Best Mechanical Watch

Mechanical watches are not only a luxury item, but also a display of appreciation for real, honest craftsmanship. What makes these watches special is that they are not powered by batteries. They run using arm movements - while the watch is on the wrist, of course - or by winding the crown.

Due to their technical nature, mechanical watches are able to display the time with the greatest precision for many weeks. This fact might lead one to assume that mechanical watches are only available at a very high price - but that is not the case. In fact, there are attractive offers from popular watch brands for watch lovers in every price segment.

After enthusiasm for mechanical watches declined somewhat in the 1970s, these special timepieces for men and women experienced a renaissance in the 1980s, making them some of the most sought-after luxury watches on the market. Special editions and vintage models from successful brands such as Patek Philippe, Sinn, Citizen Watch, Laco, Tag Heuer, Seiko, Marcello C, Nomos Glashütte and Rolex have already experienced one or two increases in value, reflecting this development.

In addition to the advantages of mechanical wristwatches, this article focuses on individual, particularly popular models - in a kind of top 10 list from entry-level watches to high-end watches. In this way, we provide an overview that can help you find mechanical models that best suit your own ideas - insider tips included.

Best Mechanical Watches - Entry-Level Models

The following models prove that mechanical timepieces do not necessarily have to be extremely expensive. Each watch in the entry-level model category costs around 500 euros, but still meets the key criteria that characterize a high-quality automatic watch.

Seiko Prospex "Samurai"

This Japanese watch brand has become known for producing watches of very high quality with a good price-performance ratio. The various diving watch models from Seiko have become particularly popular, with fans of the brand giving them nicknames such as Tuna, Sumo, Turtle or Samurai. In addition to their unique design, these watches also impress with professional, well-thought-out features such as increased water resistance up to 1000 meters, as well as practical complications.

Seiko has equipped its Samurai with its own 4R35 automatic movement and a unidirectional rotating bezel with excellent readability. The Seiko watch is visually impressive with its blue leather strap and stainless steel case, while the price for the automatic watch is under 500 euros.

Hamilton Khaki Mechanical

Elvis wore watches from the traditional American brand Hamilton. The Hamilton Khaki is equipped with a Swiss automatic movement from ETA and therefore runs reliably to the second.

The stainless steel case has a diameter of 38 mm and fits in wonderfully with the military design of the automatic watch. The sporty look of the watch is further underlined by its black dial and brown leather strap, with the silver hands for the hour, minute and second fitting in perfectly. Since the watch with automatic movement is available for as little as 500 euros, this can also be described as an extremely attractive price-performance ratio.

Tissot Automatics III Day Date

Watches with the highest quality standards are also available from the traditional Swiss brand Tissot . This model has an automatic movement with the ETA 2836-2 caliber, which enables a power reserve of 42 hours. The Tissot watch measures 39.7 mm in diameter and has a special feature: it has a date display with the day of the week. This is stylishly placed at the 3 o'clock point and enhances the Tissot brand watch both visually and functionally.

The Tissot Day Date watches, which cost around 500 euros depending on the exact version, are available with leather and multi-colored stainless steel straps.

Best Mechanical Luxury Watches

For many watch lovers, mechanical automatic watches are one thing above all: pure luxury. So let's move away from the entry-level models and focus on the top models from the most renowned manufacturers and most famous watch brands, whose price logically goes well beyond the 500 euro mark.

A. Lange & Söhne Datograph

The name of this iconic wristwatch alludes to the large date that is typical of the watch manufacturer A. Lange & Söhne . The watch is a tribute to the five-minute clock of the Dresden Semperoper with its digital display that is easily visible even from a distance. One of the highlights of the timepiece from the Saxonia model series is its flyback mechanism, which makes timekeeping child's play.

There are some variations in the design of the watch: It comes in platinum or 18-carat gold and with a dial in grey, silver or black. The diameter can also be chosen between 39 and 43.2 mm. The power reserve of the Datograph automatic watch is an impressive 60 hours and some versions have very special complications - such as a perpetual calendar.

Rolex GMT-Master II

The Rolex GMT-Master II hardly needs any introduction to die-hard watch lovers. Nevertheless, in our opinion, it cannot be left out of this list: it is undoubtedly one of the most attractive GMT automatic watches, available in various references in white gold, Everose, Rolesor or stainless steel.

Their color combinations are also famous: the red and blue “Pepsi” variant, the red and black Rolex “Coke” or the blue and black Rolex “Batman”, whose bezels have been made of Cerachrom - a scratch-resistant ceramic mixture specially developed by Rolex - since 2007, are familiar to every watch fan.

It was only in 2022 that the brand presented a left-handed version of the GMT-Master II Automatic at the Watches & Wonders watch fair. An elegant, green and black bezel adorns this automatic timepiece, with the crown and date moved to the left side of the case. One of the reasons for buying this Rolex is likely to be the excellent in-house manufacture caliber: a movement that is committed to limitless precision and impresses with a 70-hour power reserve.

