J. Crew Timex Alternatives Week Long Series – The Seiko 5

Seiko 5 Canvas Strap SNK803, 805, 807, 809 – $50 – $150

You can get far on a good reputation.  For men’s style, nowhere is that more clear than with J. Crew’s marketing & selling of Timex Watches.  They look great and many swear by them despite the price, but reasonable alternatives exist for a fraction of the cost.  This is part of our week long series on finding field watches that look just as good, and cost a whole lot less.  For more, see our archive.

Probably the pick a real watch hound would make if they were looking for a budget field watch.  The biggest and most obvious distinction between this, the J. Crew Timex watches, and the other alternatives, is that it’s an automatic.  No quartz, no battery, just the micro engineering working it’s gears off while you move your wrist around.

They’re the expected 37mm smaller diameter, come with a 17mm width band and are readily available in four different color options (beige, green, blue, and black.)  The crystal is Seiko’s own Hardlex Mineral.  They’re also available seemingly everywhere on the web, and that can be a problem.

Buying a watch over the internet is risky.  There are plenty of gray market too-good-to-be-true watch websites out there.  Some swear by those types of sites, others steer clear.  That’s up to you.  A policy that has never let us down (yet) is to buy from the brand itself, or, either buy through Amazon direct or at least have Amazon fulfill the purchase.  There are plenty of 3rd party sellers on Amazon that can ship you a watch (or any other purchase) and Amazon will never see the box.  At least if they’re fulfilling the purchase, it’s in their warehouse, and they have a close enough relationship with the retailer.