Here’s a top 10 list for you for the world’s best watch brands. Even with the rise of cell phone use (and its accompanying digital clocks), the watch industry continues to be highly successful and competitive. Like anything in fashion, there are thousands of brands to sink your teeth into. But these 10 brands are a great representation of both the affordable and luxury watch spectrum.
- See Related: Top 10 Best Watch Brands for Men
- See Related: Top 10 Best Watches Brands for Women
Top 10 World’s Best Watch Brands in the World
10. Shingle – Best Watch Brands
This brand has gained major press over the last few years as it’s the only major watch brand to host 100% of its operations in America. Most watch companies outsource their labor to other countries, but Shinola’s Detroit factory doubles as a manufacturer of attainable luxury and job creation. Watches run in the range of $500-$1000.
9. Bulova – Best Watch Brands
The Swiss-made brand anchors its operations in New York City. Owned by Citizen Watch Co., Bulova offers a much more affordable slice of arm candy. The brand is sold in department stores across the world, and pieces start at just $99.
8. Seiko – Best Watch Brands
Much like Bulova, Seiko has offered affordable timepieces for over 100 years and has deep ties to the world of athletics. Some of its most recent spokespeople include history-making dancer Misty Copeland and tennis great Novak Djokovic.
7. Timex – Best Watch Brands
Timex is an affordable brand that offers styles for every aspect of your life from sport to casual to formal. Watches from the company generally range from $100-$150. Founded in 1854, the brand has worked tirelessly to stay at the top of industry innovation with Italian design and German engineering.
6. Citizen – Best Watch Brands
Citizen, the parent company of Bulova, is home to three prominent watch styles: Eco-Drive, Signature, and Drive, with each offering its own aesthetic, design, and functionality. Watches here start around $1000.
5. Bamford Watch Department – Best Watch Brands
Unlike all of the other brands on this list, Bamford Watch Department does not create its own watches. But as a purveyor of luxury customization, the company specializes in adding unique touches to luxury watches that can add up to $10,000 worth of value to an individual watch because of the great detail and skill that goes into the process. The company has famously offered Rolex watches with designs from the cartoon Peanuts as well as special prints from pop art illustrator Donald Robertson.
4. Rolex – Best Watch Brands
Rolex is perhaps the most well-known luxury watch brand in the world. The brand was credited with creating the first waterproof watch, and its perpetual self-winding mechanism is an industry innovation that continues to be used (and duplicated) to this day. The most popular styles range from $5,000-7,000.
3. Audemars Piguet – Best Watch Brands
The self-described “Swiss manufacturer of inventive horological masterpieces” eclipses Rolex when it comes to luxury. This is not attainable. With pieces that start in the $25,000 range and extend as high as almost $130,000, this is as premium as premium gets.
2. Hublot – Best Watch Brands
Hublot is a high-end Swiss watch brand which holds claim to “representing the Art of Fusion in watches”. The brand has its own swanky boutiques around the world as well as partnerships with top tier department stores like Harrods. This is true luxury with watches ranging from $5,000 to $250,000.
1. Patek Philippe – Best Watch Brands
The long-standing luxury watch maker (its first piece was created in 1839) is the last known family-owned Genevan watch company. Most of the watches feature the most premium of metals (i.e. rose gold) and can run anywhere from $16,000 pre-owned to almost $1,000,000 brand new (with all the bells and whistles of course).
Related Articles about Best Watch Brands
See also some of these other related articles about watches:
- Best Women’s Watches Under $500
- Best Men’s Watches Under $500
- 10 Best Women’s Watches of 2015
- Best Heart Rate Monitor Watches
- 10 Best Men’s Watches under $500 in 2016
- Best Men’s Watches
- Best Apple Watch Stands
- Best Apple Watch Straps