Patek Philippe Chronograph

It is not without reason that Patek Philippe is a pioneer among watch brands. The Geneva manufacturer probably has every conceivable variant of a chronograph in its range and is now known worldwide for excellent (automatic) movements and timeless designs. The Complications collection alone includes automatic watches with flyback or simple stopwatch functions; complications such as annual calendars, pulsometers on the dial, multi-scale displays or world time displays.

Although the brand has many years of experience in the field of watchmaking, it only introduced in-house calibers - i.e. movements from its own company - in the early 2000s. Before that, Lemania movements were sometimes used, but these were significantly modified and refined. In addition to a precise movement, a more than satisfactory power reserve and interesting complications, a Patek Philippe watch is naturally also impressive in terms of appearance and comfort.

Best Mechanical Watches with Hand Winding

Mechanical clockworks are multi-stage gears that receive the energy for the wheel movement from an energy storage device. Unlike grandfather clocks, where you have to regularly pull weights upwards, wristwatches and pocket watches can be wound using mainsprings via crowns or keys provided for this purpose.

Louis Audemars was one of the first companies to produce crown-wound pocket watches. Today, brands such as Nomos, Junghans, Tag Heuer, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Patek Philipp still produce mechanical watches with hand-wound calibers that are very popular.

Best Mechanical Watches with Automatic Hand Winding

When the automatic winding mechanism was invented, it revolutionized the way mechanical watches worked. They could now wind themselves when worn, making the daily winding of wristwatches obsolete.

The function of an automatic watch is made possible by the oscillating weight inside the case. This rotates in the case of the watch with automatic movement and winds the mainspring of the barrel.

One of the advantages of mechanical watches with automatic calibers is that they do not have to be wound constantly and do not require batteries. This makes them more environmentally friendly than, for example, a quartz watch. They are even more accurate than hand-wound calibers because the mainspring is constantly re-tensioned by the rotor and the automatic watch ideally never reaches the "limit" of its power reserve. This constant torque has a positive effect on the amplitude - i.e. the oscillation range of the balance - of automatic watches.

As far as the quality of the movements is concerned, the manufacture movements of the Rolex watch brand are among the best that the market has to offer – which should come as no surprise to anyone.

Special features of a mechanical watch

Because the mechanics that keep watches with automatic movements or hand-wound movements alive are so complex, you should take into account before buying such a watch that strong shocks (such as during sports) can impair its function.

Even if no batteries are required, the watches still need regular check-ups, especially if the accuracy of the time display noticeably decreases. As a rule, regular winding prevents the lubricants from clumping and thus also ensures that the watch remains accurate over time.

The accuracy that a clockwork can achieve ultimately depends on various factors. Time is gained or lost when the clock remains in just one position due to gravity. In order to compensate for time losses in the various positions, a high-quality model adjusts the so-called balance wheel.

A (vintage) watch that is properly adjusted and has a high-quality movement should function within its specifications without any problems even when worn every day. If you take the watch off at night, you can test different placements and observe how this affects the loss of time. Placing the watch flat and with the dial facing upwards has proven to be a good idea for automatic watches from many manufacturers and well-known watch brands.

It should also be remembered that temperature also plays an important role. Modern watches in the "mechanical automatic watch" category are often designed in such a way that they can compensate for minor temperature fluctuations on their own. Extreme weather conditions and changes are excluded from this, however. The good news: Even in the case of extreme weather, simple adjustments are often sufficient to compensate for an automatic watch.

Conclusion on the best mechanical watch

Mechanical watches may be absolute masterpieces of craftsmanship, but they need a little help when it comes to precision. A deviation of a few seconds per day is perfectly acceptable, although the target range for COSC-certified chronometers is -4 to +6 seconds per day. Manufacturers such as Omega, Tudor and Rolex set their own standards for accuracy. Accordingly, their mechanical automatic watch models often run a little more precisely than the market average.

Automatic watches from renowned watch brands are still very popular. Their appeal lies in their high accuracy, long power reserve and the fact that they work without batteries. And of course in the fact that they transport the stylish design and elegance of traditional craftsmanship into the present with seemingly no effort.

One thing is certain: whether they are iconic classics or lesser-known models, mechanical watches have their own charm. This does not necessarily have to be reflected in an incredibly high price, as numerous top 5, top 10 or top 20 rankings by scene experts show. There are certainly watch brands - for example Laco, Citizen, Certina, Tissot or Seiko - where you can get a solid mechanical automatic watch for around 500 euros. If, on the other hand, you are specifically looking for products from a high-end watch brand, you will get to know the expensive side of the watch world, which offers mechanical watches that will really amaze you.