Buying a Watch: Two ends of a spectrum

Well there are bunch of different choices with watches now. Overall, there are a few choices, but increasingly they are moving to opposite ends of the spectrum, so some recommendations:

Apple Watch

Well, I wouldn’t actually buy a Series 4 right now, it has the ECG thingy, but the upcoming watch is rumored to have even more health features. As a health product it is really great particularly when you pair it with cellular access, so you don’t need to take your phone with you on a run and you and your AirPods are all that you need. Pretty attractive. It is also great for sleep monitoring, it recharges so fast these days, that if you just put it down before you go to bed and then put it on when you are sleeping, it basically doesn’t run out of charge. The exception

Automatic Mechanical Watches and Solar

While you can always get a cheap $20 watch, I do find that buying new batteries is a pain, so instead, why not go super retro and get a relatively low cost mechanical watch. There are some good recommendations around at Gear Patrol, but I’ve found that these are great choices:

Hamilton Khaki Field. These come in a smaller 38mm and larger 42mm for larger wrists. If you loved the movie Interstellar and want that recreation of a US Army watch of the 1940s, then this is your toy. You can get it without a date to be really authentic like the H69439931 which has a cool green NATO strap and is 42mm or H69429931 is the 38mm one.
Hamilton Khaki Field with a date function. Amazon has these for $380 or so, but beware that Hamilton won’t honor the warranty if you buy from a non-authorized source. On the other hand, there isn’t a super amount to break. I personally love the leather watch band version called romantically the H70555533 for the 42mm and H70455533 which is the 38mmm version
Seiko 5. These are really inexpensive at $10-0, so a great budget choice. They use an accurate Japanese movement. The military inspired one is the SNK805 at 37mm. Personally, I find these way less pretty that the Hamilton, the belle and so forth, but they will last forever. They like the Hamilton have an amazing variety, but the SNK805 is a good place to start.
Citizen Eco-Drive. Ok, this is not actually a mechanical watch, but it is solar powered. This is pretty cool to have a solar powered watch. A good example is the AT0200-05E which is 39mm and has three sundials for $124. Or with a leather strap for $138 you can get the Eco-Drive Avion CA-4210
Omega Speedmaster Chronograph. Finally, if you want to be super authentic and have $4K in your pocket, you can get the watch that made it to the moon quite literally. Model 324.30.38.50.01.001 is classic, huge a bulky but pretty cool.