One night, on my own at home and two glasses into a bottle of wine, I decided to go rogue and do an eBay search for ‘fashion watches’.
I kinda felt like I should be doing it in an incognito tab.
Whenever you hear anyone saying “Don’t be so judgy! Fashion watches are great!” they are always talking about the luxury brands that have decided to throw big money at their watch collections, like Bulgari and Louis Vuitton. The resulting watches are without a doubt impressive horology, and an easy sell. But what if you want to play at the affordable end of the fashion watch market?
So it was with these thoughts that I decided to explore fashion watches on eBay.
Initially I got an awful lot of rubbish, and started to think that bingeing Black Mirror would have been a better use of the evening, but I soon discovered, like many illicit products, you have to know where to look to find the good stuff.
Filtering to only include ‘used’ removed a lot of new junk fashion watches, and searching for specific luxury designer brands brought up a better selection.
There were a few things I noticed as I proceeded to infini-scroll the Bay…
Fashion watches have a look, and they go for it.
And I don’t see this as a negative! The worst of the fashion watch world is a churn of the generic, soulless designs that you can find on Ali Express.
At least many of the better fashion brands go all in on their brand, but this does mean, as the wearer of these pieces, you too have to be willing to go big or go home.
I wonder if the fact that this bold aesthetic isn’t as popular in the watch enthusiast community is one reason we don’t see many fashion watches in our ranks. Perhaps they lean too far towards the jewellery end of the watch spectrum for many collectors.
Ladies are not dictated to about size.
Due to the jewellery tendancies of this watch niche, the look of ladies fashion watches is heavily weighted towards the traditional ‘shiny and sparkles’, but brands certainly don’t pigeon hole ladies into certain sizes.
This, for example….
… is still labelled as a ladies watch at 42mm in diameter. I applaud their inclusivity.
You have to be ok with brand logos
Because a big part of fashion is actually showing off the label (actually… perhaps that’s a big part of watches too!), you have to be ok with big branding. Although many of the choices in my list today have subtler logos, many brands and their wears are proud to show off the designer tag.
Think of fashion watches more like vintage watches.
When I buy a vintage watch, expectations regarding functionality, durability and water resistance are low. By approaching fashion watches in the same way, I’m less likely to be disappointed.
This only works by buying second hand however, so I can take advantage of massively reduced prices. If I was to buy new I would certainly expect a watch to live up to it’s claims regarding water resistance etc.
Not all fashion watches are made equal.
There is a massive variation in design, build and movement quality between fashion brands. The difficulty can be telling which are the diamonds in the rough, and which are likely to break in the post.
There are very few in-depth online reviews of fashion watches, which would usually be what enthusiasts would turn to to know if a watch was worth buying. In addition, the information that you find on sales websites can be very patchy, frequently not even saying which movement is in a watch.
Often it will be a quartz movement that you’ll be getting, but don’t be put off by this! Those movements used in the better quality watches are good Swiss options, such as this ETA 980.153, 11 jewelled quartz movement, which is in a Gucci watch I mention later.
As with vintage watches, experience and research will help you decide which fashion watches offer better value.
5 affordable fashion watches that I actually want to wear
So here are my 5 favourite fashion watch designs that I found after many hours of eBay scrolling. Each of these surprised me with their beautiful and unique designs that actually bring something different to the table, rather than just playing the homage card as many fashion watches do.
They’ve opened my eyes to the kind of watches fashion brands offer and rid me of a lot of my judgemental attitude towards their designs.
- Gucci 3000 or 3800
These are a beautiful collection of watches from the 1990’s, which was a turbulent time for the Gucci brand. Sizes are on the conservative side, varying from 26 – 36mm, and with chronograph or small seconds sundials.
2. Michael Kors Sawyer MK2432
The split date complication on this model appealed to me, along with the unusual take of having two hands for the chronograph function on the single subdial. This model is 39mm in diameter and when new supposedly has a water resistance of 100m!
3. Versace LSQ90
One of the rarer watches on my list today, this was one of the few Versace watches that was more subdued in it’s styling. Interestingly, vintage Versace also seems to be a rare fashion watch brand that can command a premium for their vintage pieces, as most others seem to retain little value.
4. Emporio Armani AR-0279
Armani actually do a nice job of their vintage style watches, and in this one have taken an unusual step of using tinted crystals for that authentic “I spend all my nights smoking cigars at the gentleman’s club” look. The effect is nicely done, and more obvious at certain angles.
5. Calvin Klein K4G23626
A more feminine looking watch to finish on. Although the dial for this Calvin Klein isn’t full of excitement, I actually think this allows the star of the show, that is the articulated screw link bracelet, to shine.
Made up of separate links, this isn’t the solid bangle as it may first appear, but a much more fluid design.
I actually wonder if some of the more quality fashion watches will become more collectable in the future, as has been the way with vintage luxury clothing and handbags in recent years.
The next step in my fashion watch journey will be sourcing some new watches so that I can actually quality check for build and water resistance. Maybe I will see what I can pick up in the summer sales.
(Yes, this is just using the excuse of ‘research’ to buy that crystal bezel, rose gold MK.)
Until then, happy watch shopping!
Kaysia
The Escapement Room 