Like fatigue pants and aviator shades, the best military watches for men are all built to stand up to the rigors of life in the trenches, the cockpit, or the ocean depths—but that’s really just a bonus. In addition to being tough as army boots, each one promises to lend a subtle hit of military-inspired flavor to your look.
Military watches fall into three basic categories: field watches, diver’s watches, and pilot’s watches, each of which comes with its own unique history and function-driven design. The field watch, for example, was created in WWII to be uncomplicated, easy to read, and reliable—qualities that are just as valuable if you’re crouching in a foxhole or running to catch a flight. Diver’s watches, meanwhile, were originally built for navy frogmen, but their tough, waterproof cases make them the perfect accessory for city life, too. Pilot’s watches might be the most specialized of the bunch, but their oversized cases (made to be worn over a flight suit) and dials full of esoteric markings make them that much more of a high-flying style statement for civilians.
Anyone in the market for a military-inspired timepiece these days will have plenty to choose from in every style and price point, from dive watches approved by the Navy SEALs to faithful repros of WWII pilot’s watches. Whichever you choose, any of the budget-friendly tickers will be a faithful ally in creating your biggest fits of the season.
5 Military Watches Ready to Enlist Your Wrist
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The Best Military Watches Under $100
The sub-$100 category can be a tricky place to find a great watch, but fortunately for anyone on a tight budget, it offers a surprisingly deep bench of stylish military tickers, from classic field watches to beefy G-Shocks.
The Best Military Watches Under $250
Most military watches are designed to be cheap, reliable, and sturdy. And that’s exactly the mix of qualities you’ll find in affordable selects below.
The Best Military Watches Under $500
In keeping with the theme of watches that punch well above their price, a $500 budget puts Swiss brands, automatic movements, and iconic designs within reach.
The Best Military Watches Under $1,000
You can spend more on a military-approved watch, but you don’t really need to. These sub-$1,000 tickers offer an ideal nexus of looks, quality, and value.
The Best Military Watches for Absolute Ballers
Is a luxury military watch an oxymoron? That’s a debate for the ages. What we can say with confidence is that we’d happily wear any of these high-end specimens any/every day of the week.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.
Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there’s bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ’s testing process here.)
