"dressy" watch without a brand name on it?
I'd like a watch that is dressy enough to wear with a suit. But also I have a general preference against wearing things with a conspicuous brand name.
Does this exist?
Price range: ideally no more than $250
74 Replies
(answering my own question) uniform wares on ebay might be the best move for me
Define conspicuous brand name. Do logos count? How big is conspicuous?
a logo without letters is slightly better but would prefer no logo
There are many "minimalist" watches that don't even have numbers/ticks let alone conspicuous logos
numbers and ticks are fine
Are the usual /r/watches recommendations a miss? Seiko, Orient, etc? Bulova?
all the seiko watches i found have the word "seiko" right there on the watch face. so thats no good
same with orient and bulova afaict
err i realize maybe i wasn't so clear with the constraint. i just don't want the brand name on the watch face.
Damn every one of them? Bah
I'd definitely lurk that sub a bit. I bet people have asked this question. I know such watches exist at your price point though most will be quartz and not mechanical
i don't care about quartz vs mechanical
Judt find a wellington bauhaus style on aliexpress
I have the feeling you want it as an accessory
"accessory" as opposed to...?
Like you want a particular brands that not chinese cheaply made
Sorta like this?
https://www.dhgate.com/product/other-watches-bubble-mirror-pot-cover-stainless/885202027.html?f=bm%7cGMC%7cpla%7c18240798708%7c%7c885202027%7c%7c101004%7cUS%7cyizhan03%7cm%7c2%7cCjwKCAiAjfyqBhAsEiwA-UdzJG1-9uoKSoAQyuR45Ywa7FRNJV05BQLQE-nooUyYFx_qkYzwV048fBoCKvEQAvD_BwE%7c&utm_source=pla&utm_medium=GMC&utm_campaign=yizhan03&utm_term=885202027&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAjfyqBhAsEiwA-UdzJG1-9uoKSoAQyuR45Ywa7FRNJV05BQLQE-nooUyYFx_qkYzwV048fBoCKvEQAvD_BwE
yeah i would say i don't want something that's cheaply made
No name on dial
yes! this looks good at first glance
I do wear seiko and the like but generally not aware of many brands have no name on the dial
Some let you remove certain things when u build them but they cost a pretty penny
the one you linked might be the winner tbh
Oh oke glad u took a liking to it. I did a google so not sure of the website
Just make sure u check around so it reputable
Lmao that is a knockoff of a Junghans. Skip that shit
I cannot recommend a watch found on aliexpress tbh
I know it not a place to find it but where else u guys can find a blank dial? :/
Most minimal watches have the brand name, it's just standard. If you're against one or two minuscule lines of text, you might just want to go sans watch
That said, check out https://voidwatches.com/collections/best-sellers but I can't attest to the build quality
oh interesting, these also look good
like yeah i don't want something cheaply made. so that probably disqualifies dhgate/aliexpress
Good luck to yourr seach
I still find this to be a really weird request lol but you do you
Happy holiday
😉
personally i think it's strange how common this is for watches! i'd expect high end stuff to be brandless
why?
there's a huge difference between one small line of text on a 36mm watch and a giant ass chaps logo on a shirt
it'd be pretty counterintuitive for a company to spend tons of money developing a product and then not put their name on it
It's out of your price range but Christopher Ward recently changed up their branding and just has a simple logo on the dial now instead of the full brand name
i guess my thinking is that, other nice clothes/style items tend to not have brand names on them. and it seems strange that watches are different
Generally high end stuff doesn't have huge names and logos, but it's usually designed to be recognizable despite that. Like a rolex submariner has a name that's visible yes but not super shouty like some, but everyone knows what a submariner looks like
But it is fairly standard to have a visible name and often one or two small lines of text, plus the logo on the crown
yeah i cant deny that this is the standard
The text on a dial is more akin to a garment tag
High end clothes in the traditional direction tend to only have logos inside and invisible but to some extent they feel like an exception I think?
