Best Automatic Watches Under £10,000

This special watch has been produced for the first time to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of El Primero. Zenith has been a luxury watchmaker in Le Loche, in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel since 1865 and has always been known for its styling which is celebrated with this classic design.

The 38mm steel case of this watch mimics the prototype and has a white lacquered dial with three chronographs in three different shades of blue. The 30-minute counter is positioned at 3 o’clock, the 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock and the seconds counter at 9 o’clock. There is a date window at the 4 o’clock position and a tachymetric complication on the bezel. The hands are in white, with a red second hand.  The watch is powered by the El Primero column-wheel chronograph movement. This beautiful watch is complemented by a navy leather strap.

This watch is a special edition collection to the chronomaster original. This sits at a similar price bracket but has a longer power reserve and a slightly different colour variation on the subdails. This is something also worth looking at if you are struggling to source the Revival edition.

This iconic chronograph is certainly very stylish and combines Swiss expertise with modern elegance.

The watch is made from brushed and polished stainless steel. The 42mm dial is in white with the indexes and central hands highlighted in 5N rose gold. There are three chronographs: the 30-minute counter at the 9 o’clock position, a 12-hour counter at the 3 o’clock position and the ¼ second counter and a date window at 6 o’clock.

The dial is protected by sapphire crystal. This beautiful watch is perfectly complemented by the hand-stitched brown leather watch strap and has been described as a watch of ‘an unprecedented level of luxury’.

TAG Heuer is a Swiss watch company, founded in 1860 and well known for its superb chronographs. The initials ‘TAG’ means ‘Technique d’Avant Garde’ – ‘cutting edge techniques’, which is very appropriate.

This chronograph has been a favourite with aeronautical enthusiasts since it was first made in 1952 and its iconic design is instantly recognisable, and it combines technical mastery with good looks. This self-winding watch has a 43mm black face with surrounding white tachymeter edge in red gold.

The dial is in black with intervals and hour and minute hands in red gold (with luminous stripes down each hand) with a red second hand. There are three chronographs: a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, a 30-minute counter at 6 o’clock and a ¼ second counter at the 9 o’clock position. There is also a date window at 4 o’clock and the dial is protected by an anti-reflective sapphire crystal.

This beautiful classically styled watch is perfect whatever you are wearing or doing. This watch is a self-winding automatic with a 41mm silver-plated dial with clear Roman numerals, hands and minute intervals in rose gold. There are two chronographs: a minute counter at the 12 o’clock position and a second counter at 6 o’clock and a barely noticeable tachymeter.

The face is protected by a non-reflective sapphire crystal and has a clear back which is also protected by sapphire. The watch is on an elegant black alligator leather strap.

The style of this watch is very much in keeping with the American pioneering spirit and entrepreneurship, displayed by the company’s founder, Florentine Aristo Jones, a watchmaker from Boston. To establish the company in 1868, he drew on the skills of some eminently qualified Swiss watchmakers, modern technology, and hydropower sourced from the nearby River Rhine to manufacture pocket watch movements of the highest possible quality. A few years later, IWC (International Watch Company) was taken over by the Rauschenbachs, an industrialist family from Schaffhausen, When Jones decided to return to the States.

The Portugieser is the oldest and favourite style in the IWC collection. It was originally launched in 1998 and was slightly restyled and re-launched in January 2020. The main difference being the clear face back.

When the Rolex Submariner was first launched in 1953 it marked a turning point for divers’ watches. This beautiful watch is styled in brushed oyster steel is corrosion resistant and earlier in 2020 the long-awaited updated model was unveiled. The latest Submariner at 41mm in diameter, has a slightly larger, black Cerachrom bezel (ceramic) and black dial with luminescent hour marks. The black dial makes the face far easier to read underwater.

The most important feature on this watch for divers, however, is its unidirectional rotational bezel marked in 60-minute scale so that a diver can clearly see and monitor the length of their dive and decompression stops. The dial is protected by scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.

This watch is fitted with the new calibre 3230 movement and self-winding module. The strap is also a classic style made from oyster steel (904L stainless steel).

As well as being the most prestigious and iconic diving watch ever, the Submariner is also regarded as a status symbol with a cult following as the name ‘Rolex’ has high-level brand prestige the world over. The company was originally founded in 1905 with the name ‘Wilsdorf and Davis’ by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, England. The brand eventually became known as Rolex in 1908 and moved their headquarters to Geneva, Switzerland after the First World War.