Small Beater Watch Challenge 🛠️
Maybe this will be a though one? A real beater, not "I just use my date-just because it's CHEAP".
40mm or smaller and specs for Armageddon!
GO!!
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My Tissot T-sport 40mm. Quartz and Titanium.
My Tissot T-sport 40mm. Quartz and Titanium.
I use this.
These two can be beaters for 38mm
I have a few, but this tends to take the cake.
Just some ideas..
A friend wears one of those for all "rough" activities and it never dies:
Eh I forgot the beater watch!
I just use my date-just because it's CHEAP 😜
This one is my go-to beataround. Timex Expedition Scout.
For a small durable beater i use the Glycine Combat Sub 39mm. It's got sapphire crystal and 300m water resistance and comes in lots of colours, so you can surely find one that suits you.
It's also comes in a 36mm if that's better for you 👍
Still on it's way from Japan. A Citizen eco-drive counts, right? Even though it's 43mm?
These two can be beaters for 38mm
Before I was collecting watches this used to be my only-watch for a couple of years. Cost me £20 back in the day, but nowadays it's £30. TBH I should put this on a nicer band.
You can also look at Boldr for a micro-brand. Good specs and titanium cases for not that much cost.
The Venture is 38mm
The Freediver is 40mm
and the Expedition I at 41, but with a small lug-to-lug of 46mm
All have TI cases and good WR and some nice lume.
GM-S5600, the 38mm equivalent of a regular square DW-5600
Does this not fit the mold?
It's bigger than 40mm but on my 6½" wrist with an isofrane strap, there's nothing that says beater better than a 300m quartz Tuna. With it's short lug-to-lug at only 44mm it wears a lot smaller than it's 47.9mm (at it's widest) width would suggest. Everyone who tries it on a Redbar meets is always surprised. It's the ultimate beater IMO
I should not have let my 017 go.
It's been through hell (and is on it's third strap in 20 years)... and is still within a few seconds per month (Swiss quartz).
Bertucci A2-T
I would call this one of my beater watches, but considering I waited in line for 3 hours to get it, I am very careful with it.
If you can allow the extra 1mm the CWC SBS, as mentioned earlier by @Edge168n, is a hard to beat watch for the Armageddon.
But otherwise I'd pick a solar G-Shock, a smaller Citizen Promaster eco-drive or something like the Seiko SNE573 solar diver at 38mm.
This watch is surprisingly good, so much so I ended up getting a blue one too.
For me, solar quartz or regular quartz, will always be a better choice for hard use.
I have ruined one cheap Timex analog on the farm, but it was never meant for what I put it through.
I have pretty high kill count in auto/mechanical movements though. I have damaged (2) 7S26 movements, an SW200, and a Hamilton H series auto movement in the KFA. All while doing regular farm work. All have been replaced or repaired, but it's still inconvenient. In an Armageddon scenario, an auto/mechanical movement is going to be harder to keep going in a real rough use situation.
CWC is awesome 💪 My favorite being Mellor, which is 38mm. I would love a manu-wind but there is a quartz too, and that would be best for a beater? Also, hesalite for a beat? Risky?
My Ranger. Simple, robust 39mm field watch. I love it and rock it without concern of my activities.
Very Nice 👌I do believe it will handle itself well, but would be a huge risk for me financial wise 😬
It's bigger than 40mm but on my 6½" wrist with an isofrane strap, there's nothing that says beater better than a 300m quartz Tuna. With it's short lug-to-lug at only 44mm it wears a lot smaller than it's 47.9mm (at it's widest) width would suggest. Everyone who tries it on a Redbar meets is always surprised. It's the ultimate beater IMO
I'm talking with a guy at the moment to arrange a Trade for this specific watch 😍 Hope it goes through 🙏 Love that dome 👌👌👌
I know we've had Hammy Khaki Fields already but have we had the Titanium one?
Proper field watch but no polished surface in sight.
Those are awesome!! They really improved on their Ti models. Good choice 😊
I love the blue they have in 41mm. I would have gotten that over my bb36 if it came out in 38mm.
CWC is awesome 💪 My favorite being Mellor, which is 38mm. I would love a manu-wind but there is a quartz too, and that would be best for a beater? Also, hesalite for a beat? Risky?
The mellor looks great, I've handled one a few years ago, but haven't worn or owned one. Seems like a great choice if you were to pick one.
As to the mechanical vs quartz, I'm not ever going to sway someone from something they will love, most people, are and will be, fine with a mechanical movement, but when it comes to extreme use, the quartz will undoubtedly last longer. (I sound like I'm dumping on auto/mechanical, but I love them and prefer them, but in reality they are a bit less robust)
I don't have many watches with hesalite/acrylic crystals, but the few I've had have been fine, just use some polywatch when it gets scratched up.
Lots of good options have been presented in this thread, you would have a great experience with any of them.
The mellor looks great, I've handled one a few years ago, but haven't worn or owned one. Seems like a great choice if you were to pick one.
As to the mechanical vs quartz, I'm not ever going to sway someone from something they will love, most people, are and will be, fine with a mechanical movement, but when it comes to extreme use, the quartz will undoubtedly last longer. (I sound like I'm dumping on auto/mechanical, but I love them and prefer them, but in reality they are a bit less robust)
I don't have many watches with hesalite/acrylic crystals, but the few I've had have been fine, just use some polywatch when it gets scratched up.
Lots of good options have been presented in this thread, you would have a great experience with any of them.
I made the post to challenge the community since beaters tend to be bigger watches. I wasn't looking for specific advice, just having fun 😬
And:
I was making a trade between a metal G-Square and a Seiko Tuna 300m marine master. He has been slow to answer, but if that's go through I'll end up with a beater that's closer to 50mm 🤣 But the Mellor is still an option 🤔 Most likely in quartz if I go that way.
Tiny 36mm. 😉😀
I treat this thing like crap and it's still the best looking watch in my collection. 39mm.
Citizen BN0121 and its BN0118 “Ray Mears” cousin. I think there may be one or two more variations of essentially the same watch. 40mm, short lugs, monobloc titanium case, sapphire crystal, good lume. Mine is on a stretchy nick mankey strap.
Citizen BN0121 and its BN0118 “Ray Mears” cousin. I think there may be one or two more variations of essentially the same watch. 40mm, short lugs, monobloc titanium case, sapphire crystal, good lume. Mine is on a stretchy nick mankey strap.
Very similar to the Promaster Tough 💪
For me the best beater watch is the #casio #gshock GW5600E-1 - the solar GShock square is the best inexpensive beater of all time