The secret to a cheap watch that look expensive

For some odd reason, I've tuned onto TikTok the other day and started watching watch related content. One of the recurring themes was cheap watches that look expensive. Now there's a whole discussion there about the posing component of wanting your cheap watch to look expensive, but that's not what I want to talk about. I thought let's break it down. What actually makes a watch look premium or expensive and how do you recreate that experience as best possible for as little money as possible? And also some watches that are relatively speaking cheap, but look much more expensive than they are. First simple trick, get the watch on a good leather strap. A lot of low end steel bracelets are cheap or at a minimum, very basically finished. Throwing a watch on a leather strap can more often than not make the watch look more premium, but it's not just any leather and no, you don't need to go for Saffiano leather or some other high end leather. Don't go for too shiny and don't go for too lacquered. Seiko often offer this on some of their dressy watches and it just comes across as a little bit plasticky. If you want to pull off the high quality feel, you want something smooth, but with a medium gloss, medium mattness kind of middle of the road kind of leather. If you're going for something ebossed that isn't real ostrich alligator or crocodile, I would say alligator is usually the most convincing looking. You'll want a strap that has some thickness to it. It's a simple way of making a leather look more premium. The thinner leathers and the faux leathers just don't look the part and they start to decay fairly quickly as well. The Hamilton Murph, which will set you back slightly over $1,000 has a solid leather strap with some, but not a lot of gloss to it. Do not get plated gold, two-tone, DLC, or any other non-real gold. It almost never looks premium. Real gold has a very specific look to it that DLC and plating just don't recreate. Stay away from it almost always at all costs. Stay away from any kind of diamonds or stones that are supposed to simulate diamonds. You can always tell if you're going to get an Invicta, just stay away from those two-tone and full faux gold monstrosities. None of them convince anybody. If you're going to go for a DLC gold, go for something where it's clear that it's a deliberate choice like that gold digital Casio that so many people own. Nobody believes it's actual gold, but it works anyway. Otherwise stay away from gold. Go for smaller watches in terms of diameter and thickness. Take a Tudor Black Bay 58 versus the 54. Which one comes across as more luxury? The smaller one. There are multiple reasons why size plays in. For dress watches, this is especially true. A 42 millimeter plain white dial is not going to have the restraint and that's the key restraint that a high-end dress watch typically has. You rarely if ever find a three-handed dress watch from a high-end brand that is bigger than 39, 39.7 millimeters. This also applies to divers as well. The reason size plays in is because vintage tend to be a little bit smaller. Going for a slightly smaller size gives you both the restraint and the play on your understanding of vintage sensibilities without the watch actually being vintage. For a dress watch, I'd go for something like a Baltic MR01. It's a 36 millimeter watch and less than $700. You're going to get a watch that in every way embodies that restraint of a high-end watch. If you're more into the diver, sticking with Baltic for this example, the Baltic Acroscarf at around $750 for their Skin Diver type watch definitely communicates expensive much more than most Seiko's do at this price point. For the case, you want it to be shiny, but not too shiny. Specifically you want three things. Avoid stamped cases. That's why Daniel Wellington never ever looked expensive. Avoid completely shiny polished cases. Overly polished cases is like lip filler for cheap cases. Also avoid a completely matte case because usually it will look like a tool watch and that will automatically make it feel cheaper. Again, a key to a lot of luxury looking products is balance. They don't need to polish every single surface. And if they do, they just do it better. Polish can easily make a watch seem plasticky and just overdone in the lower price points. A good example of this is something like the Orient Bambino. There's several versions of that watch, but the small seconds variants has polished lugs and although the bezel is polished too, it's such a thin bezel that it doesn't overpower the design and the flanks, they're brushed and it just pulls it back that teeny tiny little bit and that's less than $300. Thickness is also a big thing, just like diameter. No 16 millimeter diver looks as premium as a 12 millimeter version. Just compare a Deepsea to a Submariner. The size alone makes for a less premium look of two otherwise very similar dials. The Christopher Ward 660 comes across as more expensive than the regular 12 and the main Manhattan Ultra Thin looks more premium than the regular Manhattan. The main differences being diameter and thickness. Thinness is restraint. Restraint is class and class looks expensive. Fluted bezels are usually a no-go. Why? Because they're bad at the low end. They don't have the edge retention of a Rolex fluted bezel. They're almost always soft and rounded and kind of squished. It just screams cheap very often. It's allowed to be polished, but for a sports watch, make it thinner than you expect. When you think it's thin enough, go a little bit thinner on the bezel. As an example, Tissot Gentleman is as thick as I would go. For a dive watch, if you can get either ceramic or some sort of lacquered or polished steel, your watch is going to look more premium. An Invicta Pro Driver, which is a very Rolex Submariner homage, does exactly what you want. The same goes for the more expensive, but still relatively affordable Longines Hydro Conquest. Does 95% of what a Rolex does at a fraction of the price. Not everybody can afford a $100,000 Lange & Sohne, but subscribing to my channel is free of charge. You get the rantings of an old man for absolutely nothing. Just click subscribe. Thanks a ton. Also, especially for dive bezels, go for less aggressive knurling. The knurling of dive watches on Seikos