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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000
Slide Nr 1A travel watch has some heavy lifting to do. It needs to be accurate and reliable, of course, plus easily readable and robustly built. It should also be versatile enough in design to serve in a variety of environments – from sightseeing, cycling and surfing, to dining in fine restaurants – without looking out of place or drawing unwanted attention. And if it comes with a handy function, such as displaying multiple time zones at once, so much the better. Luckily for travelling watch lovers, there are some stunning models out there to choose from, so read on for our selection of the best you can buy on a healthy budget of USD 5,000.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 2Tudor Black Bay GMT – One of the most successful watch collections of modern times, built by Rolex’s sister brand, it would be hard to start this list anywhere other than the Tudor Black Bay GMT. Debuting in 2018, the original steel-cased, black-dialled model with its red/blue ‘Pepsi’ bezel has been joined over the years by a beautiful white-faced alternative, along with Tudor’s two-tone S&G premium edition, complete with black and brown ‘Root Beer’ surround. All measure 41mm and come with an extra hour hand to track dual time zones, together adding up to an unbeatable mix of modern technology and cool vintage styling.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 3TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 GMT – The diving travel watch is a relatively new genre but its best-of-both-worlds flexibility has seen it explode in popularity. The Aquaracer Professional 300 GMT from industry big-hitter TAG Heuer not only features an indispensable dual time zone complication, it contains it inside a 42mm case built to survive a plunge to 300m – meaning it will be tough enough for just about anything your next excursion can throw at it. Choose between striking blue or green colorways, each with a lovely textured wave pattern on the dial, and enjoy this superb all-rounder.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 4Nomos Glashütte Tangomat GMT – Leave it to Nomos to come up with a different – and achingly stylish – play on the travel watch theme. Renowned for their pure, stark minimalism, the brand has produced another Bauhaus-inspired masterwork in the shape of the Tangomat GMT. Despite its name, the watch is actually a worldtimer; that little aperture opposite the crescent-shaped date window displays 24 airport codes to represent all the different time zones. Simply pushing the button above the crown skips the city code eastwards and jumps the hour hand to let you know the time there. As understated as it is ingenious, the Tangomat is restraint personified.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 5Oris Aquis GMT Date – Those who know their watches know that, when you want more bang for your buck, it is near impossible to beat Oris. The Aquis collection is the brand’s flagship divers’ range, currently some 72 models strong, with the GMT Date edition a true standout. This big, no-nonsense 43.5mm steel model, with ceramic bezel and graduated sunray blue dial, not only offers 300m water-resistance, it will also tell you the time in three time zones while it does it.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 6anOrdain Fabrik Model 1 GMT – Young, independent microbrand anOrdain hail from Glasgow, Scotland and have set themselves apart in a saturated industry with their exquisite dials handcrafted from vitreous enamel. The painstaking traditional technique leaves a deep, glossy finish and, on the Model 1 GMT, the brand’s first watch with a complication, the look has been enhanced even further with a fumé varnish. Eye-catchingly elegant in its rich purple, the fascinating two-level dial is given the ideal final embellishment for a travel watch by using the same numeral font as you will find on Ordnance Survey maps.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 7Grand Seiko Quartz GMT SBGN011 – Grand Seiko’s latest GMT is the ideal watch for busy travellers. Studiedly discreet, it is only on second glance that you see the impeccable craftsmanship in the Zaratsu polishing and faceted, razor-sharp hands, while inside ticks the last word in set-it-and-forget-it quartz movements: the 9F86, accurate to an incredible +/-10 seconds a year. If you need unbeatable precision, hassle-free operation and incognito styling, the SBGN011 from Japan’s finest watchmaker is the one for you.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 8Bell & Ross BR-03 GMT – Bell & Ross is a French brand that has built a strong identity for itself with its tough-as-nails tool watches inspired by aircraft cockpit instrumentation. As a result, their creations prize legibility above all else, and the BR-03 GMT is an excellent case in point. The big, distinctive square case houses a dial with enormous numerals and massive, impossible-to-miss hands, surrounded by either a blue and grey or red and black ‘Coke’ GMT bezel. A talented watch with plenty of wrist presence, the BR-03 is an exceptional outlier.