Hello everyone,
As I am waiting for my next two purchases to ship, I decided to create a new category in this blog, called “Alex’s Selection”. Under this pretentious name, I will look into different options that are available on the new and used market for certain types of watches, in a certain category.
This by no mean has the aim to be exhaustive, nor to create a kind of “best of under xxx Euros” list, as I don’t believe in “best ofs” when it comes to watches, nor to music actually. To each its own tastes. My proposal is rather to show you what I believe, in my own taste, to be nice options in each category. Hopefully you’ll like some, and this will help you create your own “hitlist” or “roadmap” for your collection. A few things that need to be noted in this:
– I will look only into watches that are 41mm wide and smaller, unless they have a specific case size where measurements aren’t very telling on wear such as the Seiko Turtle. This because I have a small wrist, and don’t wish to spend any of my spare time looking into options that are not for me. Apologies to readers who are interested in larger watches, in which case duckduckgo.com is your friend!
– I will mostly look into automatic models, but I can include a quartz here and then, depending on my interest/taste for it
– I will only look into “real” watch brands, meaning no fashion watches will enter this listing. Micro-brands are highly welcome though!
My first such post will be about GMT watches under 1000 Euros. Having recently sold my Glycine Airman DC-4, I have this gap to fill in my collection. While I’m planning to put a little more than that (around 1500 Euros) in my next purchase, I find it interesting to check on the existing cheaper options. Let’s get straight into it!
❖ My Personal Selection Of GMTs Under 1000 Euros
Steinhart Ocean GMT – 490 Euros BNIB, 350 Euros 2nd hand
To be honest, I don’t have much love for Steinhart, as for any brand that places most of its marketing and profit on hommage watches. I much prefer an unperfect but original design from a brand with heritage, than a perfect ripped design coming from a brand without any heritage, and therefore no stylistic involvement in the evolution of horology.
This being said, it’s hard to deny that there is a market for hommage watches, and that Steinhart probably is the brand with the most recognition when it comes to it. I’ve never worn one myself, but owners usually rave about the built quality of there watches, reason why I give it an entry here, despite not being my cup of tea: hommage aspect aside, it’s definitely one of the best VFM one can find in a GMT watch! Some outstanding points about it:
– Classic, timeless design (Rolex owned)
– Real GMT – not only with a GMT bezel, but has a proper GMT movement and hand
-Crazy cheap, and therefore good VFM
– 39mm wide, a sweet spot for many, including me
– Pepsi bezel, for those who like these
– ETA 2893-2 in its Elabore version at this price-point, crazy VFM!
– 30 ATM waterproof, so you can know what time it is back home while scuba diving in Mexico!
Victorinox Swiss Army Infantry GMT – 450 Euros BNIB
Victorinox is yet another brand that doesn’t excite me too much. There is nothing wrong per-say with it: Swiss brand with decent heritage, good enough recognition and, from what I have read, decent built quality. While not being cheap, its prices also tend to be on the more reasonable side of horology, reason why the brand gets an entry in this listing. There is however something about most of their design that I find very unexciting, colourless, dare I say lifeless?
The Infantry GMT is a perfect example of this: very classic size, classic and tooly bezel, legible dial and hands, absolutely nothing wrong with it… and yet, my trigger doesn’t itch when I look at its pictures. If I were to chose a GMT from Victorinox under 1000 Euros, I would however go with this one:
– Classic, 40mm case
– Very cool steel GMT bezel
– Real GMT hand
– Quartz movement: can be seen as a plus for a traveler watch, as it doesn’t require regular resets when not being worn and comes with a certain peace of mind when traveling
– 10 ATM water resistance, perfect late swims in hotel swimming pools while in transit
Glycine Airman 18 Sphair – 580 Euros BNIB
Glycine is a Swiss brand reasonably known to watch hobbyists, and with good heritage in the world of pilot watches. One can read more on the brand in my full review of the Airman DC-4, here.
I have flipped my Airman as I wasn’t overly impressed by its finish quality, nor by the way it felt on my small sized wrist. I do have to admit, however, that it was a very fun watch to wear, and one that attracted some attention, including from the ladies. I wouldn’t mind trying the smaller Airman 18 on, if I had lots of money to spare. The goods about this watch:
– Swiss brand, even though Invicta owned since recently, which lowers its prestige a bit
– 39mm case
– Real GMT with the possibility to track three different time zones at once!
– ETA 2893 movement
– No date magnifier compared to other Airman models – great thing!
– Inner rotating bezel, hence the second crown that give it a very distinctive look!
– Conversation starter
– If you’re living in Europe, you either have to pay a high price to purchase the watch directly from there, or have to take 21% import taxes into consideration.
Eterna Les Historiques Air Force 1 – 900 Euros 2nd hand
Eterna is one of my favourite brands for many reasons, and there was no way I could do such a post without at least one watch coming from the Swiss company. The brand being in the Swiss mid-tier segment, it’s usually not possible to find their watches for less than 1000 Euros, but the used market often presents interesting options.
The Les Historiques Air Force 1 is a perfect example of this. It’s a “poor men’s GMT”, in the sense that the GMT complication comes from its internal rotating bezel rather than from a complication in the movement which is a standard ETA 2824. I however still find this options extremely attractive for several reasons:
– Great vintage size at 37mm – perfect for me and other people with smaller wrists
– Gorgeous case with a very nice coin-edged bezel in the same beautiful style as Tutima watches.
– Great dial, with very well executed cathedral hands, little markings and a lovely colour touch to differentiate the regular time indexes and the GMT indexes on the inner bezel.
– Sounds silly, but Eterna is the only brand that can claim to have an “in house” movement wearing an ETA 2824.
I have seen this watch on Chrono24 for 880 Euros. Not bad at all for a brand with such heritage, known very good finishing and built quality, and a lot of respect from watch collectors!
Fortis Flieger PVD GMT – 700 Euros pre-owned
Fortis, like Eterna mentioned above, is yet another very under-rated Swiss brand that remains hardly known to the common world, but enjoy huge recognition in the smaller horology world due to its heritage in aviation. For this reason, I have no issue adding their Flieger to this list, even though Fortis was not one of the original 5 manufacturers during WW2.
This GMT model basically is a re-design of the B type Flieger dial, with hour indexes in place of the minute ones on the original Flieger, and 24h GMT indexes on the inner index ring where hours are printed on regular Fliegers. Other goodies about this watch:
– 40mm wide
– ETA 2893-2 movement
– Mineral glass. A negative for most including me, but some like the vintage look this gives to the watch. Beware of this point before eventually pulling the trigger on it.
– Very nice vintage looks, particularly on the 19 years old model I saw on Chrono 24!
– Only 5 ATM. Better not eject over the ocean wearing this one!
Well, this is already it, please don’t hesitate to let me know in comments what you think of this selection, and to propose other options that you would recommend at this price point. Have a great day!
Small Toys for Grown Men 
Hi – just with reference to your comments and also your full and very detailed review of the Airman DC-4 42mm. I recall you mentioning the L2L was 50m but as they curve down it wore a bit smaller. I have a wrist size similar to yours – is it really too big or borderline?
And how would the wearability of this compare to the 43mm Combat 6 Classic (which has shorter L2L of 48mm I think). Many thanks.
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