Like, Isaia suits have that little logo on the lapel
keep in mind high-end watches are less of an accessory and more often valued for being a complex work of engineering
And also, it's hard for a watch to be obnoxious because it's so small, so I don't even think of dial text as branding. Like I said, it's different from a huge shirt logo
it'd be like a bmw or porsche not having a logo on it
tbh i would prefer to also have a car without a logo on it 😅
https://teddybaldassarre.com/blogs/watches/best-minimalist-watches-a-complete-guide note most do say who makes them
Teddy Baldassarre
37 Best Minimalist Watches - A Complete Guide for 2023
In this guide, we explore minimalist watches across different price categories and take broad look at executions that fit the definition of "minimalism". There are some Bauhaus inspired designs here are well as more traditional and simplistic approaches to cover a range of looks.
You can debadge your car but it's still usually obvious what's a bmw and what's a kia.
right
https://www.kentwang.com/accessories/watches
ZERO names on those
ah nice!
But not in the price range sadly
I like the Tissot watches. Again, they do say... Tissot
I am sure you can pay someone to make a replacement face that doesn't or modify the original :P
it also seems to me that the kind of person to be repelled by branding would also be less material in general if only because nearly everything has at least some sort of branding on it
Junghans more or less qualifies but $$$$
Junghans has text lmao
It does but it's much more subtle
Hence, more or less qualifies
right but that's not what OP wants
that's why it's impossible lol
Laco Heidelberg is $$$$ and has no text
@roving sign do you have this preference about clothing only or does it carry over into your daily life?
Let OP speak for themselves but I am under the impression that a subtle enough logo/name can be okay
I'm going off of the fact that he rejected earlier suggestions with minimal branding 🤷♂️
for most items in life it's not possible to get brandless things. but i generally prefer it
if that's not the case I will eat my words for thanksgiving dinner
I'd like to preface this suggestion by saying I hate that i'm about to recommend this but please keep in mind the following:
OP wants:
1. a minimal watch
2. with little to no text on the dial
3. for under $250
4. and doesn't care at all about movement type quartz vs automatic
https://www.mvmt.com/mens-watches/legacy-slim/manta-blue/28000211.html
this looks good!
whats the downside?
This is what it looks like when you just remove a logo:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/s/o1MoLJDHAy
Reddit
From the Watches community on Reddit: [Seiko SNK809] – No Logo
Explore this post and more from the Watches community
this is what's considered a 'fashion watch' which is generally not worth buying for somebody concerned with long-term quality
I mean honestly four pinholes is not the worst thing I've seen :P
i guess one final question. any downsides to uniform wares? it was the first thing i found when i did my own research and it looks decent
The sub is fairly snobby but that doesn't stop the advice from being correct much of the time
So with a watch, what are you paying for? Just like clothes:
Materials, manufacturing, quality, etc on one hand; style on the other.
Nobody can tell you your preferred style
But what people can say is the for >$200 new you should be getting a sapphire crystal face, clear info on who makes the movement and its details, etc.
If you're getting obfuscated non-info and lesser materials then you better really want it for its style (or brand), right?
All watches are in fact fashion watches, but "fashion watch" in the watch enthusiast community means, essentially: from a company not known to make watches, with the owners/founders not known to have made watches, there is now a line of watches that spend more effort on styling and less on materials quality, assembly and qc, finishing details, etc, let alone engineering.
The secondary downside in my unfortunate experience is that, as opposed to "proper watch companies," fashion watch companies tend to put out products that are both less reliable, and worse to maintain (harder to do physical maintenance and harder to find replacements)
It's also really easy to make a watch with zero details (aka minimalist watch) and there's a bit of a fad for them so you see tons from no-name companies.
Not to mention that there's a strong white box economy in which one factory makes the watches for dozens or even hundreds of fly-by-night brands, further obfuscating details of the watch and making it difficult to repair them.
got it, thanks
But if you like it ...!
Who am I to say no?
yeah idk! maybe the answer is that what i'm asking is simply not possible and that i have to sacrifice somewhere
since any respectable "proper" watch company is gonna put their name on the face (except, it seems, in the >$1000 range)
that said, nobody says you need a 'proper' watch
99% of people will see a crappy fashion watch and go 'hey that looks sweet'
so really buy what you like
Or take the logo off ;) (just kidding probably)
The reason people often want a brand name on their watch is because i brand is like a pedigree of quality
I can see the Omega logo on somebodies wrist and immediately know that the watch they're wearing comes from a long long history of quality watchmaking and is deserving of 'respect'
or it's just a replica that looks the exact same :0
a DIY logo removal job sounds fun actually
yeah this makes sense
thanks for the guidance everyone! really appreciate it. happy thanksgiving 🙂