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The best small watches for men might just change the way you look at your wrist. Big watches may still dominate your Instagram feed, but the humble 36mm case – along with its compact compatriots – has been overlooked in favor of what can only be described as hubcaps on people’s wrists. The fact is, smaller watches just look better.
Just because a 42mm watch might get noticed, doesn’t mean it looks particularly good. A smaller timepiece softens the overall look of an outfit and imbues it with a enviable simplicity. It gives the rest of what you’re wearing a little more room to breathe, which is often what makes the watch look better in the first place.
Take a gander at the wrist of any folks whose style you admire and you might get the faint sense that the end of the Big Watch Era is nigh. To get one step ahead of the game, be sure to take a look at the best sub-36mm watches for a variety of budgets (or, if you’re lucky, no budget at all).
For more timely ticket intel, check out the GQ Watch Shop.
5 Tiny Tickers with Superlative Style
- The Sub-$50 Pick: Timex Easy Reader Day Date, $73
- The Sub-$150 Pick: Fossil Carraway Watch, $
180$139 - The Sub-$250 Pick: Timex Marlin Watch, $209
- The Sub-$500 Pick: Tissot PRX 35mm, $450
- The Sub-$1000 Pick: Baltic Mr Classic Blue, $621
The Best Small Watches Under $100
When it comes to watches, $100 may stymie your search a little bit, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few great options for those who aren’t looking for any bells and whistles.
Swatch’s Once Again is about as simple as they come – and that’s the strength of this little Swiss number. Coming in a minimalistic black-and-white color combo, the basic dial and day-date window are about all the frills you’ll get on this option.
The Timex Easy Reader has long been the go-to watch for anyone who can’t be bothered with complications, the constant shrill of apps pinging, or anything else that distracts us from the original intention of a watch: to tell time. With its large dial and classic proportions, it’s a style that hasn’t evolved much from its 1960’s origins, still looking great six decades later.
At the sub-$100 mark for Casio, you’re going to find a lot of digital options, but the Japanese watchmakers have a few gems in this price range. The steel case and bright blue dial play off each other wonderfully to give you a more eye-catching option than the drab neutrals that dominate the “cheap dress watch” category.
The A158WA is one of Casio’s most popular models – and for good reason. With its integrated bracelet, vintage-inspired digital interface, and overall classic design, it’s no wonder that the Japanese watchmakers have hardly touched the design since 1989. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
The Best Small Watches Under $250
At $250, you’re going to start to find watches that offer a little more in terms of complications, design, and overall performance. While we’re still not in the luxury category (yet), you can pick up a decent daily driver at a very reasonable price point.
For a more substantial Tank-style option, Fossil’s Carraway might be the way to go. It comes in a few styles, including leather strap and steel bracelet options, but the squarer, tighter proportions are what make it a great choice for anyone looking for a wallet-friendly watch they can dress up.
The mixture of green and steel in this quartz-powered Casio strikes the right balance between being on-trend and with undeniable vintage appeal.
We’re going to start off strong with Vaer’s diminutive dive watch that hits that sub-$250 mark and measures in at 36mm. Larger sizes are available for this dive model, but the compact proportions somehow don’t feel crowded on the DS2 platform.
Breda’s made a name for itself over the years for creating design-forward, accessibly-priced watches. The Virgil is no different. This is a budget-friendly tank option for anyone who wants a bit of Dickie Greenleaf’s la dolce vita style without breaking the bank.
The Best Small Watches Under $500
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. At around $500 and below, the options open up to a few new brands, as well as upgraded materials and movement types where the default isn’t always quartz.
With its silver dial, stylized Arabic numerals, and printed leather strap, the Timex Marlin 1965 puts you smack-dab back into the era of Mad Men. The Marlin is powered by a hand-wound movement, giving an added level of old-school charm to this timepiece.
Incredibly stylish and well-proportioned, Seiko’s Essentials is more in the squared-off style of Tank models, compared to its rectangular brethren. In doing so, it modernizes and masculinizes the design slightly, making it a great option for all-day wear, or for dressing up and tucked under a sportcoat.
The microbrand Brew Watch Co. is well known among watch aficionados, but the brand’s playful proportions and color palette give it broader appeal. The 1970s case, integrated bracelet, and colorful accents all point to a brand that has matured beyond its initial coffee-themed watches.
The original PRX from 1978 was a 35mm, so this version of the model feels like a homecoming. With its clean lines, it’s easy to see how the smaller size complements the clean, sporty lines of this platform.
The Best Small Watches Under $1,000
If you have a few Benjamins burning a hole in your pocket, it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier to find a sub-36mm watch that flirts at the $1,000-mark and suits your personal style.
Baltic’s Mr. Classic shows that good design really happens in the details. From the Breguet numerals to the guillloche finish to the ultra-slim case (thanks to the automatic micro-rotor), each component works in harmony for this classic – but not stuffy – timepiece.
The Nivada Grenchen Antarctic brings together two distinct references: the ruggedness of an explorer watch and the sharper detailing of Art Deco design. In a compact 35mm case, those elements become greater than the sum of their parts, giving the watch a handsome mid-century feel with a sportier edge.
Inspired by British field watches, the OLD SMITH by KUOE Kyoto draws from that classic military design, but updated with smaller proportions and the Japanese microbrand’s clean, detail-focused approach.
Shinola may have shrunk down its flagship model to 36mm here, but it didn’t sacrifice on style. With large numerals, a big ol’ pumpkin crown, and mid-century design language, all the beauty of the original Runwell is alive and well in this smaller platform.
The Best Small Watches With No Price Limit
If you’re anything like me and constantly filling out those class-action lawsuit links in the hopes of hitting it big one day, make sure to bookmark a few of these watches for the day you cash that check from your insurance company, and any car manufacturer that sold you a lemon from 2011-2024 in the greater tri-state area. If you would also like to simply peruse and free yourself from the shackles of a budget then look no further.
Sure, you can fork out a few thou’ for the Cartier Tank, but the Santos has a little more oomph on the wrist and hasn’t been as easily replicated in the marketplace. With its rounded edges, screw-covered case and bracelet, and iconic dial (and we don’t use that term lightly), it’s a watch that’s been around since 1904 with no plans to go out of style anytime soon.
Not all luxury watches have to be dress watches and the Hermès Cut Automatic is a prime example of this. While at first glance the Cut seems fairly straightforward, stare a little longer and you’ll see the interplay of proportions, geometry, and material that only Hermès can pull off.
If Rolex has gotten too mainstream, maybe it’s time to look to its sister brand, Tudor. And more specifically, the Black Bay One 36. Like any siblings, the two brands share much of the same DNA, but what makes the Black Bay One a top contender on the no-budget wishlist is that all of the beauty of the Oyster Perpetual is there, but without giving into the hype of buying into a luxury brand for its name alone.
With Bauhaus elements, a minimalist dial, and delicate hands, no element is out of place with the Nomos Orion, which has boiled watchmaking down to the essentials for the biggest impact on the wrist.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
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.
Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there's bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ's testing process here.)
