All watches (larger sized, sporty-styled) can certainly be worn by women or younger ladies. Listed below are mostly smaller-sized more fashion-styled watches, and selected picks from Best Automatic Watches: A Detailed List of Best Values.
Why automatics are better: Automatics are higher quality ($400+ for Swiss ETA movement). Don’t purchase quartz unless they are solar movements (or at least don’t pay more than $150 for non-solar quartz). Don’t purchase fashion-branded watches (ie made by “designers” – Michael Kors, Burberry, Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Guess, XOXO, Anne Klein, Nine West, DKNY, Fendi), which have high price mark-ups not correlated to their quality. Please also see the Watch Buying Guide for more thorough explanations.
Budget Automatics and Solars $80-$200
Orient Ladies or Seiko 5 or Seagull (Automatic)
Orient Bambino a great budget classy watch $250 [Amazon]
Seiko 5 Ladies (Automatic) Seiko (mostly SNK series) $90-130 [Amazon, 2, 3], Gold [Amazon, 2, 3, 4 – Solar]
Sea-Gull $220+ Classy automatics and skeletons [US Seagull, Seagullwatchstore, Amazon] ie D58
Seiko Solar Ladies and Citizen Women’s “Eco-Drive” (solar)
Diamond encrusted bezel $150-300 – Citizen Eco Drive [Amazon], Seiko Solar [2, 3, 4]
Bauhaus Watches
Sea-Gull Rodina: (Bauhaus style, Nomos Tangente homage, sapphire, seagull movement) $120 [Seagull]
Hamilton popular solid American brand and great value ETAs (however sometimes known for poor lume and strap/band quality and no anti-reflective coating) Note that they are on sale often. Classier models include Intra-Matic $600 (best value Bauhaus style) [Amazon, eBay]
Junghans Max Bill Automatic (classic Bauhaus, but plexiglass instead of sapphire, $850, $1800 for chronograph “Chronoscope”) [eBay]
Stowa Antea $850 beautiful Bauhaus [StowaShop]
Chronographs
Chronographs with Diamond encrusted bezel $250 – Citizen [Amazon, 2, 3, 4], Seiko SSC Series $290 [Amazon – SSC893 white, 2 – SSC892 two-tone]
Divers
Orient White Guilloche Diver $300 [Amazon, 2]
Orient Mako $270 [Amazon]
Steinhart Ocean White 39 $450 [Steinhart]
Mido All Dial $800 [eBay, Amazon All Dial]
Homages
Rolex Oyster Datejust or Day-Date homage – Orient President $200 [Amazon]
Rolex Explorer homage: Smiths Everest $400 [Timefactors], Seiko SNKM77 can look similar with $50 worth of dagaz hands and possibly also dial (but only 32mm compared to 39mm Rolex)
IWC Portuguese homage – Steinhart Marine $430 [Marine Chronometer II Roman, Marine Chronometer Arabic] Super classy and great value for the quality. Roman (Roman numerals) is more classy than Arabic (regular numerals). Better value than the double-the-price Stowa Marine Original.
Panerai Radiomir homage – Precista PRS-20 $580 is a good value homage [Timefactors]
Cartier Tank homages: (an iconic ladies style) Seiko SUP267 Solar $200 [Amazon] or for bigger – Seiko Premier SKK715 $300 [Amazon]
Movado Museum homage – Eco-Drive “Axiom” (minimalist, iconic Movado style) $200-250 [Amazon – White, 2 – Gold Case / Black Bezel], Axiom with diamond dial markers [Amazon – White, 2 – Gold Case / Black Bezel]
Other Mid-Level Classy Automatics
Orient Worldtimer “Adventurer” $300-$500 Automatic [eBay]
Tissot Le Locle $400 [Amazon – Black, White]. Other popular recommended models: Powermatic 80 [eBay], PRC 200 [eBay]
High-Level Classy Automatics $600-$1k (all ETA movements)
Christopher Ward ~$750 tad expensive C5 Malvern Automatic Mk II [CW] OR C65 Trident Classic Mk II [CW]
Notes
Personal preferences –
When it comes to dive watches, colorful (ie pepsi – blue red or other bezels) looks cuter than the classic black (possible to color it up though with a colored strap)
Don’t like: two-tone, off-color golds (ie pink gold and rose gold), small sizes (ie 28mm), non-classic looking (ie Seiko Coutura)
