From holiday stocking stuffers to a coming-of-age first watch, these six new timepieces are all less than $1,000, so they won’t break the bank. Yet in your holiday gift giving, they will provide a bit of fun, interesting back story and on-trend cool.
Brew Watch
Metric Star Chronograph, $450
Brew Watch, as the name suggests, is a brand inspired by coffee. But then it was founded in a New York City cafe in 2015 by Jonathan Ferrer, an industrial designer. Metaphorically, the brand reflects coffee culture’s notions of time, like savoring the moment. But its design language also is pretty caffeinated: The contrast between the eye-popping colors and brushed metal surfaces of some industrial espresso machines has inspired detailing, and the brand’s coffee bean logo adorns its crowns and case backs.
Beloved by collectors for its retro styling, the Metric Star Chronograph, or stopwatch, features a 36-millimeter by 41.5-millimeter cushion-shape steel case, sometimes called a TV shape, on an integrated bracelet. With a mix of brushed and polished details, the watch has an elegant gold-color dial with contrasting red and blue accents, including a blue line from 25 seconds to 35 seconds on the inner track — just the right amount of time, according to Mr. Ferrer, it takes to brew a perfect espresso shot.
A Fan Said Gary Getz, the founder of the global watch community called the Collectors Room, owns a similar model, the sold-out Brew Metric Retro Dial. The California resident praised the brand for its “instantly recognizable style and thoughtful, clever design,” adding that the price is noteworthy. “At this price level, generally you either get utility or visual appeal. And I think the great thing about the Brew is that you get both.”
As for collectors who might fault the piece’s quartz movement, Mr. Getz’s comment was: “I don’t care. It’s rugged, wearable and fun.”
Hamilton
Khaki Field Murph 38MM, from $895
The American-born Swiss watchmaker is known for its silver screen credentials, with timepieces appearing in more than 500 films over almost 100 years. One of its most notable was the prop watch that figured in the plot of “Interstellar,” the 2014 Christopher Nolan science fiction film starring Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain. The watch was such a hit with moviegoers, the brand said, that five years later it produced the 42-millimeter Khaki Field Murph, part of the brand’s Khaki Field collection with graphic, highly legible dials and named for one of the movie characters.
A 38-millimeter version was introduced in 2022 and then, in September, Hamilton added two more iterations, both powered by the H-10 automatic movement with an 80-hour power reserve. A black dial, resembling the original “Interstellar” watch, was paired with a steel link bracelet ($945); a white-dial version, with a black leather strap ($895).
A Fan Said Tatiana Kwok, the head of watch buying in the United States for the retailer Watches of Switzerland, has a Hamilton Khaki Field watch, although not the Murph model. (She is particularly fond of the new white dial version, now sold at Watches of Switzerland’s Boston showroom.)
“Hamilton have really rewarded their collectors with the new white version, which has no shortage of beautiful details,” she wrote in an email. “I personally love how rich the white dial looks with the grained finish and the delicate outline of the domed cream numerals. The execution makes the Hamilton Murph feel even more elevated.”
Seiko
Prospex Solar Chronograph 1969 Re-interpretation, $700
This watch has bona fide intergalactic cred. In 1973, Col. William Pogue wore the initial version — a Seiko 5 Sports Speedtimer, introduced in 1969 — on a mission to Skylab, the first U.S. space station. The NASA astronaut became so fond of the watch that years later, on an expedition to Skylab 4, he wore it on his left wrist and his official NASA timepiece on his right. The Speedtimer, with a contrasting dial, bezel and inner minute track, was designed for high legibility in dark conditions.
This iteration, called the Prospex Solar Chronograph, has a similar orientation, featuring a golden dial with a blue and red aluminum bezel with a tachymeter scale, and a black chronometer second scale on the inner dial ring. Internally, the watch now has the V192 solar chronograph caliber that charges in natural and artificial light, delivering six months of time keeping on a full charge.
A Fan Said Mark Cho, the owner of the men’s retailer the Armoury, is a watch collector and expert on Japanese watches. “I love Seiko for their commitment to time keeping innovations, such as the solar chronograph, at very reasonable prices,” he said. “With their sprawling catalog, there is something for everyone.”
