The best chronograph watches for your inner speed demon

The Omega Speedmaster is THE chronograph watch. Full stop. There is no other watch that is as immediately recognizable as this luxury chronograph, and that’s for a good reason. This is a mid-century classic that’s remained basically unchanged in terms of design, because frankly if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

The Omega Speedmaster needs no introduction. If you’ve seen Apollo 13, you know this one, and that’s because it was the real-life watch selected by NASA that saved actual lives aboard that mission. It’s also a staple of sports chronographs, from automobile racing to the Olympics, because Omega watches are known for their precision and reliability. Finally, the Speedmaster hits the sweet spot for wearability at 40 millimeters wide and 45 millimeters long, meaning that regardless of the wearer’s gender, size, or height, this watch will look at home on their wrist.

The problem with buying a mechanical chronograph from a brand like Omega is that the periodic servicing that’s encouraged by the manufacturer can often cost as much as some of the budget watches on this list. The Speedmaster is also a thick watch, coming in at a whopping 15 millimeters thick, which means that it’s not very long-sleeve shirt-friendly. Finally, for as much as this is a watch associated with aviation and space travel, the lume is miserable, so good luck seeing the dial in a dark cockpit, or even when you wake up in the morning.

The Sugess 1963 is an understated military-style watch that just oozes 1960s com-bloc flair, with the Chinese text on the dial, the red star, and the manual wind movement. The 1963 features a Sea-Gull movement that can draw a direct lineage back to the 1940s in Switzerland. We loved this watch so much that it made our list of the best men’s watches, where it also dominated the affordable chronograph bracket as one of the best chronographs under $500.

The Sugess 1963 is a Chinese watch that will get you actual respect from watch nerds, and it’s not just because we’re all relieved to see a Chinese watch that’s not a copy of a Rolex, Seiko, or Omega. Rather than innovating with a new, bleeding-edge futuristic design, this watch directly borrows from the design language of the 1960s in form and function, with a champagne dial, manual-wind mechanical movement, and options for a more classic 38-millimeter diameter and acrylic crystal to nail the retro aesthetic. This is also a watch that features a true column-wheel chronograph movement, in which pressing the start pusher engages a gear that fits smoothly into the rest of the movement, immediately starting the seconds and minute hand, which is visible through the exhibition caseback. The movement is a nearly 80-year-old design, being essentially a modern production of the classic Venus 175, which the Tianjin Watch Factory bought the rights for from Venus.

The issues with the 1963 largely stem from its full-tilt career into the 1960s in terms of form and function. This watch has absolutely no luminescence to speak of, instead relying on gold-tone hour markers to add some visual difference and make the dial more legible. The movement doesn’t “hack” at all, owing to the age of the design, meaning there’s no way to set the watch to the second, which is almost expected these days. Finally, the stock straps that come with the 1963, regardless of whether they’re leather or nylon, are generally unimpressive, meaning that you’ll likely be replacing them in short order, adding to the cost.

Bulova, formerly of New York, now of Japan, provided the prototype watch that the Lunar Pilot was based on to astronaut Col. David Scott on the Apollo 15 mission, which he ended up wearing when his NASA-issue Omega Speedmaster lost the crystal that covered the dial, and the rest, as they say, is history. In 2015, after the original watch sold at auction for a cool $1.6 million and change, Bulova re-introduced the watch, now with a sapphire crystal and a scaled-down version of the Accutron timekeeping system that was featured in some of the instruments aboard the Apollo missions. The result is a watch that boldly goes where few others go, and one that dominates as arguably the best chronograph under $1,000 in terms of precision and pedigree.

The Bulova Lunar Pilot is a blatantly retro watch, with long pushers, a cushion case, and a commemorative engraving on the back of the watch. The detailing on the watch is beautiful yet utilitarian, with a bead-blasted case, brushed bezel, polished pushers, and a multi-layered dial with raised hour markers that give this watch far more visual interest than one would expect from a black dial tool watch. Finally, the Bulova precisionist movement vibrates at a whopping 262KHz, as it proudly proclaims on the dial. While this reduces the battery life from 10 years to three, relative to most quartz watches, it also gives the chronograph seconds hand a smooth sweep rather than a harsh tick, and allows this watch to track time to the millisecond.

