches you’ll be pleased with the amount of the automatic mechanism on show on this model too.
Powering this Rotary timepiece is an automatic self-winding movement. This uses the movement of your wrist to charge up the movement, never needing a battery. You can even view this movement working away through the rear exhibition caseback which is one of my favourite features.
6. Michael Kors Lexington Chronograph Watch
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Michael Kors are another brand that has a nice large range of stunning watches available. The Lexington range is a great example of their elegant chronograph watches. This beauty has a large 45mm PVD gold plated stainless steel casing with a thickness of 13mm. The strap is also made of stainless steel with the same PVD gold plating and fastens with a push deployment clasp.
On the dial, we have these smart looking chronograph sub dials along with bulky baton style hour markers and slim hands. Both the hands and hour markers have a coating of lume for visibility at night.
This Michael Kors chronograph watch is powered by a Japanese quartz movement that, as we know, gives you accurate and reliable timekeeping with little maintenance required. The glass is made of mineral crystal for scratch and shatter resistance. This Michael Kors watch also has a 100m water resistance rating.
You can read my full Michael Kors MK8281 review here.
7. Skagen Men’s Hagen Watch
Skagen has a brilliant range of elegant minimal watches like the model featured here. This handsome gents watch is made from a black ion plated stainless steel casing with a diameter of 40mm and a slim 8mm thickness. The strap comes in this light tan colour and is made of genuine leather.
The dial has this typical Skagen simplistic Danish design with thin hands and baton hour markers along with a separate sub-dial for the seconds with just a small dash of colour that I like the use of.
A quartz movement powers this watch to give it reliable and accurate timekeeping. Protecting the dial is a mineral crystal glass for resistance to scratches and shattering. It also features a 50m water resistance rating.
You can read my full SKW6216 Skagen watch review here.
8. Sekonda Quartz Watch with Mesh Strap
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For a very cheap yet sophisticated watch, you should check out this beautiful timepiece from Sekonda. this best selling Sekonda watch is made with a stainless steel 39mm casing that has a thickness of 7mm making it a nice thin watch. The strap is also made of stainless steel and comes in this mesh finish which I’ve always found to be very comfortable myself.
This dial has this awesome blue finish to it that combined with the silver coloured hands and hour markers gives the watch quite an expensive look even though it’s ridiculously affordable. There’s also a handy date display at the 6 o’clock position on the dial.
As I’m sure you’re already aware, this model is powered by a Japanese quartz movement, it’s accurate and reliable, so everything you need from a nice elegant dress watch. They’ve used a mineral crystal glass for scratch and shatter resistance too.
9. Mondaine Helvetica Smart Watch With Quartz Movement
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I couldn’t do a feature on elegant men’s watches without featuring Mondaine. This brand has a brilliant selection of absolutely beautifully designed watches available. This Swiss watch brand are best known for their Swiss Railway clock face design on their flagship models.
This beautiful smart watch combines the essence of the Helvetica type font watch range with smart technology and minimal design. They’ve limited this watch to 1957 pieces so I’d get yours whilst you still can.
Smart functions of this Mondaine watch include activity/sleep tracker, automatic time zone adjustment, second-time zone, and synchronisation via Bluetooth with iOS and Android devices.
The use of radio controlled timekeeping makes this watch extremely accurate as it adjusts itself and updates to make sure it is still keeping perfect time with an atomic clock.
10. Thomas Earnshaw Mechanical Rose Gold PVD dial
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Earnshaw watches are another one of my favourite brands for skeleton watches. This model has a large amount of the mechanism on show with an absolutely stunning finish to it with the use of silver and rose gold coloured detailings plus the 17 jewels.
This Thomas Earnshaw watch is powered by a mechanical manual winding movement which means you’ll have to wind the watch up if you leave it off your wrist for too long at any time.
11. Hugo Boss Ambassador Chronograph Watch
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Last up in today’s list of elegant watches for men is this Hugo Boss chronograph timepiece. Hugo Boss are another brand known for their affordable and stylish designer watches. It features this large PVD rose gold-plated stainless steel casing with a 43mm diameter and 11mm thickness. This is paired up wonderfully with a deep blue genuine leather strap.
The dial continues the theme of rose gold and blue with its textured finish. They’ve used a combination of baton and Roman numeral style hour markers and slim hands that work well together. There are also 3 chronograph displays and a small date indicator that may come in handy.
A Japanese made quartz movement is used to provide reliable and accurate timekeeping as always. The mineral crystal glass also provided scratch and shatter resistance. The one thing that I think lets this Hugo Boss watch down a little is the 30m water resistance rating, not that it will matter to that many people.
You can read my full Hugo Boss 1513320 review here.
Thanks for taking the time to read through today’s article on the best elegant watches for men. What was your favourite timepiece featured in today’s list? Comment below and let us know.
