Must-Read: A High-Priced “Bargain” Watch

We don’t own a nice watch. It really isn’t that much of a choice for us, as much as (a) we don’t feel them necessary, especially in this day and age when everyone has a cell phone time keeper on them; (b) we don’t like our wrists fettered with objects. Oh, also, it seems as though you need to spend about $5,000 for it to be a watch that has any substance. Any super cheap, and what’s the point. So, we stay out of the watch business. We tend to worry more about shoes and clothes and other bits of flair, not the wristwatch. But we are but one soul in a sea of many, and surely there’s some of you out there looking for deals on watches.

Which is why today we’re heading on over to AskMen.com where they have a post all about the best dollars-to-value watch on the market today. In their not super-cheap yet not-at-all-inexpensive arena:

Within the Clifton collection, there?s a slim gap between what you pay and what you get. Pay $2,700 and you?ll get a vintage-inspired, Swiss-made automatic watch, with an alligator strap and a small seconds counter. Pay $4,950 and you?ll get a complete calendar watch that tells you the day, month, date, and phase of the moon (and, er, the time). Those are two examples of serious dollar for value, and Baume doesn?t cut corners in providing it. When you strap a Clifton on, it doesn?t feel flimsy or cheap. I wore the $2,700 model (number 10052) for a couple of weeks during the holidays, and it sat firmly enough on my wrist for me to forget it was there. The 38-hour power reserve kept it running reliably when I wasn?t wearing it, which wasn?t often. The Clifton is a watch that you can wear daily, in part because, as watch blog Hodinkee phrased it, ?you can put it on in the morning without having to think too hard,? and partly because it is so versatile. And versatility is a great quality in a first watch that matters, because you want to wear it all the time.

High style for a relatively (?) modest price. We don’t know. We would never spend $1,000 on a watch. BUT, if you’re the kind that has money to burn and is looking for something that won’t have people laughing at you as they pass you on their way to the bank, well, then this is the one for you.