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| Joined: | Mon May 12th, 2008 |
| Location: | Bay Area, California USA |
| Posts: | 426 |
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Well, since I have some affiliation with Debaufre I will try not to be too biased ;)
You have certainly hit on some great brands and styles - As I mentioned above, I am, of course, going to heartily recommend the Debaufres you mentioned! But to be fair, given the roster you listed, you can't really go wrong with any of them. While $500 is certainly a fair budget for an excellent watch, some of the brands you mentioned are outside of that range... The Accutron diver and chrono, while I have not owned either, certainly look great and come well recommended from a number of WIS I know; they seem to be available at good prices recently too!
I would add Hamilton and Zodiac as two brands that come to mind that offer a variety of good quality styles in a range of prices, paritcularly if you are willing to go used or grey market.
I know you mentioned German and Swiss specifically, but if you are open to Japanese as well, I would not overlook both Seiko and Citizen..common brands without the panache of some of the other lesser known ones, but they are hard to beat for quality and value, particularly in the $200-$300, IMO (I am talking street prices, not retail tag prices!)
And as far as a beater goes for your diving, etc I would agree 100% on the Gshock as the best value in something indestructable...
I know others will have more and better thoughts - so keep em coming! Either way, have fun, the hunt is sometimes the best part!