Watch Wearing Wednesday: Brigada Minimalist Watch for Men

Here's an interesting watch!  The Amazon listing for it is quite a mouthful.  Here goes!  It's the  BRIGADA Men's Watches Cool Black Blue Business Casual Waterproof Quartz Analog Wrist Watch for Men.  I just like to call it the Brigada Minimalist Watch for Men.

The Brigada Minimalist Watch has a thin case.

In these evening shots, you can see that the watch has a generously-sized dial with roman numerals in a gold-tone that is perfect for catching the last rays of a slowly setting summer sun.  The strap is of synthetic leather that looks good and gets the job done.  In looks, this quartz watch compares favorably to other minimalist watches from bands like MVMT.

The dial of this BRIGADA is simple and delivers the time.

Sometimes, I find it difficult to justify minimalist designs that cost a lot of money.  This BRIGADA is cheap. I think it compares favorably to watches that cost between $50 and $125.  But, this watch actually costs much, much, less.  Incredibly, as of 2024, this watch was less than $20.  It is much, much, better than the $5 Youyoupifa watch I ordered from China many years ago.

Brigada Men's Quartz Watch

I've posted about the Brigada brand before and recently reviewed one of their watches.  I think this watch fully delivers on the promise of low cost watches.

The $100 Watch Collection: 5 Watches for a Total of $100

Watch collecting doesn't have to be cost prohibitive.  You can easily build a starter watch collection of several watches for less than $100.  With a little smart shopping online, you can easily find great watches for under $25 apiece.  For this post, I put together a five watch collection for $100 on Amazon.  It includes a dive watch, a minimalist business casual watch, an outdoorsman's watch, a tanker-style dress watch, and a traditional dress watch.

The great thing about this collection is that I actually own all of these watches and I can attest to them all actually being pretty decent watches.  While prices do fluctuate, you should be able to build this collection for approximately $100 total as of June 2024.

1. Casio Black Resin Dive Watch (MRW-200H-1BV) - At approximately $22 on Amazon or at your local Walmart, Casio MRW-200H offers a uni-directional rotating bezel, 100-meters of water resistance, and classic dive watch markings.  It's a legible, readable, watch that makes a great daily wear beater.  You can find a variety of number and bezel marking colors on these watches. 

Casio Black Resin Dive Watch

2. Brigada Men's Watches Cool Black Blue Business Casual (Brigada Minimalist) - For about $17, Brigada brings a great minimalist watch to the market place. It looks great on the wrist and feels very comfortable.  The company offers several varieties that give you some options about whether you want numerals or just markers for the hours.

Brigada Minimalist Watch

3. Casio Forester (FT-500WC-5BVCF) - This is a small watch that's built for the hiker.  For about $22, the Forester gives you a tough lightweight watch with a cloth strap that's perfect for hot summer days.  It's another beater watch that can take abuse. I love the sense of adventure that comes with the Forester name and it brings back many memories of late night dog walking in Florida and all the nocturnal creatures I used to encounter with one of the best dogs we ever had.  I think this one is the ultimate beater watch.

Casio Forester

4. Armitron Men's Genuine Crystal Accented Leather Strap Watch (Armitron Tank) - The rectangular shape of a tanker-style dress watch is an unusual sight these days.  I found one on special for only $20 on Amazon.

Armitron Tank Watch

5. MASTOP Men's Analog Quartz Roman Numeral Watch (SKMEI Dress) - Finally, this classic dress watch has the SKMEI label on the dial.  For only $17, this watch looks great and is a comfortable dress watch for daily wear.  I've had a similar dress watch from SKMEI and have reviewed it here.  You can find different dial colors.  But, the watch is attractive and functional.  Here is my review of a review of a similar SKMEI watch.

SKMEI Dress Watch

This small investment in five wristwatches is just a starting point.  They also serve as a baseline for watch purchases in your future.  These low cost watches are a challenge to the more prestigious brands to bring something demonstrably better to the market.

Wristwatch Review: Brigada Men's Business Casual Quartz Wrist Watch

This review is for a Brigada Business Casual Quartz Wrist Watch.  It's a very inexpensive watch that offered some interesting looking features. With a bronze case, a leather band, and a dial that looked like a camouflage pattern, I thought it would be an interesting watch to check out.  I've been watching the Brigada Brand for awhile and they are definitely an up and coming source of inexpensive watches.

The Dial of my Brigada watch.

