The 10 Best Watches Under $250! 2026 Edition!

Hello and welcome back to just one more watch. I do hope you're all well. I thought we would kick off the new year with a bit of a John Wick classic, a price based top 10 round up video. If you are new here and you like this type of content, then do us both a favor and hit the big button with the word subscribe on it. Thank you very much. Today is the 10 best watches, in my opinion, that you can currently buy for $250 US dollars, sometimes a little bit less than that. The last time I did a round up in the 200s, I had a mustache and the Seiko SKX was the first watch on the list. That was a few years ago then. There's no SKX available anymore, but we do have some really good watches on the list today. Some proper watches if you are buying your first decent time piece or you are looking for the next watch in a carefully curated affordable collection. I'll leave links to everything in the order that I show them in the description of the video. Use them as your starting point only though, because half the fun is finding the best deal you can. Lots of variety here as well today, obviously a chronograph, dive watches, dress watches, and even an option if you want to build your own watch. Let's get on with it. Now, if you want the maximum amount of watch possible for your budget, one brand has got to be at the very top of your list. That brand is San Martin. I have reviewed dozens, literally dozens of their watches around this price point. Nothing else looks as good, feels as good, or is made as good as a San Martin. My high school English teacher just rolled in his grave at that one. Seriously though, these things are beautiful. Have a look at the case finishing. Have a look at the finishing of the bracelet. Now, for $250, many of them are homages, lookalike watches, versions of Tudors and other Swiss luxury pieces, but there are still plenty of original designs available. One of my favourites is the SN0116. You can get this one in a whole bunch of colours, either very modern or very retro, and either as a three-hander or as a four-hand GMT, both for well under today's self-imposed budget. Now if you're not into the AliExpress stuff, fair enough, there's plenty of other pieces on the list for you, but like I said, if you want the best-made watch with the best available materials at the best possible prices, you've got to at least take a look at one of these. Perhaps though, you aren't interested in fancy finishing. Perhaps you have a rough and tumble lifestyle. Perhaps you work outdoors, or are a first responder, or you work with your hands. For you my friend then, there is an obvious choice at $250, that being a Casio G-Shock. I love G-Shocks, I think they're fantastic, and you know what, pretty much everybody else loves G-Shocks as well. Even people with boxes and boxes of luxury timepieces usually have a couple of Gs in a corner somewhere. My personal favourites, I'm big into the Casio GA-2100. I'd go for this one if you want an Annie Digi, if you want a primarily analogue display but with the extra features offered by Digital Watch, or the classic Square G. You can pick these up from $50 US dollars, just over $50 US dollars still. 1980s design classic and it's not often anyone has said that. My pick of the Square Gs for the budget though, is this one, the M5610. All sing and all dancing, Bluetooth connect, solar, atomic timekeeping, world time etc etc. Pretty much bomb proof and it doesn't cost you a bomb to buy. Moving on to a watch that has been a staple on many a price based roundup video because it's the standout dressy daily if you're on a budget. It is of course the Orient Bambino. There are dozens of Bambinos available for well under $250, all with a beautiful piece of domed crystal and an Orient in-house calibre. Now with the Bambino you're buying based on two factors. You're buying based on dial preference, there's batons and romans aplenty, but you're also buying based on size preference with 42mm versions, 40.5mm versions and my own personal favourite, the 38mm version. The 38mm Bambino is smoking hot. Let's be honest, look at this thing. It is gorgeous. It absolutely nails mid-century retro and I particularly love this off-white parchment dialed version and I love the fact that you can buy it currently on Jomashop for less than $200. It does however look like you've got to wait a week or two for this one to arrive. I promise you though, it'll be well worth the wait. Alright then, Seiko number one. Now I said in the intro that the SKX featured on a similar list that I made back in 2017, it was discontinued the year following and it was replaced by a watch that became known as the 5KX. Technically it's the SRPK something something something. Now in some ways it was a downgrade from the SKX because it wasn't a 200m ISO certified dive watch, but in others it was a clear upgrade because it featured the NH36 hacking and hand movement that we all used to retrofit into the SKX. You can pick up a 5KX all day long in a bunch of different colours for well under $250 from eBay or from Jomashop. The case is smooth and comfortable, the lume is good, the bracelet is perfectly serviceable and it's a watch you can tinker with. Many SKX mod parts fit the 5KX so crystals, handsets, bezel inserts etc etc. This is the one to go for therefore if you know at some point that you're going to modify it a little further down the track. Talking of mods, what about the build your own watch option? Well I've actually got two options. For sure you can build a watch from component parts for well under $250. I've done so myself on several occasions and made videos about it with some success. You do however need a bunch of tools to do that so it's not strictly a budget exercise. So I'm going to suggest instead that you pick your favourite affordable Casio and then you buy a kit to mod it. For example you can pick up an AE1200 for under $35, you can buy a case and crystal kit for $99, then you can get a couple of leather straps of your choice for around $65 more. So for bang on $200 you get a great base watch made even better plus you get three different strap options if you include the original resin strap. If you don't like the AE1200 you can get a mod kit for the A168 or the LF20 as well both of which look fantastic and they're really really easy to build all tools are included. I realise