Is your life complicated enough? These are the best value watch complications that deliver serious bang for your buck
Thor SvaboeYes, maybe you use your watch mostly to tell the time. But how about the joys of using a good old chronograph to time your bike ride to the shops. Or flying into another time zone with a GMT on your wrist (it will happen again one day). Let’s tempt you with the best value watch complications taken from our NOW magazine watch buying guide. After all, time-only watches are all well and good, but sometimes a bit of extra functionality doesn’t hurt.
Dan Henry 1937 Dress Chrono
Dan Henry is possibly the world’s most generous watch collector, sharing his collection of incredibly rare and sought-after pieces in the form of his own eponymous microbrand. The 1937 Dress Chronograph, available in four different colour and dial configurations, is inspired by a range of art-deco examples from the 1930s. Keeping classic-friendly dimensions at 38mm, the watch also has the wallet-friendly VK61 mecha-quartz Seiko movement. Price: $375 USD
Baltic Bicompax 002
Vintage-inspired and value-driven, this is a chronograph with a classic and compact design. Setting the tone, the high domed acrylic crystal and case echo distinct 1940’s vibes. Inside, the handsome sector dial showcases two distinct finishings, the outer chapter ring is brushed, while the centre is a grainy, matte texture that provides a delicate contrast. There are three dial colours to choose from, silver, black and blue. Price: $899 USD
Omega Speedmaster ‘Silver Snoopy Award’ 50th Anniversary
Yes, it’s another chronograph. Well, it is the most popular complication after all. But the reason this watch makes this list is for winning the prize for The Most Entertaining Complication created by a big brand in the entire sad year of 2020. Visible beneath the sapphire caseback you can watch Snoopy swooping across the sky in a space landing module over a rotating earth – check our video here. Price: $14,700 USD
Casio GBX100-1D
Well, let’s be blunt, any G-shock is a value proposition in terms of toughness, and we take for granted its exemplary host of complications – do digital complications count? You be the judge. If you’re a surfer, you need to know what the tide is doing. This watch gives you that info at 3300 locations around the world, along with a host of training-measurement functions (speed, pace, lap-time etc) and a soft urethane band with slits to allow for the draining of water or sweat. Best of all is a vibrant oceanic green case that’ll make you want to get in the water, fast! Price: $399 USD
The Bamford London x Time+Tide GMT2
Ok! It’s not in the NOW buying guide, so please forgive me for blowing the Time +Tide trumpet again, we’re just so proud of this baby. And well, as a Swiss movement mechanical GMT, we actually do feel it’s a value proposition with a real GMT function that allows separate setting of the GMT pointer, which in combination with the rotating inner bezel gives you the possibility of three time zones if your eye-brain coordination is quick enough. Plus, come on, those pops of colour and that slim 40mm case in bad-ass black DLC make this, even objectively speaking, a damn cool GMT. Price $2,195 AUD available from our shop
Buy NOW, Time+Tide’s Watch Buying Guide here