Digital watches , if nothing else, are designed to be fun, hassle-free additions to your daily life. You don't need hour, minute and second hands to be able to tell the time; quartz and mechanical watches are great but digital ones require less brainpower to read. Instead, invest in one our list of the best digital watches in 2023, from dirt cheap Casios to a £100K+ grail number.
Farr + Swit Mix Tape Vol.1 This crystal-clear blue Mix Tape is one sweet (not to mention) affordable ticket to Nostalgiaville, based on the world’s most popular digital watch, the Casio F-91W. Never made a mix tape before? Go ahead and give it a go; you won't regret it.
For the rest of us, savour this watch for what it is – nice and legible with a colourful vibe that takes us back. $34.99.
At farrandswit.com Timex T80 If you need a watch for some sort of stealth nocturnal mission, how's about this 34mm bad boy? Boasting the visceral glow of Timex Indiglo lighting and a blacked-out stainless steel bracelet, the noir version of the T80 is giving off not dissimilar vibes to the late Virgil Abloh's blacked out Nautilus . Its basic charm hides function-packed electronics that’ll serve up all your calendar, stopwatch, and alarm need refreshingly free of connectivity.
£65. At timex.co.
uk Tissot PRX Digital You are forgiven for ignoring other Tissot models in the face of the svelte, integrated-bracelet power of the PRX catalogue – just don't forget there's a digital version. This delightful circle-squared babe simply mustn't slip under your radar. Strap it on with the same feeling of '70s glam as the analogue version.
£415. At goldsmiths.co.
uk Breitling Aerospace B70 Orbiter This is digital done seriously – like NASA flight kinda serious. Breitling CEO Georges Kern has endowed the B70 with a new orange dial and a soft rubber strap wraps it round your wrist. The 25 th Anniversary Aerospace has the trademark Breitling massive numerals and two wide-screen readouts while the caseback reveals a segment of the record-breaking balloon from the 1999 non stop world circumnavigation.
And did we mention it is COSC chronometer-certified mission ready? £3,800. At goldsmiths.co.
uk G-Shock DW-5900EP-2ER Baffling nomenclature aside, this is a fun and easy win for Casio just in time for the tail-end of summer. An OG G-Shock square resplendent in a fresh new jacket of lucid turquoise, no further explanation required. For the price any square G is pretty unbeatable given how remarkably light it is with a 200m depth rating.
£99.90. At G-Shock.
co.uk Casio F-91W £19,90 is not a typo. When it comes to having a watch on your wrist, this is hands down the best bang for your buck dollar, Euro or Yen in the world.
The evergreen Casio F-91W sits on the wrist of school kids and construction workers just as well as it does under a suit jacket for someone working in corporate finance. For under £20, you're getting a crystal clear display, light and alarm – not to mention all the street-cred attached to rocking one. Its featherweight fit and ironic popularity among anti-watch peeps make it a talking point around anyone.
£19.90. At jurawatches.
co.uk Casio A100WEG-9EF If you want some vintage gold to go with your Stranger Things party swag this is it. An ingot of gold-coloured resin with a metal strap, it has the same charm as that which persuaded Barca star striker Robert Lewandowski to wear a Casio with his tux, and then some.
The haptic charm of colour-coded function buttons come for free. £69. At jurawatches.
co.uk Timex T80 x Peanuts 34mm of summer cool with a massive hit of summer charm that belies its reserved size. A greenish tinge brings a touch of 1984 to the multifunction screen while Snoopy gazes up at the summer sky on a rainbow.
Embrace the rainbow-colour-washed display – it's not quite to the level of other rainbow watches – as part of your new mantra to not take yourself too seriously. £85 . At timex.
co.uk Casio G-Shock DW-6940RX-7 Nothing says digi-lit like a G-Shock . As part of its “Clear Remix” series, this is a jelly fresh take on the classic big bruiser DW-6900 series.
Big, legible, and tough, it’s crystal-clear case is like an ice cube on a hot day. With a softer strap than the normal G-Shock resin, it has winning for the summer hols written all over it. £159 .
At g-shock.co.uk Swatch Touch Dating back to the ‘80s, Swatch can – and must – be credited for reviving the entire Swiss watch industry with its cheeky twists on everyday fun wristwear.
Forty years later, we bring you the only Swatch with no hands, the Touch in its organic glory. The huge numbers on the screen might seem a bit too big, but it’s what differentiates this khaki sweetheart as smooth alternative to go-to Japanese digis. Quite chunky at 39mm, the smooth charm of the Swatch Touch is £91.
At swatch.com/en-gb Hamilton American Classic PSR You might be more au fait with digital wristwear from the usual Japanese suspects, but the first taste of glowing sci-fi numerals came from the US of A with the fabled Hamilton PSR. Once powered by the glow of energy-zapping LEDs, today this Swiss chunk of steel will make you (it won't) an extra in The Mandalorian alongside Pedro Pascal .
We’ll take the full Sith look of the PVD black version, a silent menace until you press the button to fire up the hybrid OLED display for your next mission. £980. At hamiltonwatch.
com Autodromo Group C For those who thought G-Shock had a monopoly on digital wrist-popping delights, think again – American microbrand Autodromo changes that assumption in a (yellow) flash. Inside a solid steel case with a lucid yellow colour, it brings to mind everything from the racing cars driving 350mph at Le Mans to Sony Walkmans from 1984. We’re all for it, primarily because of the sharp reverse-colour display, but also thanks to its 36mm size and a depth rating of 300m.
£445. At autodromo.com G-Shock CasiOak Full Metal Tiffany There are also digi-grails we didn’t know we needed, starting with this bad boy.
Scandinavian design is no longer all about arty minimalism, as this hand-painted art for the wrist proves in abundance with pops of Tiffany blue. G-Shock hit the spot when it finally released the all-steel Casioak, but IFL amps up the game with its limited editions of bullet-proof and unique wrist-art. £1,049.
At Iflwatches.com Girard-Perregaux Casquette Revived from its decades-long slumber, presumably aboard the Death Star, GP's Casquette offers a wrist presence like no other watch. The geek grail of the '70s hugs you like an alien armadillo with glowing eyes inside its shell-like head, and is sci-fi made real.
Swiss and hand-crafted with a vintage LED display it’s a digital, ceramic grail worth its £4,000. At girard-perregaux.com Chanel Monsieur Blue Edition We have taken the liberty to stretch the truth a touch, but this time with a scholarly purpose.
The first digital watches were jump-hour watches like this deeply desirable Chanel Monsieur. Just like this blue enigma, where a indigo disc with 12 hour numerals revolves within a framed window at 6 o’clock, proclaiming the hour. With the vertically balanced beauty of a prima ballerina, the Chanel Monsieur is a quietly spoken grail in white gold for £38,000.
At chanel.com Urwerk UR-120 Space Black £96K for this futurist knock out UR-120 from the secret Urwerk lab in Geneve, anyone? With its mind-boggling digital display of mechanical twisting, rotating satellites, it's perhaps a bit of a surprise just how legible this alien space craft for the wrist is. Count yourself lucky to grab a glimpse into the future of the high-tech dark mastery of micro-mechanics earlier than others.
£96,000. At urwerk.com.