that spending $150 on a watch may sound like complete madness but honestly it isn't. A properly modded Casio is a properly viable option that holds its own against any other watch on this list. When you look at the watches on the list so far, Casio, Seiko, Orient, you'd think that the big Japanese brands dominate the scene at this price point. Because they do. The notable absentee so far though has been Citizen so let's remedy that by including the very capable Suyosa on the list. This was Citizen's entrant into the ever-expanding feel of affordable integrated bracelet sports watches and it's a cracker. It's a president style bracelet that's super comfortable and doesn't actually look or feel particularly integrated. It wears very very nicely. The watch features sapphire crystal covering the dial which is awesome for the price. A Miota 8000 series movement in the back which is okay for the price but like the Seiko you get an almost obscene number of different colour options with the Suyosa. Now most of them are 40mm but there is a 37mm version if you prefer a smaller watch. There's also a small second complication version but that's over budget today. The regular model will do just fine for most people. Most colours available well under $250. Hundreds and hundreds of them on eBay. I highly recommend the Suyosa if it's your one and only watch or as part of a compact affordable collection. In a veritable sea of Japanese and Chinese watches, there floats the occasional Swiss made Iceberg for under $250. Sometimes well under $250. One such nugget is the Glycine Combat Sub Quartz. These pop up occasionally through grey market retailers like Jomashop and Ashford in the States and Kogan here in Australia. Both retailers have them at the moment for around $170. Now just because it's Swiss it's important that you don't expect a luxury watch because you're not going to get one for $170 but you are getting something really solid. These are a full size watch but they wear nice and slim. They have a screw down crown, 200m of water resistance and all important sapphire crystal. I reckon they're very well made for the money but you are only getting a basic 3 hand plus date quartz movement rather than a mechanical. Look it's horses for courses really. It's up to you whether you prefer the romance of a mechanical or the practicality of a quartz but if you don't mind a single ticker these are really good for the cash. At number 8 it is one of my favourite watches on the list. I bought this one with my own money. Indeed I have bought all bar two of the watches on today's list with my own money so I do know what I'm talking about. It's the Seiko SRPE known as the Dress KX. I really like these. They are so much more than just a bezel-less dive watch although you can see why people cast aspersions like that because the dial and handset do indeed look like they came straight off of pretty much any Seiko diver. The case is so nice on these. It's lovely, it's smooth, it's really comfortable. The bracelets are acceptable, the lume is excellent, the water resistance is acceptable. A bunch of different colours are available and the prices are excellent. 200 USD will grab you one of these. Plus it is very much a shopping mall watch so you can often find these on special from your high street jeweller in the January sales, the Black Friday sales, the Father's Day sales etc etc. I've got one of these two-tone gold ones in my collection already but I have been sorely tempted to add another on more than one occasion that might well happen a bit later on this year. Now at number 9 it's a watch that I rate so highly, I included it in my 10 best watches I've ever reviewed video towards the end of last year. It's the Seagull 1963. It's the only chronograph on the list today, it's a mechanical chronograph and it is a proudly original watch from China, something that cannot always be said of their output. I've had a 1963 in my collection since 2015 before I even started this channel. 38mm with acrylic crystal is the traditional 63mm but if you're wearing it as a daily then sapphire is probably more sensible and if you've got bigger wrists they do it in 40mm and even 42mm versions. Be warned though the blessing is also the curse with this one. That is a Seagull ST-19 column wheel chronograph movement. A living fossil that can trace its origins back to Switzerland in the 1940s. As such they are notoriously variable, some are noisy, some are smooth, some are rough, some are quiet and they have a much higher failure rate than any of the other movements on the list today but if you're buying one as a rotation piece they are excellent. They have charm in abundance and a great backstory and pretty much regardless of which version you go for you're going to get plenty of change from $200. And last but by no means least it's the Orient Kamasu. Now these seem to have had a $50 price hike over the last couple of years they used to be just under $200 now they're just under $250 once you add the occasional voucher. It's still a great watch even at that price though. These rather took over the SKX's mantle in 2018 and they're another watch on the list today that has sapphire crystal covering the dial which is in my book anyway a huge advantage if you're going to run one of these watches as a or long term. Just like the Bambino the Kamasu features an in-house Orient slash Epson calibre crucially with a Day-Date complication. They are available in a number of different colours from sensible black to not so sensible green and even a red. So you're getting a big brand dive watch with an in-house movement and sapphire crystal for under $250. Don't expect incredible case finishing or an amazing bracelet because you're not going to get either of those but it is a really solid offering nonetheless and a great way to finish the list. So there you have it like I said it's been a while since I looked at this price point and certain watches like the Bambino and the Kamasu have both gone up in price but watches like the two Seiko's have both gone down in price so it kind of balances itself out. What was your favourite from the 10 that I chose or is your favourite missing? Leave me a comment let me know. If you've got a little more money to spend or a little less money to spend why not check out either of these videos. Thanks for watching this one. I'll see you again soon.