Any purchases made on this website may earn us a small commission, please click if you want to learn more.
A beater watch, more commonly known as a “daily beater” is simply a timepiece that you’re going to be wearing every day. It can be suitable for either white collar, or light blue collar work, but isn’t going to be something nice you’d wear to a fancy restaurant or nightclub.
Depending on your budget, this could be a luxury watch, or for the everyday man, it is much more likely to be something like a Seiko 5.
This was perfectly summarised in the original Timex slogan – which is a company well known for creating basic but durable watches. “It takes a licking but keeps on ticking” couldn’t be more accurate for a beater watch. A beater is something that is going to get dirty, scratched, dropped, and possibly broken at one point in the future. The key idea behind a beater watch is that you do not care since the watch isn’t precious to you. It doesn’t hurt your budget when something bad happens and you aren’t too emotionally attached to it.
Table of Contents
What Movement Does A Beater Use?
Some would argue that a daily beater has to be a quartz watch, although this isn’t strictly true. Unless you are Richard Branson, it’s unlikely that you’re going to use a Swiss automatic movement as your day-to-day watch. Therefore it makes sense that the watch has to be both cheap and practical.
This removes complicated watches with numerous features, hand wound watches that are not automatic, and any watch which is expensive.
Therefore beater movements are generally one of the three following types of watch.
- A standard quartz movement
- A somewhat cheap Japanese automatic movement made by either Miyota or Epson
- A digital watch
Another point to add is that a beater watch should not really have a leather strap. The reason for this is because over time, your own body heat and sweat will wear away at the strap and weaken it. Therefore it makes sense that a beater watch should have either a silicon or stainless steel strap.
What Case Material Does A Beater Watch Use?
Beater watches always have a durable case material that is somewhat inexpensive. Therefore you will not find beater watches made of gold, ceramics, precious stones, or even a metal such as titanium which scratches easily.
In general beater watches are made from either stainless steel (which will scratch but never break), silicon/plastic (which is often used on digital watches) and more modern carbon based compounds. Carbon is very light and resilient, having similar properties to silicon.
The Best Daily Beater Watches
Timex Expedition
Timex are the brand that pioneered the beater watch slogan “It takes a licking and it keeps on ticking”. Whilst they have tried to move away from this image somewhat, there is still no doubt that they make super tough analog quartz watches.
There is nothing particularly special about the Timex expedition series other than its value for money and overall toughness. However, considering these two selling points are so rare, people are drawn to Timex over other brands. For under $50, you are able to pick up some poor quartz watches, but nothing of the same quality as Timex.
Seiko 5
The ultimate posterboy for an automatic beater watch. Seiko 5 has been around since the 1960s and has not changed a great deal since. This has led to a cult following for the budget series of watches as enthusiasts understand that you can’t really get much better value for money than a Seiko 5.
As this watch is an automatic, you would expect it to be a little more expensive than a quartz, but this isn’t necessarily true. Due to the streamlined production which hasn’t changed for decades, Seiko are able to sell this watch for under $100.
In short, you won’t really find a better value automatic than the Seiko 5. It is a durable watch and looks fairly good considering how cheap it is. The Seiko 5 is the ultimate mechanical beater watch.
OOO (Out Of Order)
Not too commonly available in the USA, OOO are an Italian brand which damages their own watches so you don’t have to! In all seriousness, OOO are a great choice for those who want a beater watch that is a little more stylish and less bland.
You are able to choose from a variety of movements and specifications in OOO watches, so there will be something to suit all tastes and budgets. As the watches are naturally distressed before purchase (with each one looking slightly different), you will not even notice if a scratch was intentional or appeared yesterday.
OOO watches are also pretty good value for money and fairly priced given the uniqueness and effort put into each design.
G-Shock
G-Shock are without a doubt the Japanese kings of digital beater watches. When first marketed, consumers in the USA didn’t believe that these watches were as tough as they claimed, until the G-shock challenge appeared which showed watches being dropped out of buildings and still working.
After this, G-Shock watches became both popular and fashionable on a global scale and are worn by people from all walks of life. You can’t really get much more of a digital beater than a G-shock which is also a functional watch, at the very least having an alarm and chronograph, with more expensive models having many more complications.
In summary, G-Shock watches are the ultimate digital beaters and will never break. Yet still offer great value for money.
Orient Mako II
As you would expect. A brand which is owned by Seiko produces both affordable and durable watches which seriously undercut the prices of their competition.
Orient watches only use automatic movements and are a little more flashy and stylish than their sister brand Seiko, yet are a little cheaper to buy. For those wanting a dress style watch that is also a beater, Orient should be the number once choice since you aren’t really going to find anything better quality than this for a cheaper price.
Citizen Eco-Drive Garrison
Citizen eco-drive watches are great choices for daily beaters since you can set them and forget about them. As the watch is solar powered, this is far more convenient than both automatic and simplistic quartz movements with both require some level of maintenance.
Not only this, but Citizen are a reputable Japanese brand that builds watches that last for a long time. They are rivals with the likes of Seiko and Casio who also make watches of a similar quality for a similar price.
All in all, Citizen watches are generally great value for money too.
Invicta Pro Diver
As almost everyone is wearing casual dive watches that look like Rolex submariners these days, it makes sense to include the Invicta pro diver. In terms of specification, this watch is quite unremarkable but is priced well below what you would expect it to be to make up for this.
At less than $75, you’re getting a Japanese quartz movement that is found in Citizen watches, alongside a legitimate dive watch that can reach up to 200 meters below surface. Not to mention it looks like a Rolex submariner.
Japanese movements are built to last, so this Invicta pro diver will keep going until you’ve worn it into the ground or scratched it to pieces.
Nixon Regulus
The Nixon Regulus is a rugged digital watch in its own right and is a good choice for those who think that G-Shock watches are a little ugly. Even though the regulus is not as durable as the G-Shock range, there are not many things on planet earth that are. This doesn’t mean that the regulus cannot take a beating, it just has significantly less bulky plastic surrounding the case.
As you can see, the dial layout of the regulus is extremely clear and doesn’t leave anything open to interpretation, even to those who are brand new to this watch can easily view the time, day and date. It is also just as functional when compared to all other digital watches making use of a stopwatch, light and alarm features.
In summary, this is a slightly more stylish beater watch that is also rugged.
Momentum Torpedo
Momentum produce a variety of bulky divers watches that are made to withstand wear and tear. As you can see, the Momentum torpedo has a stainless steel bezel, so any scratches on this aren’t going to look as bad compared to a non-metallic bezel. The crown is also very large and bulky so this isn’t going to get phased by a few knocks, not to mention it is hidden away at the 4 o’clock position.
Momentum watches are somewhat plain and certainly not too original in terms of design. They play it safe and offer good quality beater dive watches at a reasonable price.
