Any purchases made on this website may earn us a small commission, please click if you want to learn more.
Bronze watches are steadily increasing in popularity. Whilst they aren’t for everyone, even just 20 years ago you would have struggled to find a brand that made bronze watches. Now there are a variety of top Swiss brands which make bronze automatic watches, bronze dive watches, and pretty much any other type of bronze watch you can think of.
Ultimately, there is not really any difference in quality between a bronze case watch and any regular watch. In all honesty, whether you want bronze or not is going to be a completely personal choice. If you are a fan of the patina, then look no further. However, if you like the bronze color but do not want your watch to age. It would be suggested that you buy a watch which has been coated to look like bronze, otherwise you will end up with a nasty surprise in a few years.
Altogether though, there are bronze (and faux bronze) watches available for all types of budget listed at the bottom of this article.
Table of Contents
What Is A Bronze Watch?
A bronze watch is fairly self-explanatory. It is a watch with a case made out of bronze. Note that the movement will not be bronze, since this would deteriorate very rapidly and impact the performance of the watch if it was.
Unlike gold, stainless steel, platinum or any other watch materials, bronze will oxidize and patina over time. This gives you a watch which will naturally age, rather than remain the same color. This is the main and significant difference between bronze watches and other timepieces.
Why Are Bronze Watches Popular?
There are quite a few reasons why bronze watches have become more popular over the past decade or so.
Firstly, bronze watches have become quite fashionable. Unlike stainless steel or gold, other colors of watches such as rose gold, bi-metal or bronze often have cycles of popularity. This means that instead of selling at a steady rate, there will be periods of time where they are very popular and periods of time when they are despised.
Secondly, many people like the idea of a patina. Compared to other watch case materials, bronze offers something truly different and unique. This sense of individuality will add character to a watch, knowing that even if someone has bought the same model as you, it will never look identical.
Lastly, bronze is an affordable metal. If you do not like stainless steel and want a watch with a good quality movement from a brand such as Oris or Christopher Ward, your choices are somewhat limited. As bronze is relatively inexpensive, this offers a good affordable alternative to other metals.
Are Bronze Watches Durable?
Yes, bronze is fairly durable. As it is an alloy (not a pure metal), bronze is not as solid as metals such as gold, platinum or stainless steel. With that being said, it is not weak either and is a lot stronger than metals such as iron.
Does Bronze Scratch Easily?
Bronze watches are not really any easier to scratch than other metals. The most scratchable watch material is stainless steel, which picks up scratches very easily and visibly. Bronze is not like that and is somewhat more resistant to minor surface marks.
However, if you scuff your bronze watch, it will scratch like any other metal.
It should also be noted that bronze watches can be polished, but this is NOT done in your traditional way. In fact, there are various youtube tutorials on how to polish your watch at home. This is considerably cheaper than taking your watch to a professional and uses methods such as lemon juice and tomato ketchup!
Do Bronze Watches Turn Green?
A bronze watch will not really turn green, but it will patina and appear to change color over time. If you have strong body salts and wear through plated jewelry very fast, there is a chance that a bronze watch can turn your skin a green color. This is nothing to worry about as you can simply wash it off. However, if you are regularly wearing a bronze watch, this will no doubt continue as your body salts are causing a chemical reaction with the casing of the watch.
How Do Bronze Watches Age?
Patination is a natural process that will happen to bronze over a period of time. There is no real way to stop this since the metal is going to be oxidizing at a very slow rate 24 hours of the day. The best real life example of this is the statue of liberty. Granted this is made of copper, but is subject to the same chemical transformation as bronze.
This tarnish does not affect the structure of shape of the metal, instead it just coats the surface with a green and blue coloring.
How Long Does Bronze Take To Patina?
There is no absolute answer to this since everyone has a slightly different skin temperature and body salts. Not to mention, if you’re living in California this is going to have a very different effect to living in Minnesota. Of course, bronze will begin to patina immediately, but it will be unnoticeable to the human eye. If you are to take a brand new bronze watch and put it next to a 1 year old identical model, you will see there is a slight difference in color.
