Is a sports watch really a thing?

A chrono maybe? I think my Hamilton might be considered a sports watch

A large-screened digital plastic watch with those timers I don't understand (laps or splits and stuff, whatever that means).

It's a really cool either way.

Oh like a G-Shock. That makes sense.

Dang good question. I would never play any contact sport (football, basketball, etc) with a watch on for fear of damage or just being a thug and hitting someone with a metal object. I have played golf with an Orient Diver before cause I felt like I needed something. Some top end tennis players play with watches (RMs and Hublot, and certainly Rolex) so maybe those are sport watches. There is a "golf" variant of the Seamaster AT but all it has is some green markers and a green seconds hand. Maybe the simple answer is G-Shock 🤣

As with much in the watch world, I reflexively file "sports watch" under "pure marketing". Ditto "tool watch", "luxury watch" etc

Sports is a broad category which is then divided into sub categories such as: water sports, motor sports, aero sports, athletics, etc.

It’s like saying I want to listen to Rock music and trying to decide if the Beatles or Rolling Stones are actually rock. Answer, both. Just different.

I never really gave "sports watch" much thought until I did. 😂I get the premise but not really the watch. G-Skock fits the best for now.

That's a pretty good way to think about it. Just another phrase.

For we're using rock for an analogy. I could wear a Beatles and a Rolling Stones watch if I knew what it is. 😂

My personal sports watch 🤷🏻‍♂️. I do my sports definitely without any watch.

So, knowing your watch collection from your posts, a sport watch is a stainless steel watch that is exquisitely done and it doesn't look out of place at a football match. My 2 cents is a Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda pf. It should have you covered. Picture is from the Internet.

Sports watch to me is anything that isn't suitable for dressy situations. That's why the Aqua Terra is so popular. It's dressy enough to fit into that situation, but it's really a sports watch, especially on the rubber strap.

If you have to ask yourself the question, "would I wear this with a suit?" and you had to pause on the answer, then it's a sports watch.

That's why it's hard to define. It's basically any watch with significant water resistance that doesn't look like a Tank, Reverso or Calatrava.

That's a badass watch. A sports dive watch. I looked at buying one of those online before. But I thought I should try one on first. I've never seen one in the wild.

On another watch forum, someone opined that the “sports” in sports watch was originally used like the term was used when referring to a sports coat or sports jacket in traditional menswear, i.e., what a gentleman of the 1930s-early ‘60s would wear while out & about outside the office, more like today’s “business casual” instead of modern athletic or technical gear that someone would actually wear playing sports. I agree w/this view because I think that’s how watch companies still mostly use the term. It is a marketing term, but an old-fashioned one (for an old-fashioned industry).

So IMHO, the Omega Aqua Terra, Rolex OP or Explorer I, Hamilton Khaki & other field watches, JLC Reverso, Cartier Tank & Santos, & most Grand Seikos all qualify as sports watches.

I think this is the best definition posted.

I like it!

Yup. Those are great mechanical sport watches. I've be wanting a field watch maybe nows the time.

He has a "cheap" parmigiani chronograph. 😀

I don't know why but I associate spots watch with a diver or a military watch (but why not a chronometer... Maybe it depends if you mean sport as sporty and casual dressing or sport for a specific sport). Definitely not a Cartier tank, man that is one of the most elegant watches in the history.

When it comes to sports, I am a great athlete. My active sports are mainly cards, chess and online football 😁😁

IMO the phrase sports watch was created back in the days when most people bought one watch for a long period of time, long before the quartz revolution. Since at that time watches were needed much more than today when they are at every corner of our lives, people had to rely on every life event that the watch would fit into their daily routines. Those people who often played sports were logically looking for something that would fit into their lifestyle. It was necessary for the watch to be waterproof, with a chrono complication and as light weight as possible on the wrist. Nowadays, everything is different. It's the era of smart watches, so my opinion on sports watches is that they are smart watches, GShock, Samsung and the like. It makes no sense to use a mechanical watch to measure time in sports. But for collectors it is something else. If I were to call some mechanical watches "sport watches" they should have the above mentioned parameters. Chrono, water resistance and weight should be as low as possible. It is also a good bonus if they are as thin as possible.

Obviously these terms are thrown around without any sort of officially approved glossary/definitions, it's entirely ambiguous and subjective. For me, I see sports watches as being the opposite of dress watches:

• If you wanted to, you can play sports in them without fear of damaging them. They're not for special occassions.

• They can take a knock or two - so they are uncomplicated and not precious metal.

• They can take a splash of water, and should be sweat proof - so decent WR and metal/rubber straps

That's about as deep as my definition goes. Which means there are a lot of cross-overs; pilots, tool, field, chronographs, divers - all can be sports watches, but they can also be categorised into more precise sub-categories based on their use-cases.

Here's a curveball though, pretty much the ONLY watch I can think of, which was specifically designed to be worn whilst playing a competitive sport, is extremely far from what I think of when I think 'sports watch'..

Since you mentioned a golf watch, here's one:

Wrist Game or Crying Shame: TAG Heuer Tiger Woods Professional Golf Watch (fratellowatches.com)

I agree that a sports watch is probably anything other than a dress watch.

That's a solid explanation. I can get down with that reasoning.

The Reverso and the G-Shock has come up a lot in this post. The G-shock is easy to get behind as it covers everything you commented about. The Reverso on the other hand to me is more of a dress watch with a twist. The beauty of the the Reverso is it ability to wearable in a dress or everyday application. Thanks for the post.

Odell Beckham Jr took sports watch to a new level when he wore a Richard Mille during an NFL game. I vote Richard Mille for your sports watch. 😂

Thanks for the vote of confidence. But that is way out of my league and it ugly AF. 😂

I think of it in terms of gentleman sports is what a sports watch is and has better shock resistance, thus golf, rowing, motorsports, polo, watersports eg, swimming, tennis, polo, skin diving etc come to mind really just about anything except for contact sports.

Well said. I think the chrono is about the best we can get to a mechanical sports watch.