The authors of the Chrono24 Magazine hand-pick the best watch offers on Chrono24 – from affordable daily drivers to famous watch icons and exceptional collector’s pieces.
If you want to buy one of the watches, simply click on the offer and place your order on Chrono24 today.
This week’s offers:
Daily Drivers: Great Watches for Under 5,000 Euros
Seiko Prospex “Turtle”
Picking a budget Seiko is not a hard task. The brand is known for producing timepieces of exceptional quality at a very friendly price. I don’t think you’ll find many households where someone (either a dad or older brother, perhaps grandparents) didn’t at one point own a Seiko.
The selection the Japanese brand offers is enormous, but out of all the different models, if I had to pick one, I’d go with the Turtle. The original Seiko Turtle (ref. 6309) came out in 1977, and the line is still one of the brand’s best sellers. Today, the latest generation of Turtles are sold under the reference SRP777 for only a few hundred euros.
These watches have proven to be timeless, reliable, and technically “bulletproof” for a fraction of the price many Swiss Made watches go for. The Turtle might not be everyone’s favorite due to its distinct case shape, but that’s just the 70’s DNA the model has carried since its birth and made it so popular. If you’re looking for an automatic watch that you can take with you wherever you go and won’t have to worry about damaging it, the Seiko Turtle should be high on your shopping list.
Enthusiast’s Corner: Rare or Exceptional Timepieces
Seiko “Tuna”
There are Seiko divers and then there is THE Seiko diver. For die-hard diver watch/Seiko fans, the Tuna falls into this category. A totalitarian dive equipment that first saw the light of day in 1975 (ref. 6159-7010). At that time, it was powered by a high-beat automatic movement that Seiko later upgraded to quartz.
Previous Seiko divers had malfunctioned by the crystal popping off the watch cases when they were filled with helium molecules. When divers work at great depth, they frequently spend long hours under pressure in diving bells to acclimate them to normal pressure step by step. During this time, the oxygen they breathe is often mixed with helium. Once they are done decompressing, the helium trapped in the watch case wants to find a way out, mostly through the crystal by forcing it off the case. This was the problem Seiko engineers wanted to eliminate and is the sole reason the Seiko Tuna was born.
The first Tuna (nicknamed after its case shape resembling a tuna can) was huge at 51 mm, just like its contemporary version. It’s probably not the easiest watch to wear nor is it slimmest, but it is indeed a piece of Seiko diving history and a super cool timepiece to have.
Iconic Timepieces: Great Value for Your Money
Seiko SKX007
Seiko SKX007: A watch that has been the embodiment of beater watches since 1996. That was the year the SKX007 was released, replacing its predecessor the Seiko 7002, another 200 m diver. Unfortunately, the SKX007 is also no longer in production, but during its relatively short reign, it reached a semi-legendary status among budget mechanical diver’s watches.
Some say that no real watch collection is complete without the SKX007 in it. While I’m more of a Seiko Turtle guy myself, I kind of agree with this statement. Just like the Turtle, the SKX007 is amazing value for money from the Japanese brand. Its design is clean and simple and is a proper tool watch that works for divers as well as for Average Joes, who want a watch for everything. You won’t have to worry about this timepiece while you repair your car, take a shower, go on a holiday, ride your bike, or bungee jump off a cliff. It can withstand a lot without malfunctioning and still look good on you.
This is truly a go-to watch for everything. You can dress it up with a jubilee-style metal bracelet or down with the rubber strap. The SKX007 (and 009 for all you Pepsi fans out there) offers a lot at a very low price without any compromise.
