What a watch's price actually buys

Sapphire is a wall, not a slope

It is tempting to assume that quality rises steadily with price. The data tells another story: some specifications appear all at once, at a precise threshold, while others climb gradually.

The sapphire crystal is the clearest case. It is absent below 150 euros, all but unobtainable between 150 and 299 euros (0.4%), then present on 13.4% of watches between 300 and 599 euros and on 79.7% above 600 euros. The automatic movement follows the same threshold logic.

Water resistance behaves differently: it rises continuously, from 5.8% to 43.7% of watches rated 10 ATM and above. As for the steel bracelet, it plateaus around 69% then falls back to 58.8% above 600 euros: the upper end happily returns to leather, which is not a sign of cost-cutting but a style choice.

The 150-299 euro band, where price stops telling you much

This is the most useful finding for a buyer. The band holds 2,754 watches, close to half our survey. Yet inside it the specification sheet barely moves: 98% quartz, 99% mineral crystal.

In other words, between a 160 euro watch and a 280 euro watch, the difference is paid in brand, in design and in strap quality, not in components. This is neither a scandal nor a deception: it is simply a piece of information that marketing language never gives you.

What sapphire really costs

Comparing median prices by crystal type puts a precise figure on the gap.

A watch with a sapphire crystal sits at a median of 495 euros against 239 euros for a mineral crystal, a little more than double. Note that sapphire resists scratches but breaks more easily under a sharp impact: it is not a crystal that is better at everything, it is a different trade-off.

One finding with nothing technical about it: colour

Price does not explain everything. Cross-referencing dial colour with gender produces the most polarised map in our catalogue.

Mother-of-pearl is exclusively a women's dial in our survey; pink and rose gold are more than 95% so. Conversely, blue and black are overwhelmingly men's. White and silver lean clearly towards women, while green is the only genuinely shared colour. This split has no technical justification: it reflects aesthetic conventions that the market renews year after year.

Methodology

Scope: 5,776 watches active and physically in stock on 5 August 2026. Each rate is calculated on the watches for which the specification concerned is recorded, and not on the total count of the band, so as never to confuse missing data with an absent feature.

Prices are quoted including VAT. They are observed outlet prices, structurally below recommended retail prices: the thresholds identified would therefore shift upwards in a market at full retail price.

This survey describes the accessible market, that of fashion watches and the entry to mid range. It says nothing about high horology, where the relationship between price and components follows other rules. The specifications are those declared by the brands, with no workshop verification on our part.

Datasets

Published under Licence Ouverte 2.0 (Etalab), compatible with CC BY 4.0. Free to reuse, including commercially, provided you cite the source and give a link to this page.

The previous edition covers the water resistance gap between women's and men's watches. For a bespoke extract or a question of method, see editorial partnerships.