As a general rule, after 3-5 years, there will be a significant difference in the color of your watch when you bought it from new. After 30 years, the watch would be unrecognizable from the original.
Accelerating Patina
Making your watch patina can quite easily be sped up. This is not recommended since it’s very hard to determine just how fast this will change your watch. Unless you are a scientist experienced in chemical reactions, you really will not know if you’re doing way too little or far too much.
If you are determined to speed up the patina on your bronze watch, follow these instructions. Boil an egg (remove the shell) and then put this egg inside a zip-lock bag with your watch. Break the egg inside the bag with the watch. Sulfur is now released into the bag which will vastly increase the patina reaction. After 1 hour remove your watch from the bag and there should be a noticeable difference in color.
Please note that this can be taken way too far as shown below, you may end up with a very green watch.
The Drawbacks Of Bronze Watches
For most of the population, bronze watches are completely safe to wear. The only exception is if you are in the 5-10% of people who have a nickel allergy. This is because bronze is an alloy and not a precious metal. In short, bronze is a metal that is about as far away from hypoallergenic as you can get. Whilst a bronze watch will not kill you, it will create an itchy red rash on your arm if you do happen to be allergic.
With that being said, wearing a bronze watch will not cause long term harm. If your wrist gets irritated from the watch case then you can simply return it. Another option is to buy a watch that uses a bronze color PVD paint. This way your watch will appear to be bronze, but will not actually contain nickel irritants.
Are Bronze Watches Worth It?
If you want a watch made of bronze (not plated with bronze paint), then it’s very likely you are going to pay a bit extra than buying a stainless steel Seiko. This is because the demand for bronze watches is a lot lower, so they cannot be mass produced on an enormous scale.
This mostly stems from people not wanting bronze watches. Most members of the public would be very angry if their watch started to discolor and would view this as a negative thing.
Only people who love watches and patinas will buy a bronze watch, so this already puts you in quite a small group of people.
With that being said, if you already own some solid Swiss-made watches. The jump in price isn’t too noticeable. So if you like the idea of having a watch with a patina, it’s really not too much extra cost.
Why Buy A Bronze Watch?
The only real reason to buy a bronze watch is because you want something a little different. Compared to other metals, bronze is an alloy which is intentionally purchased with the idea that it will change color over time. Much like the statue of liberty, a bronze watch is something which will slowly age and at one point look completely different than it did when you first saw it.
If you compared this to any other kind of watch such as a gold rolex, or even a fashionable stainless steel $100 timepiece. There is a distinct difference. These watches are purchased and are kept in good condition with the idea to keep them looking good. Whilst you aren’t going to go out and purposely scratch a bronze watch, the condition is something that is going to deteriorate naturally.
The Best Bronze Watches
Real Bronze Watches (Will Patina Over Time)
Enriva – Cheapest Bronze Watch
Enriva is a relatively unknown brand, which is a shame because they offer great value for money. Perhaps the closest brands you could compare them with are both Citizen & Seiko, which is quite a compliment.
This is pretty much the cheapest bronze watch you can buy but is also suitable for diving. It runs from an automatic Seiko NH35 and offers up to 200m water resistance. The only odd thing about the design of this watch is that it comes with a leather strap, so obviously wasn’t meant for diving. Although in fairness to the brand, they do make 1000m water-resistant watches, so know what they’re doing in this area.
Either way, this is an inexpensive, bronze automatic watch which can be bought for under $300. That is as good of a deal as you will find.
Glycine Combat Sub
Another slightly higher end bronze dive watch is the Glycine combat sub. This is one of the closest watches you can get to looking like a bronze Rolex submariner. In terms of build quality, Glycine is well known for using solid ETA automatic movements, so you will never be let down in terms of reliability or accuracy.
Overall, this watch would be recommended to anyone who is looking for a Swiss-made bronze watch. Granted it is quite a bit more expensive than the Enriva, but this is what it will cost you for having a watch produced in Switzerland. Given this, it is quite a lot better value than entry-level luxury brands using similar models and movements.