Brigada Watch Prices

I now own two Brigada brand watches. The first watch was a conventional dress watch that was a very good value for about $30 in 2023 and this second Brigada watch is a more casual watch that I purchased for roughly $16 in 2024.  Both watches have to be viewed as very inexpensive watches that are really competing with no-name quartz watches on the shelves of stores like Walmart.  This watch arrived in a bundle of bubble wrap instead of a traditional box and I found that a little off-putting.

Brigada Watch Dimensions

This watch was a little lighter and thinner than I had expected. The case was 40 mm in diameter and just 7mm thick.  The band was 20mm wide at the lugs.  Unfortunately, the small size rendered watch features that I thought would be manly and rugged as just a bit dainty.

Brigada Watch Features

The watch has individually placed hour markers and batons.  The bezel is non-rotating.  The crown has a Brigada logo and the caseback is quite attractively etched.  The watch has a Japanese quartz movement and 100-feet of water resistance.

The Brigada Caseback Design

The watch has a brushed aged bronze look that looks a little cheap.  (It's a $16 watch.)  The strap is made of comfortable leather and has a generous length and width.

Detail on the Crown of a Brigada Men's Business Casual Watch

From this perspective (below), you can see how thin and light this watch is.  In a dress watch, the thin nature of this watch would be an asset. However, in a watch with a diver-style bezel, it seems too thin to be credible as a man's watch.

The thin 7mm case of this Brigada Watch

Finally, the strap is off a nice width and comfort level, but for me the buckle design is strange and would just look more at home on a woman's watch.

The wide buckle design on the strap of the Brigada watch

OVERALL WATCH REVIEW

This Brigada watch brings together many desirable features at a very low price point. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work for my personal style and old school sensibilities about traditional masculinity.  I need to dig out my Brigada dress watch and give that a review.  It brings everything you need for a dress watch together very nicely. It may not have worked for me, but it does demonstrate the many features that can be brought together on a low cost watch.  If it fits your sense of style, go for it.

[Unfortunately as of 2025, this brand seems to have disappeared from Amazon.]

New Watch Brands: Brigada Watches

I recently ran across another interesting watch brand on Amazon.  It's a Chinese brand called Brigada.  While some of the Amazon ad text says Brigada Swiss Brand, my research shows that they come from Shenzen, China.

East Gate in Shenzen, China.

Nevertheless, Brigada watches seem to be solid, no nonsense, minimalist watches with reliable Japanese movements.  The watch brand earns consistent 4 1/2 star reviews on Amazon.  Most importantly they simply look good and they sell for reasonable prices.  This Brigada Men's Quartz Dress watch on Amazon is a real winner for the price.

Brigada Men's Classic Quartz Dress Watch

Another winner from Brigada is what I call my Brigada Minimalist Watch.  It's a simple design with roman numerals and a large watch face.  It's a well-executed, inexpensive, watch that is just perfect for business casual wear.  You can learn more about it in this Watch Wearing Wednesday post.  

A minimalist watch from Brigada

There are some pros and cons with Brigada watches.  I also recently bought the Brigada business casual watch (shown below) and you can read my review here.  There were some nice features and a few that didn't quite fit my sense of style.  

Brigada Men's Business Casual Quartz Wrist Watch

These kinds of commodity quartz watches give the basic models from companies like Timex and Casio a run for the money.  Plus, with an exotic name like Brigada, people will wonder if you are wearing an exotic foreign brand.  In truth you are, but this exotic brand isn't coming from Europe.

[As of 2025, it looks like Brigada may be gone from Amazon. But, the watches may pop up on other sites.]

Back of the Drawer Time!

Lost, Misplaced, and Seldom Worn Watches

Have you pulled out all your watches lately?  Have you found a few that you haven't worn in a while?  Why aren't you wearing them?  Go get that battery.  Go get that new band.  Try 'em on and wear 'em!  They've been waiting for you!  

Vostok Amphibia Strap Replacement

I really messed up the metal bracelet on my Vostok Amphibia.  I just put this old Soviet Submariners watch on a velcro band and made it wearable again.

Vostok Amphibia Watch

My Lost Brigada Watch

As of June 2024, I just found a really cool dress watch that stuffed in a storage bin and couldn't find for about 6 months.  I looked and looked and looked. They package it in a small, long, box about the size of a pen case.  Once it's tucked away, it definitely stays tucked away.  This watch is the Brigada "Swiss Brand Classic Gold" Dress Watch and you can find the white dial version of it on Amazon. It's one of the least expensive dress watches in my collection and it's one of the sharpest looking designs.

Brigada "Swiss Brand Classic Gold" Dress Watch