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 9Timex Q GMT – Timex caused a sensation in 2019 when they revived their first collection of quartz watches from the early 1970s: the ‘Q’ series. The almost carbon-copy range featured beloved design elements from the originals, such as woven steel bracelets and squared-off cases, and kicked off a frenzy among watch lovers. The Q GMT is a recent addition, a set of three wonderfully neo-vintage models with their rotating 24-hour bezels in either a classic blue and red ‘Pepsi’, a striking green and black or stealthy black and grey. Extremely accurate, great to look at and incredible value for money, you can see what all the fuss was about.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 10Frederique Constant Manufacture Classic Worldtimer – Frederique Constant is an accessible luxury brand producing exceptionally complicated watches at a fraction of the price of the Swiss elites – and the Manufacture Classic Worldtimer is a perfect example. The traditionally styled piece features a world map in the centre, encircled with the names of 24 cities to represent every time zone, as well as a 24-hour scale, plus a date subdial at the bottom. Available in four colours, the white-dialled piece denotes day, the black is for night, blue is for the ocean and the green symbolises forests.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 11Glycine Airman Vintage GL0373 – How’s this for historical significance?: Glycine were the very first brand to introduce a GMT watch when they unveiled their Airman in 1953. Its classic design and useful functions saw it adopted by professional pilots all over the world, and it has even been to space aboard NASA’s Gemini 5 mission. Today, the Airman collection has more than 100 different versions, but a favourite remains the GL0373, a faithful 36mm reproduction of some of those early trailblazers.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 12Swatch Ocean of Storms – The enormous Swatch Group conglomerate houses some of watchmaking’s biggest names – giving it the perfect opportunity to have a little fun. Their collaboration with Omega in 2022 brought us the hysteria-inducing MoonSwatch; this time they’ve partnered with dive watch specialist Blancpain for a new take on the brand’s legendary Fifty Fathoms. The first five models in the Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Collection came in different colours to represent each of the earth’s oceans, while the sixth, the Ocean of Storms, is all black and dedicated to Oceanus Procellarum, the moon’s largest lunar mare.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 13Nomadic Fíor 555 – Another young startup brand, Nomadic have built their reputation on robust, great value tool watches shot through with styling cues taken from their Northern Ireland home. Their most recent release is the company’s first GMT, the Fíor 555. Named after the Gaelic word for ‘True’ and the coordinates of Belfast city (54°34′ North, 5°55′ West), the watch features high-contrast white-on-black dials for excellent legibility, and a rotating GMT bezel in a range of five different colour combinations. A thoroughly modern watch with some great retro flair, Nomadic’s latest is another hit.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 14Bremont Terra Nova 40.5 Turning Bezel Power Reserve – A recent addition to British manufacturer Bremont’s portfolio, the new Terra Nova series features a turnable bezel which can be used as a compass, just in case you truly lose your way. The six-strong collection comes with bomb-proof cushion-shaped cases, huge Arabic numerals for easy readability, oversized crowns that can be used even while wearing gloves, and power reserve displays to tell you when it’s time to wind. An uncompromising range of handsome field watches, the Terra Nova is built for the extremes.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 15Ball Engineer Master II Diver Worldtime – A watch that tells you the time in any of the planet’s time zones at the touch of a button or, in this case, the turn of a bezel, is immensely useful. Couple that with both a date and a day of the week display, package it all up in a 42mm steel case, slap on a dive timer and 300m water-resistance, and you might just have the ultimate travel companion.
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The 15 Best Travel Watches Under $5000.
Slide Nr 16Casio G-Shock GWM5610-1 – Travel is all about collecting memories, and sometimes the best memories are made by straying from the beaten track. Depending on where that leads, it’s often a good idea for your watch to go under-the-radar, and that’s where Casio’s G-Shock GWM5610-1 comes in. Not only is it nigh-on indestructible, it has a 31-zone world timer, runs on solar power and is possibly the most comfortable all-day wear you can buy. But more than that, its characteristically square styling is as inconspicuous as they come, leaving your wanderings trouble-free.
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