Boldr Odyssey
Boldr offers a unique dial and case combination that sets this watch apart from other brands. A legitimate bronze dive watch, this model offers 200m water resistance and has a helium escape valve to ensure that no damage is taken whilst resurfacing.
Given that this watch costs twice as much as the Enriva, should show how good value that watch is. Whilst the Boldr Odyssee might be slightly overpriced, it still isn’t too bad of a deal. Especially when you take into account the very original bezel and dial color combined with a bronze case. This is not a style you see every day, or if at all ever.
Oris Big Crown Pointer
Oris combines their classic big crown date pointer design with a bronze case. This 80th brand anniversary watch is more expensive than other pointer models, although in fairness they have standard stainless steel cases.
Those that already know the Oris brand well, will know that the company uses ETA movements, once again being a fairly standard production within entry-level luxury Swiss watches. The key appeal of this design is the oversized crown with no guards, alongside the pointer which displays the date around the outer dial of the watch rather than a date window.
Anonimo Automatic
Almost completely forgotten about is the Anonimo Nautilo. The sad thing about this brand is that due to their lack of creativity, they have not been so popular in the last decade.
You can see how the Italian brand originally gained fame by looking like a more sports-based Panerai model. Of course, Anonimo is not quite as luxury as Panerai since they get their movements from Sellita and do not provide in house manufacturing. This bronze divers watch is at least original, sporting a crown at the 4 o’clock position and a date window above the 6 o’clock hour indicator.
Faux Bronze Watches (Will Not Patina)
Seiko 5
Usually, one of the plainest and boring watches you can buy is a Seiko 5. This model turns those thoughts on their head as it sports a very unusual bronze based patina case. Of course, this is not real bronze so will be suitable for those who are allergic to nickel. In addition to this, the design will not patina anymore – so what you see is what you get.
It should go without saying that Seiko 5 is one of the most solid automatic watches you can get on a small budget. Of course, there are higher spec watches that cost a lot more money. But in terms of value, the Seiko 5 is really excellent.
Alpina Seastrong Heritage
Before everyone started making submariner homage watches, the Alpina seastrong was a reasonably popular dive watch in the 1960s. This heritage model recreates the old design from the classic Swiss brand and adds some modern touches at the same time.
As the case is coated with bronze PVD, this means that you won’t have to worry about any corrosion since this is very high quality plating and will not wear off. The Alpina seastrong will cost you more than almost all other faux bronze dive watches, but is Swiss made to a very high standard. Whether this is worth it or not will be a personal choice. But this is one of the higher end hypoallergenic faux bronze dive watches there is on the market.
Citizen
Not a typical Citizen watch design. This is far more elegant and less flashy than your normal Citizen everyday watch. In addition to this, it is refreshing to see a brand make a faux bronze watch that is not nautical themed for a change.
In terms of practicality, this watch is ideal. Due to the nature of eco-drive technology, you can set and forget. As there is no battery, you will just need to make sure your watch sees enough daylight and it will not stop. This is a lot more convenient than a regular quartz watch.
Nautica
This is one of the cheapest (faux) bronze watches you will find. With that said, compared to other Nautica watches it is not even that inexpensive. This shows the lack of bronze watches available for sale when compared to other metals such as stainless steel.
The watch is fairly unremarkable but also fairly priced. It’s not going to break on you since Nautica are well known for using Miyota movements, which aren’t luxury, but get the job done. You will likely not find a less expensive bronze watch than this.
Bulova Precisionist
Quite an oversized and masculine timepiece, the Bulova precisionist chronograph has a case size of 46mm. This is one of the most accurate quartz watches you can get to within +/- 10 seconds per year. In all honesty, this is a lot more accuracy than you will actually need, given that you would likely not notice if your watch deviated 1 minute per year.
In fairness to Bulova, they have produced a very cool-looking watch, combining a rugged chronograph with a distressed bronze case. Not the cheapest quartz based faux bronze watch, but it is made to a very high standard so that is to be expected.
