By Jeremy Freed

Copyright gqindia

The best automatic watches for men answer a whole lot of questions. See, you may find your way into watches through history, movies, or via the horological one-upmanship playing out in the world around you, but however you acquire your love of timepieces, at some point you’re probably going to wonder what, exactly, makes them tick. The answer, nine times out of ten (at least where luxury watches are concerned), is an automatic movement.
While the precise makeup of a watch’s tiny gears, springs, and myriad other components quickly descends into advanced levels of nerdery (we’ll save the conversation on escapement design and guilloché finishing for another day), you don’t need a degree from MIT to appreciate the basic principles behind automatic watches. And while you definitely don’t need to know how your watch works to enjoy wearing it, there’s actually some pretty cool stuff going on in there. (More on that below.) Here’s every model you should be familiar with.
16 best automatic watches for men

The Best Automatic Watches Under Rs 25,000
Automatic movements are much more complicated than battery-powered or even manually-wound mechanical ones, so expect a higher buy-in for a basic model. That said, there’s more quality and variety in the low-end of the market than ever before, and there are a bunch of eminently flauntable options available for less than $300 (approximately Rs 25,000).
1. Bambino Version 4 Watch
For automatic on a budget, look no further than this under-the-radar Japanese brand.
2. 5 Sports Watch
The perfect entry-level automatic watch doesn’t exi–Oh wait, never mind, we found it.
3. Waterbury Dive Automatic Watch
As ever, Timex provides maximum bang for minimum buck with this classic “Pepsi” bezel diver.
4. Bauhaus Automatic Watch
Chinese watches don’t have the best reputation, but Sea-Gull—which has been cranking out affordable, decent-quality watches since 1955—is not your average fly-by-night Amazon brand. This is one of the more handsome models in the current lineup.
The Best Automatic Watches Under Rs 45,000
The nature of automatic watches means you’ll find a lot of the same players at the $500 (approximately Rs 45,000) level as you do at $300 (approximately Rs 25,000), but you’ll also find a wider variety of styles, from titanium field watches to GMTs.
5. Expedition North Titanium Watch
A great field watch from a brand synonymous with budget bangers.
6. 5 Sports GMT Watch
Among the handsomest members of the Seiko 5 fam, this one comes with a fourth hand that points to an additional time zone.
7. Tsuyosa Watch
This fan favorite hits the bullseye of the style-quality-price nexus, and looks especially fetching with a bright yellow dial.
8. Presage Watch
With its pale blue dial inspired by Japanese stonework, you can think of this Presage as the Seiko 5’s dressier sibling.
The Best Automatic Watches Under Rs 90,000
Double your budget and you’ll get a lot more aesthetic refinement, a higher level of overall quality, and even a few Swiss-made movements. Most of these are still considered entry-level automatics, but they certainly don’t look like it.
9. PRX Powermatic 80 Bracelet Watch
A reborn grail from the Studio 54 era, with a vintage-correct 35mm case.
10. Sealander Automatic Watch
You’ll have a very hard time matching Christopher Ward’s level of overall quality at this price, and it doesn’t look too bad either.
11. MR Classic Salmon Watch
Nothing fishy about this salmon-dialed beaut’.
12. Sea Auto 30 GMT Watch
Magnum P.I.’s diver of choice won’t transform you into Tom Selleck at the height of his powers, but it’ll sure look good on your wrist.
The Best Automatic Watches for Absolute Ballers
Watches with high-end automatic movements easily reach six figures, but at those lofty heights, you’re paying for precious metals and overall finesse as much as the movement itself. Closer to earth, you can take your pick from top brands and iconic models of every sort.
13. Mara Blue Watch
Glasgow-based Paulin is quickly becoming your watch-obsessed friends’ favorite indie brand. This model might look like a plastic toy, but its specs—including a Swiss-made La Joux-Perret G101 movement—say otherwise.
14. Nomos Glashütte
Among the most coveted new releases of 2025, this watch’s German-made movement allows you to cycle through 24 different time zones at the push of a button.
15. Cut Watch
In the last few years, Hermès has quietly become a go-to for some of the most stylish watches around. The new Cut is Exhibit A.
16. Chronomaster EP Original Watch
Powered by the one and only El Primero movement—aka the world’s first automatic chronograph—the Zenith Chronomaster is nothing short of a legend among watches.

What is an automatic movement?
Mechanical watch movements fall into two basic categories: hand-wound and automatic. Before the invention of automatic wristwatches in the 1920s (and long before the invention of battery-powered quartz movements in the 1960s) all watches were hand-wound. That meant you needed to manually wind up your watch every day to keep it running. An automatic watch (also called a self-winding watch) doesn’t require this because it winds automatically with the movement of your body as you wear it.
How does that work, exactly?
Most automatic watches wind themselves via a weighted rotor, which you’ll be able to see if your watch has a see-through case back (it’s the half moon-shaped piece right on top). When you wear the watch and move around, the rotor winds a spring, which turns the hands, date wheel and everything else that moves on a watch.
To keep your watch from stopping when you’re sitting still (or when you take it off at night) automatic movements also store excess energy and slowly release it over hours or days while the rotor is stationary. This is called a “power reserve,” and it typically ranges from 40 to 80 hours, with some going as high as a week or more. They’re useful if you don’t wear a watch every day, and don’t want to have to reset the date and time every time you put it on—particularly with annual or perpetual calendar models that can be complicated to set.
Is there a downside to automatic watches?
It’s not a downside, per se, but they do require some upkeep. Unlike a quartz watch that requires nothing more than a new battery every few years, a mechanical watch is a finely-tuned machine consisting of many tiny, precisely calibrated parts. Watchmakers have made huge advances in shock-and waterproofing over the years, but there’s still only so much abuse a mechanical movement can take. And that’s the thing: repairs to automatic watches can be expensive.
What’s the best way to keep my automatic in good shape?
If you stick to the manufacturer’s recommended service schedule (it’ll need an overhaul and lube every 4 to 10 years, depending on the brand and model) and don’t make a habit of wearing it in the sauna, you’ll probably be fine. Whether it’s a $200 Amazon special or a $200,000 grand complication, automatic watches are designed to be worn, so the best way to take care of your watch is to wear it as much as possible.
How We Test and Review Products
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How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.