Mr. Cho said he was a fan of the chronograph’s vintage look as much as the underlying solar technology, which he called a great alternative to quartz. “Solar quartz has advanced significantly since its inception,” he said. “Early solar quartz dials were obviously perforated in order to allow light to the solar cells, but now they are so seamlessly integrated into the dial that you wouldn’t even know they were there. Being able to display the power reserve of the watch on demand just by a press of a pusher is also a lovely touch.”
Studio Underd0g x Time+Tide
Hand Delivered Classic Pizza, $650
This watch began as an April Fool’s Day joke. In 2023, Richard Benc, the founder of the British micro watch brand Studio Underd0g, and Andrew McUtchen, the founder of the watch retailer and online publication Time+Tide, joked on social media that they were going to create a pizza-themed watch. They were riffing on Studio Underd0g’s best seller, the pink and neon green Watermel0n, a sold-out cult favorite.
“When we announced that the pizza watch was a joke, people got really upset,” Mr. McUtchen recalled. “So a year later, we thought it was only fair that we actually do the watch, and announced it on April 1st this year.” There are two dials: a pepperoni, basil, olive and mushroom design, and a Hawaiian model with pineapple and ham.
But buyers have to work to get one of the watches, as they are sold only at Time+Tide’s Watch Discovery Studio in Melbourne, Australia, and in a new outpost on Great Portland Street in London. “It’s called Hand Delivered for a reason,” Mr. McCutchen said. “Like pizza, it’s only good fresh and can only be delivered to you by hand.”
A Fan Said Felix Scholz, a watch journalist in Melbourne and the host of “OT: The Podcast” on watches, said he found the timepiece to be “clever and charming.”
“That they’re committed to the ‘hand delivered’ element gives the watch a certain kind of energy,” he said. “It takes the piece out of watchmaking and into performance art, which is relevant and engaging for an upstart brand.”
Swatch
Break Free Breaks Off, $130
In September 1984, a little more than a year after its founding, Swatch was the host of the first Swatch World Breakdance Championship in New York City. The watchmaker, already known for its eye-popping quartz designs by that time, asked Keith Haring, the renowned street artist, to create the competition’s poster and to be a judge.
Forty years on — and with breakdance making its debut at the Olympic Games in Paris this past summer — Swatch has paid homage to the original championships with Break Free, a trio of square watches in Bioceramic, a Swatch composite of ceramic powder and a castor oil derivative. Breaks Off is signature Swatch with its vibrant, neon colors. Break Time is a reproduction of the watch presented to the 1984 winner, while the monochrome Break Loose reimagines Mr. Haring’s competition poster (these two also are $130). All three feature a case back printed with the Swatch logo that Mr. Haring drew on the poster.
A Fan Said Elizabeth Doerr, a watch editor at Robb Report Monaco and a freelance journalist, is a fan of the Swatch brand. “Swatch always deserves a special place in anyone’s collection,” she said, referring to the role its inexpensive and collectible designs played in helping to save the Swiss industry from the threat posed by the rise of inexpensive Japanese quartz watches in the 1980s. As for the new Break Free line, “Keith Haring was an ’80s icon, and I was particularly enamored of his work back in the day,” she said. “Swatch naturally used him in a few different watches, and I think I even owned one back then.”
Tissot
PRX Powermatic 80 40MM Gradient, $725
In 2021, the Swiss watchmaker unveiled its PRX model, a watch based on a 1978 design that capitalized on the popularity (at the time) of steel sports watches with integrated bracelets. It was a hit, according to Sylvain Dolla, Tissot’s chief executive, who added in an interview last year that the design’s success had helped drive double-digit growth at the company.
In September, Tissot unveiled its latest PRX model, the Powermatic 80 40MM Gradient, featuring dials that play with light and reflection, following the recent trend for iridescence at brands such as Zenith, Oris and Bell & Ross. The Gradient comes in two dial versions: a fading ice blue and a black to metallic blue. Powered by an automatic movement, it features an 80-hour power reserve.
A Fan Said Tracey Llewellyn, the editor of the Telegraph newspaper’s Telegraph Time supplement, noted the PRX’s affordability and versatility. “It has to be one of the best value-for-money watches,” she said. “It’s an integrated sports steel piece from a heritage brand and has genuine 1970s roots.” And while the price is good, she added, “the new PRX 40 Gradient dials really deserve to have a zero added to its $725 price tag.”
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