[tony20009]

Christmas is coming, and maybe you are out to find that perfect watch for yourself or someone whom you like. I know I am, but I don't want to buy watches that just about anyone would come across. I want to buy/give something a little different, and that gives up nothing in quality to the "usual suspect" in their price range, but that stands out as being something good that their friends won't know about and that has a little cache to the story associated with the piece. Yet, when they are gifts, I want them to be reasonably priced. Not that I give that many watches as gifts, but if/when I do, I'm not going to spend the kind of money I would spend on my kids or myself. To say nothing of not always wanting to spend big bucks on watches for myself.

So, over the past few weeks, I've been hunting for ideas for three folks to whom I will give a watch this year. I thought too that since in the course of my quest I'd collected all this info, I may as well share it since there's a small community here that's also into watches. Here are some things I recently discovered that are quite affordable and quite nice to boot. (You can Google most any of these watch brands to find reviews and more details.)

• Archimede - http://www.archimede-watches.com/ - A German watch for a German car, and it's affordable. Several styles and the one below comes in several dial colors including brown , black and white. ($650-$1500; the one below is $650) (ETA inside)
  
• Steinhart - http://www.steinhartwatches.de/en/ - Mostly ETA movements inside and rarely more than $1000, and more often about half that. Far too many styles to show here, but here're a few:
  
• Orbis Morgan - http://www.obrismorgan.com/brancopage.html - Automatic - Miyota inside (reliable and easy/cheap to maintain) - $250
  
• Blancier - This company is a ton of fun and super cool to me because they are fully committed to the "one of a kind" concept for a reasonable price. They have a web configurator from which you pick the elements of a watch and create your own. Check it out; it's a hoot. (Blancier - Lottermann & Söhne) The price on the watches you can design for yourself seem to run form about $2K to $5K, depending on what bits you choose, from among their offerings of case, dials, movements, straps, bezels and hands, and you can watch the price change as you swap parts in and out. I wasted a good 20 minutes playing with that thing. LOL. They also have a line called Grand Cru that is ~$1000 (ETA Unitas inside) and something like 12 different colors. Also, every single dial is different. Your watch will be one of a kind. (In Europe, G. Clooney promotes these watches.)
• Gerlach - Another affordable watch that is neither a copy of something pricey nor a dive watch. ($350). Everything you could want to know, and more pics, here: http://www.watchfreeks.com/121-watch...d-6-pilot.html
  
• Bernhardt - A fellow in South Carolina makes these watches using ETA/ETA Unitas movements. Prices run from $170 - $800. https://www.bernhardtwatch.com/ - Several styles besides the two shown and ladies too.
  

• Egard - http://www.egardwatches.com/ - Somewhat modern, somewhat traditional, definitely different. ETA inside. ~$1300
  

• Alpina - http://www.alpina-watches.com/ - Not ground breaking or anything but well thought out, solidly put together pieces. $600-$3000 ($1500 for the one below; $1000 if quartz)
  

• Bathys - http://www.bathyswatch.com/main.php - Whoo Hoo, another US company making watches. This one from Hawaii, so there's a lot of dive watches in their collection. ($600-$1200, quartz and automatic models offered) All are super youthful, sporty, cool looking watches. Carbon fiber dials, check. Rubber straps, check. Titanium cases, check. All black, check. Bright colors, check, Some also are big, I mean 48mm big, but all of the look good.
  
• Minorva - If you are into the "homage" type of watch, you probably know you can buy them for $10-$30 in the PRC. I have clients in Shenzhen, so I know. What can I say. They work and if you buy one that isn't pretending to be too, too much more than what it is, you'll actually be quite happy with it. I have bought quite a few (50 or so) and used them as "prizes" in our periodic office get togethers and team-building exercises. These are definitely nothing more than stocking stuffer type things, but it is what it is. The one nice thing is that everyone who has one doesn't expect much, so when they've worn it for a year or two and it's going strong, they can only say it exceeded expectations.
  http://www.minorva.net/prolist.asp?p...otitle=MINORVA -
• Orient - Japanese watches that will have dependable Japanese movements inside and styles that please. ($150 -$500 usually)
  
• Invicta - Most definitely a fashion watch. I don't think I've ever seen a watch company with as many styles. $300 or less. You'll find "homages" from them too and most are quite good homages at that.
  
• Helson - http://www.helsonwatch.com/stingray.php - $700 - $1000 (ETA /Miyota inside) - Great contemporary looking dive watches. Well built with nice styling details. Lots of sizes available. http://www.ablogtowatch.com/helson-s...-watch-review/
  
• Seagull - http://www.usseagull.com/index.asp - These are Chinese watches with manufacture movements inside some of them. $120 - $8K for the tourbillion watches. Now before you bash Chinese movements, I'll grant they aren't yet up to Japanese and Swiss movement level, but they don't break and don't need to be babied as much as either of the other two. Also, unless you are wearing a true Swiss in-house watch, there's a 100% chance that your watch has parts, sub-assemblies, and entire assemblies made by this company or one of its neighbors. Nice too because you don't have to get bent out of shape about banging the thing around as it's very inexpensive, yet great looking. At the low end of the price spectrum, if I found something here I liked, I'd buy it over the other PRC-made comparable looking watches, and even more than a few non-PRC pieces. This is among the lowest prices I've ever seen for a manufacture watch. Quite a few styles, most are traditional, be they sport or dress.
  $160
  
  
  These are ~$280
  
• Squale - http://www.squale.ch/sub_watch/Prodo...e.php?lingua=2 - Another dive watch for divers, rather than a city watch having the dive watch style. $550 or $1500 ETA inside. Multiple styles. If you can find an Atmos model, jump on it - comes in several colors. It's a steal at $500.