Watches under HK$100,000: stainless-steel versions that don’t sacrifice style

Budgeting sucks. For realsies. There’s nothing more boring than being sensible with money. I am a risk-taker. If I don’t leave the house and spend all my money on magic beans sold to me by a silk-tongued mountebank with fingerless gloves and a cheeky-chappy cockney accent then I’m doing life all wrong.

Alas, that attitude has left me on the fringes of bourgeois society, living in a rented flat filled with magic beans. To make matters worse, watch companies, realising we live in austere times, are releasing pieces in steel, which means prices are dropping like a stone, and that obviously triggers spendthrifts like me. Nowadays, you can pick up iconic pieces or watches from previously unobtainable brands for way less than HK$100,000/US$12,800. What a time to be alive.

For a company that makes, reportedly, a million watches a year, Rolex has an uncanny ability to still appear exclusive, and the introduction of more affordable steel watches in recent years has seemingly had zero impact on its luxe positioning. It doesn’t make sense, if you think about it, but it’s best not to question these things. Instead, we are happy to encourage the company to make its iconic pieces available to a wider audience, as it has with the Datejust 41, which now comes in a steel version.

The Datejust 41 (the number denotes the case size) was intro­duced last year to great critical and consumer acclaim but was only available in Rolesor variations – Rolex’s patented mix of steel and precious metals. This year, the brand gives us an all-steel piece and, yes, the price is way more attractive.

The Datejust doesn’t really need much explaining – it’s a simple yet legendary watch with an instantly recognisable design but the 2017 edition has a top-of-the-class COSC-certified 3235 in-house movement with a thoroughbred 70 hours of power reserve. The Datejust 41 in steel (right) is priced at only US$6,300, so expect to see a lot of guys sporting this sooner rather than later.

A lot of haute horology brands introducing steel pieces have some experience with the metal but in the case of H Moser & Cie, it’s all new. The brand’s first stab at it, the Pioneer Centre Seconds Automatic (right), came out this year and it’s a gem.