Now, Bulova claims that the Precisionist movement is super-precise, hence the name, and only loses or gains 10 seconds per year. However, when ‘Just the Watch’ on YouTube tested his Bulova Lunar Pilot, he found that it was falling far out of spec and actually was one of the worst-performing watches on his Quartz watch accuracy test. Mine has performed well within spec, so this is likely an issue with quality control, meaning that it’s good to check this characteristic of the watch before you decide whether or not to keep it. Another issue with the Lunar Pilot is that, like the Omega Speedmaster, it has miserable luminescence, barely glowing when transitioning from direct sunlight to the shade. It’s also a big watch, owing to the fact that it’s an aviation watch that’s designed to be instantly legible at a glance, and also designed to be worn over a spacesuit. At 45 millimeters in diameter and 52 millimeters in length, this excludes smaller individuals.

My grandfather’s favorite watch, more than any Rolex he’s owned, is the Zenith El Primero. It was a special watch when it first came out, and it remains a special watch to this day, to the extent that Zenith reissued it 50 years later, relatively unchanged. This watch rattled the horological field when it hit the scene in 1969, and in every way, this is a truly historical timepiece that remains as much of a statement today as it did when Zenith first released it.

The Zenith El Primero spawned out of an arms race between various Swiss and Japanese watchmakers in the 1960s. While Seiko sold the first automatic chronograph with its 6139 “Pogue,” Zenith announced its automatic chronograph first, leading to the bold and belligerent name “El Primero.” The first. The movement that this watch housed was unlike anything that had been seen before, beating at 36,000 vibrations per second, outpacing even the 28,800 considered “high-beat” then and now, and allowing the watch to track time down to the 10th of a second. To counter the fact that this higher beat rate would expend the mainspring more quickly, they added an automatic rotor, specially engineered to move with the slightest action of the wrist. All of this has been faithfully replicated in the El Primero Revival, down to the decidedly-groovy beveled edges and mid-century sizing, which shows that Zenith has not forgotten where it came from.

If you want to own the most important, absolute best vintage chronograph of all time, it’ll cost you, because the Zenith El Primero Chronomaster comes in well north of $5,000. This is because making a movement that’s this precise is still difficult, and is still largely accomplished by artisans, rather than the roughshod parts associated with more mass-produced movements. Additionally, many people may find the size, diminutive by modern standards, to be an acquired taste, especially with the retro case design. Finally, Zenith has opted to go for the odd 19-millimeter lug width, which limits aftermarket choices.

Steve McQueen is the coolest person to ever live, at least in the minds of many people. He was Bullitt, doing his own stunts at the wheel of a dark green Mustang in the first great car chase ever put to film. He was the rebellious and belligerent American aviator Hilts in The Great Escape, where he once again did his own stunts in the end motorcycle chase scene. However, the film that immortalized this watch was the absolute stinker of a film, Le Mans, in which Heuer, the predecessor to Tag Heuer, placed its Monaco watch on his wrist for the film, forever linking it to automobile racing. Now, more than 50 years later, the Monaco remains a weird, square watch that screams golden-era racing flair.

The Monaco is a weird, square chronograph watch, the same as it was when it graced Steve McQueen’s wrist. This is a bonafide classic of cinema and racing, and is bold and full-throated in its proclamation as a vintage chronograph. But the beauty of this watch isn’t just skin deep, as the included movement is not only as accurate and reliable as you’d expect of a luxury Swiss movement, but also includes an impressive 80-hour power reserve, meaning you can take it off on Friday, and put it back on when Monday comes around, without having to reset the time.

This watch is square. Not rectangular like the JLC Reverso or Cartier Tank. Square. To add to this bizarre look, the crown is on the left side of the watch, opposite the pushers, and the subdials are similarly angular. Additionally, this watch is thick, coming in at 15 millimeters owing to the bulging sapphire crystal that’s designed to enhance the view angle while racing. Finally, like most Swiss watches, especially luxury chronographs, this isn’t cheap, and the cost of a mechanical chronograph is further amplified by this watch’s cinematic connection.