The Best Automatic Watches Under £500

Why automatic at this budget

An automatic watch is a mechanical watch that winds itself from the motion of your wrist: no battery, just the steady sweep of a movement. Here is what makes under £500 special right now: at this money you can buy a watch with its own in-house calibre. Orient and Seiko have done this for years, so you are not paying for someone else's movement with a logo stamped on top. Most rivals at the same price either use a generic Japanese movement or inflate the sticker, while Orient and Seiko do their own work.

Best diver

For a diver my first choice is the Orient Mako 40. It gives you a genuine 200 metres of water resistance, a screw-down crown, a unidirectional rotating bezel and Orient's F6922 automatic calibre. The roughly 40 mm case sits well on a slimmer wrist and never looks out of place on a fuller one. If you want a plainer, dot-index, slightly more classic diver's face, the Orient Ray II shares the same calibre family and the same genuine 200 metres. Both are the best value divers on this list.

Best dress watch

On the dress side the clear winner is the Orient Bambino. With its domed crystal, slim case and clean dial, that old-school Bauhaus grace, the kind that slips under a shirt cuff, is very hard to find at this price. The automatic calibre is inside again, and its power reserve is plenty for a full day on the wrist. It works with a suit and with a white shirt and jeans alike; its one drawback is everyday water resistance, so take it to the desk rather than the pool.

Best everyday sports

If you want a watch to put on and forget, the Seiko 5 Sports is the backbone of this category. It is automatic, tough, shows its movement through a display caseback and goes with almost any outfit. For a darker, more tool-like look, the black-dial Seiko SRPE55 delivers the same ruggedness in a quieter register. If you would rather a sportier Orient, the Orient Sport automatic is on the table too, with a broad, legible dial that suits daily wear.

What to know: power reserve, hacking, service

The secret to years of happy ownership lives in three ideas. First, power reserve: take the watch off your wrist and it keeps running for about 40 hours before it stops and asks to be set again. Second, hacking, where pulling the crown stops the seconds hand; this lets you set the watch to the second against another clock, and the Orient and Seiko models here have it. Third, service: a mechanical watch can drift a few seconds a day, which is normal, and it wants a service every few years. For a wider Japanese panorama, see my best Japanese watches guide, for a diver deep dive see best dive watches under £500, and anyone curious about Orient's flagship diver can read the Orient Mako 3 review.

Which one should you buy

If you are buying one watch and style is not forcing your hand, my choice is the Orient Mako 40. Being a real diver makes it the watch you can take the most places, its in-house calibre is the most honest offer at this money, and the case size sits right on most wrists. If you want a dress face, the Bambino is no wrong turn, and if you will wear it every day, the Seiko 5 Sports never is either. All three are genuine automatic mechanicals at this budget.