Luxury Vs Fashion Watches: What Sets Them Apart?

In today’s article, we are going to explore some of the the key differences between luxury vs fashion watches. A lot of people mistake luxury watches for fashion watches and vice versa. So today we are going to clear up some common misconceptions about what constitutes a luxury watch, and what constitutes a fashion watch.

Now we have previously done articles that cover both luxury watches, and fashion watches in depth. However, for the sake of this article, we are going to briefly summarize each, and point out the factors that distinguish one from another.

To start out, I’ll give the most simplistic explanations of each.

What Is A Luxury Watch?

A luxury watch is a watch that is made with special care and attention, usually possessing high quality movements, and made from high grade materials.

So basically what this means, is that a luxury watch is going to be made to meticulous perfection in both form and function.

Some examples of luxury watches include brands like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philipe.

What Is a Fashion Watch?

A fashion watch is a watch that is focuses more on style rather than substance.

In the case of the fashion watch; thee watches are made to look stylish, but don’t focus as much on overall quality.

Some examples of fashion watches include brands such as Coach, Fossil, and Anne Klein.

So Now What?

Now we have the simple definitions of luxury vs fashion watches. In the next part, we will go in depth into explaining these differences. We are going to look at the differences in build quality, style, and pricing. Let’s start by looking at the differences in the builds.

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Luxury Vs Fashion Watches: Build Quality

When it comes to build quality there are some major differences in how these watches are constructed.

Luxury Watch Builds

Luxury watches are going to be made of higher grade materials. They may have cases made of stainless steel, however, it is not uncommon for this to be higher grade stainless steel, such as 316L stainless steel. Or, as in the case of Rolex watches, 9040L stainless steel.

Additionally, luxury watches may have watches made of titanium, gold, or gold plated watches, or platinum. They can also be adorned with precious jewels such as diamonds or rubies.

Next, the dial windows tend to be made of synthetic sapphire crystal. This type of dial window is much more scratch resistant than the standard mineral crystal dial windows used in most watches. And luxury watches a lot of times will have a greater degree of water resistance than the average watch, especially when it comes to divers.

Lastly, the movement that powers luxury watches is going to be more precise and fine tuned than your standard Japanese quartz movement. Luxury watches, especially Swiss, may have custom in house movements, or ETA movements. These days, however, the trend is more towards customized in house movements.

Among watch enthusiasts there is a preference for mechanical movements vs quartz in luxury watches. Mechanical movements are more revered for their craftsmanship vs quartz movements.

Fashion Watch Builds

Compared to luxury watches, fashion watches are not usually going to be made of high grade materials. They might have cases made of stainless steel, but could also have cases made of cheaper combinations of metal alloys.

The dial windows on fashion watches are usually mineral crystal, but could also be glass, or acrylic. Lastly, water resistance in fashion watches rarely exceeds 30 to 50 meters, so these types of watches are definitely not suitable for swimming, diving, or any types of aquatic activities.

As for movement, Japanese quartz movement will be the standard in fashion watches. This type of movement is cheap, and easy to produce.

So all in all, fashion watches will usually have average to mediocre builds. Next we are going to talk about the design and styling of these types of watches.

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Luxury Vs Fashion Watches: Design & Styling

Both of these watch types follow a different approach to design and style.

Luxury Watch Design & Style

Luxury watches usually take a more modest approach to their overall design and styles. Very rarely do they have over the top or experimental time pieces. It does happen, it’s just the exception rather than the norm.

There are standard styles you can expect in a luxury watch though. Luxury brands are almost always going to have chronographs, diving watches, and business casual styles. These are kind of the main default styles present in luxury watch brands.

Part of the reason for this is what luxury watches represent. They represent status and achievement. For that reason, luxury watch styles focus on having that high quality sophisticated look.

Fashion Watch Design & Style

Fashion watches, on the other hand, can have a huge range of styles that vary by culture. These types of watches are more focused on current trends, or what’s popular at the moment. They may either follow trends, or ins some cases, they create the trend themselves.

You will find that some fashion brands may have more flamboyant styles, as well as styles that can fit various types of clothing fashion combinations. Fashion watches may market more towards younger audiences as they are generally priced more affordably than luxury watches.

And on that note, pricing is the last topic we are going to cover in this comparison.

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Luxury Vs Fashion Watches: Pricing

Luxury Watch Pricing

Typically, luxury watches are going to be priced in the higher price ranges. Like we mentioned earlier, luxury watches tend to be made of premium materials. This is part of the reason why they are so expensive.

Brand name is also a factor that can significantly raise the price of a luxury watch. Big name brands with a history of fine craftsmanship and style, can command higher prices on merit alone.

Fashion Watch Pricing

Whereas luxury watches are priced based on their reputation for quality, fashion watches are priced based on reputation alone. Popular brand names can demand much higher prices, despite not necessarily being made of higher quality materials.

A loot of fashion watches are priced in the lower price ranges, but you may see some of the more popular ones hit the mid rice ranges.

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Final Thoughts

Hopefully this article has been helpful and given you a better understanding of luxury and fashion watches. Each type serves a different purpose, depending on what an individual happens to be looking for in a watch.

That’s it for this article, for more useful information about watches, feel free to check out some of our info articles here.