The watches you mention are not really in the same class, price or mechanism-wise. Rolexes are little mechanical machines (no electricity). Most Tags are battery driven. An easy way to tell the difference by looking at a running watch is to observe the second hand. If it "sweeps", it's a mechanical watch. It is moves in short steps (start/stop), it's battery driven. Mechanical watches use a spring of some kind that gets wound and then unwound (similar to a grandfather clock). Electrical watches use a battery that drives an electric motor. They start and stop the second hand because it makes the battery last longer.
It would be helpful to decide up front, electrical or mechanical?
I'm a sucker for a good mechanical watch. I own a couple of Omega's (first watch on the moon!), they are cool looking, very rugged (I wear mine everyday) and reasonably priced.
Breitling is another good name, their watches tend to be a bit flashier. Rolex also makes good watches, but you pay a premium for the brand name.
If you want a tough-as-nails, mechanical watch that looks good, is waterprooof and can take anything you throw at, including SCUBA diving, I'd recommend one of the Seiko mechanical dive watches.
linky
They are very reasonably priced and you can just put it on and forget about it.
Most watches get pretty trashed after a short time because the crystal (the glass part of the face) gets scratched. More expensive watches use man-made crystal material that is very hard. I've bashed my watch into cement, steel pipes and other things that would've trashed most crystals. My watch crystal still looks brand new after 5 years of daily wear, including some diving. Seiko uses a crystal of their own making and it's very hard and scratch resistant.
For somebody that lives in Florida (as I do), spends a lot of time outside and wears their watch all the time, it is hard to beat a dive watch for water resistance and durability. I gave my son the Seiko SKXA35 several years ago and he wears it daily. It has proven to be an outstanding watch.
The only drawback to the Seiko mechanicals is they don't "hack". You can't set the second hand when you set the time. If you normally set your watch with the atomic time everyday, you might find this annoying.
Of course, I'm a big fan of Omega. They make some very cool watches that can be worn everyday. If we had the opportunity to smoke a cigar and toss back a few in person, I could make a decent argument for buying a good watch, wearing the crap out of it (it can take it), get it repaired if you break it and after 40 years, giving it to one of the kids. That's what I'm doing with mine.
One of my most cherished watches is from my grandfather. That is exactly what he did with this watch:
Which I had very lightly serviced (at a cost of more than the watch is worth) to:
Now it keeps good time and I wear it occasionally (very carefully). I wouldn't sell it for any price.
For the record, I wear an Omega, Aqua Terra with a black dial.
It is just your basic black dial watch:
I've painted with it (brush and spray) on, worn it while running a chainsaw, hammering, chiseling concrete, running a sawsall, SCUBA diving, in the shower, plumbing, working on the car, at the office, in a suit, at the beach, on the boat...you get the idea. Once I wore it for 77 days without ever taking it off.
Mechanical watches do require regular servicing. Most watches are 5 years between servicing, the Omega co-axial watches can go 10 between services.
. There's so many choices, thought i'd ask the experts...