and Citizens is there for grip and is functional as hell, but it looks cheap pretty often. A coin edge is just going to be communicating premium just so much more, but check out that bezel. Big deal. When it comes to the dial, rule number one, keep it simple. Junghans Max Bill versus Tissot Le Locle, which looks more expensive. I'd argue that most people would say Junghans. And why? Because there's way too much going on in the Tissot. Cheaper dials reveal themselves through excessive detailing, stamping, faux guilloche, sub-par sunrays. A gloss back dial or an enamel looking white dial is going to be far more convincing than something trying to approximate an AP Petit Cheri dial. As with all these rules, there are exceptions, the Tissot PRX being a good one. Their stamp dials for the PRX come across as really strong and really premium, despite having that extra level of flair. But generally I would go for flat. I would go for gloss or I'd go for a good sunray. Avoid things with all sorts of weird engraving, guilloche, that kind of stuff. If you do go down that direction, make sure it looks good on close inspection. Rule number two, stick with safe colors. Deep blue, navy, black, or white are going to look much more convincingly expensive than some bananas red dial. With the exception of plain white, I would go for darker tones, dark blue versus light blue, that kind of thing. Venetianico, red and Toray Vantablack, less than a thousand dollars. It looks really super high end. Rule number three for dials, you can have a little gold, but only a little. And I'm careful with his advice because of how people interpret it. Back in the day when health authorities told pregnant women that it was not banned to drink alcohol while pregnant, as long as it was in moderation, the result was basically disaster. Because if you're usually slamming back a bottle of tequila every day, half a bottle to you is moderation. So when I say a little bit of gold is okay, I mean a little. So an SSA464 from Seiko is a big no-go. An SRPE45, much better option. But the SRPE43 is just a million times better because it's simpler, more restrained, less things that call out entry-level machining and compromises on materials. All things being equal, mechanical watches will tend to look more expensive. At least it will when there's a second hand. Why? Because quartz ticks. People know quartz ticks, mechanical sweeps. So if you can get the mechanical version. For that reason, a PRX mechanical is going to be more convincing than a quartz. If you do go for a watch with a steel bracelet, make sure it's a good one. It has to feel solid. It has to not have too much jingle jangle to it. It has to be not too thick. It has to taper. It just has to taper. And to follow the rule of the case, not 100% matte and not overly polished. Usually I would say avoid complications because cheap watches with complication dials tend to be busy, unbalanced, cramped, all coincide with oversized cases. Your Michael Kors Lexington Chronograph in two-tone with Datejust bezel is just not convincing as a luxury watch. If you stick with the real watch brands and not fashion brands, I think there are two illustrations of a good option and a not so good option. Hamilton Jazzmaster versus a Jazzmaster open heart. If the important thing to you is the expensive look, the Jazzmaster without the open heart is clearly going to be the better option. Don't try and convince people there's a tourbillon somewhere on the dial. Leave it out. It's a mistake. Avoid big logo brands. Any brand that has a font or a branded logo that takes up all of the watch space is just going to scream cheap. This is the same thing you react to when you see that couple walking down the street with Balenciaga sneakers, monogram Gucci track pants, Louis Vuitton, monogram belt, Armani exchange logo t-shirt and Prada sunglasses. It's all expensive, but all those logos just signal cheap. Vintage looking watches will tend to be more convincing as expensive watches. If you go for a watch that has taken inspiration from a high-end watch and you keep the proportions decent, you're going to get a tried and true recipe. Maine Manhattan Ultrathin, Vacheron Constantin, Invicta Prodiver, Rolex Submariner, Venetianico Arsenale, Parmigiani Tonda. This works in a lot of cases. And as far as I'm concerned, as long as you're not the sad kind of person that buys reps with Rolex, Omega and Patek logos on the dial, I've got no problem with a watch having inspiration from a tried and true formula. Context is important to understand when it comes to that expensive feel. And I suppose that needs a little bit of explanation. I'll illustrate it with a question. Why does a Pagani design watch that looks a lot like a Richard Mille not convince anyone that you have a lot of money? Well, because anyone that owns a Richard Mille is not staying at the Holiday Inn Express and showing up in the Toyota Camry outside of the reception. To pull off an expensive look, you have to think about what will be convincing in the environment that you move in. The more try hard you are with the watch, the less convincingly the watch will pull it off. Good leather, simple dial, thin case, some polish, limited complications. Fairer Belzoni or fairer Pembroke? The Belzoni is the more expensive looking, despite it being cheaper. Hamilton Murph versus Khaki Field King. Nicer leather, simpler dial, loses the crown guard and a discreet amount of protein. Veya D4 Autonome versus D5 Meridian. It's the Autonome. Why? Bracelet and bezel and no date window. Also a not cheap example, but I think it's a brilliant example. The Summer Blue Pro Prof versus the classic Omega Pro Prof. The new one looks more expensive. It also is, but it just comes across as a more expensive looking watch because of the polish, because of the shine, because of the dial. Hopefully with these simple guidelines, you can find yourself a watch that punches above its weight in terms of class. One that you'll feel comfortable wearing in a swankier setting without breaking the bank. But here is one last thing you can learn from wear whatever you like. And the less you care, the more likely you and your watch is going to fit in. Those were my guidelines. Do you have some that are worth considering? If so, share them in the comments, like, subscribe. Cheers.