

- BEST AUTOMATIC WATCHES UNDER $1000 PRO
- BEST AUTOMATIC WATCHES UNDER $1000 PLUS
- BEST AUTOMATIC WATCHES UNDER $1000 PROFESSIONAL
The crazy bright lume is great in inclement situations, plus lume just downright makes me happy. The date wheel is there when I need it, and all but disappears when I don’t.
BEST AUTOMATIC WATCHES UNDER $1000 PRO
The Dark Pro has taken everything I’ve thrown at it and come up smiling.Īs far as versatility it is a 300-meter dive watch with a 24-hour GMT hand, drilled lug holes for easy strap changes, a fully indexed, unidirectional count-up bezel with bright long lasting lume, and a color-matched date wheel at 4:30.

I need a watch that can keep up with me and that I don’t have to worry about whether I’m scuba diving or breaching and forcing entry into a building. I am rough on equipment and an impact-prone individual. I am a full-time Fire Captain and a HazMat Team Manager for a National Disaster Response Task Force and am also pretty active with a bunch of outdoorsy hobbies in my off time. The reasons why I keep opting for this watch are it’s durable, versatile, and comfortable. This has been my go-to work, play and travel watch for the past few years.
BEST AUTOMATIC WATCHES UNDER $1000 PROFESSIONAL
pick for a sub $1,000 watch is my Sangin Dark Professional ($658). Sangin Dark ProfessionalĪsha Wagner, HazMat Team Manager for a National Disaster Response Task Force and watch and gear enthusiast. If you want a go anywhere, do anything watch that remains subtle but tough enough for any sort of work, the Navigator is a natural in steel - just add your fav color NATO. It’s a modernized take on a classic design that traces its lineage across some of the toughest locales that our world has (and had) to offer and it remains a watch that was primarily designed to be offered in contract to governments and special outfits all over the globe and the new steel version even has its own Nato Stock Number. Add to that a high-accuracy quartz movement, 100 meters of water resistance, and tritium tube illumination and you've got a worker. Trading the common and gov’t issue-ready composite case for one in steel, this newly announced Marathon is still 41mm wide, 11mm thick, and sports a field-ready 12-hour bezel. we’re talking about a great tool watch under a grand and you really want to use it, you can’t do much better than the new steel version of Marathon’s long-standing (and long-serving) Navigator ($800). Seiko Turtleĭave Hall, SOCS (SEAL), USN, Ret. Jedburgh Leather strap, and that dark brown leather complements the navy dial perfectly. Pro tip: My Timex Marlin came with a leather strap too orange for my taste. This isn’t a go-everywhere, do-anything piece with only 50m of water resistance and a crystal that’s easy to scuff but it’s perfect for long days at the office or hitting all of Hemingway’s old drinking spots in Madrid in a single day. The Timex Marlin Automatic ($269) rocks a 40mm stainless steel case, a beautiful deep navy blue dial, and a classic domed acrylic crystal - it looks like a compromise between an ultra-rugged sport watch and a black tie dress watch.

I love mine, and it’s one of the most affordable automatics on the market. And frankly, I wore a digital Timex Ironman on many deployments in a past life, so a non-digital, automatic Timex with a day and date complication feels like a natural evolution. Timex is the opposite of elite in the watch world, and they make a helluva wrist piece that you aren’t afraid of wearing as a daily driver. I love a classy watch that is comfortable on the wrist but doesn’t draw attention or accusations of elitism. Jason Heaton, author, freelance writer, and podcast host, The Grey NATO and author of Depth Charge. While all of them have objectively more “expensive” watches in their collection, they have a genuine appreciation for these more affordable timepieces. The one thing they all have in common is a shared appreciation for watches. This is an incredibly diverse list of individuals from former Special Operations warriors, Intelligence Officers, and divers, to some of the leading experts in the watch community. In order to capture a broad collection of suitable watches, we asked a handful of our friends from both the traditional watch and NatSec communities to provide their choice for the “Best Watch Under $1,000.” That said, there are some great watches under $1,000 and there is no right answer to this question.

Anything” Dispatch, I put forward my belief that a Seiko is a good place to start, and maybe end with watch collecting. Just because you can afford a Rolex, doesn't mean you should start there. Regardless of one's socioeconomic status and access to disposable income, we recommend starting with a watch under-$1,000. Getting into watches can be intimidating and it is difficult to know where to start. platform is exposing people to the world of watches in an unpretentious and engaging manner.
