TGIF: Are George Watches Any Good?

I have lots of cheap watches. They are like potato chips. If you happen to be shopping at Walmart or another discount store, it's very easy to throw one into the cart. 

A George Watch from Walmart

If you happen to be shopping at Walmart, chances are good that you'll throw a George watch into your cart. Of course, before you do, you may want to ask yourself one question: 

Are George Watches Any Good?

As the owner of many George watches, I can definitely tell you that George watches are actually very good.  In fact, they are better than you would think a watch that costs less than $20 can possibly be. I like them.

Why Are George Watches Good?

There are many reasons that George watches are actually pretty good. Here are three of the top reasons that I like them:

1. Style. George watch designs are on-point. The features and looks of the most popular iconic watches are well known now. Lots of these features make their way into George watch designs. You can find decorative subdials, tachymeter markings, and diver-style markings on many George watches.

2. Build Quality. George watches are made by pretty solid suppliers like EGC (E. Gluck Corporation - the parent of Armitron) and FMD ( a division of Fossil). These companies make millions of watches at many price points. The Walmart buyers have also obviously insisted on some quality standards in order to minimize product returns. 

Now, you can see where George has cut corners in design and materials. For example, this retro watch with baton markers looks phenomenal, but the crystal is made of some kind of plastic and the bracelet is integrated so it might be hard to replace.

A George watch with integrated bracelet and plastic crystal

While you won't escape all the things I identify in my post on the drawbacks of cheap watches, the quality is much higher than you would expect for $12.

3. Price. George watches are quite inexpensive. Most of them cost about $12 and even the most sophisticated usually cost less than $20. This makes them fun indulgences to pick up while you are at Walmart. For bang around watches, they are great. You don't really have to worry about damaging them. However, you won't gain any personal prestige if you wear one to the office.

 

TGIF: More Sophisticated George Watches at Walmart

Something wild is happening in the watch department at Walmart! Walmart's George brand is bringing more polished and more sophisticated watch designs onto store shelves and raising prices for some watch to fit more solidly in the $15 to $25 range. One example is this George watch with a larger date track window, tiny gem diamond, and guilloché pattern on the dial.  Quite frankly, that's a lot of watch value for only $25.

A George watch with sophisticated features

While George watches don't bring much to the table in terms of prestige, at $10 to $25 per watch, they do allow everyone to enjoy collecting watches. Plus, whenever the brand adds something new to their inventory, they put pressure on brands like Armitron, Casio, and Timex to up their game and bring something new to their own lines of value-priced watches.

Watch Workshop: Fitting a George Watch with a brand new Strap

This is another neat looking cheap watch from Walmart. It's a George brand watch.  It has a black dial, black case, a black fluted bezel, a dark crystal, and red/orange hands and markers.  It does have sub-dials, but they are just for decoration.  The watch came with a black metal bracelet, but it didn't fit me well (too big) and it was a little too shiny for my taste.

A George Watch from Walmart

I opted for an inexpensive strap from a company called Niziruoup. They say it is a nylon elastic parachute-style watch band that is French paratrooper style. That's a lot to put on a $9.99 watch strap.  But, you can see it here on Amazon. I opted for the 22mm width and it fit this inexpensive watch perfectly.  The watch was about $12 or $13 at Walmart so the combo was less than $25.

A George Watch from Walmart at a Niziruoup Nylon Elastic Paratrooper Style Strap

Since the strap has elastic, it's a bit more flexible than the typical ballistic nylon straps I usually use.  It was comfortable for all day wear.

Watch Wearing Wednesday: George Watch with Black Bezel

Merry Christmas from thewatchdude.com.  I hope that you and yours have the greatest of holidays and the best New Year.  I really appreciate the time you've spent with me visiting this blog. I hope that you have the time to enjoy with your family and friends and watches to wear to the most festive of occasions.

A George watch from Walmart with a cool bezel

For the watch wearing Wednesday portion of this post, I like to share a humble watch that I call my George Blanc Pain.  It's not really a Blanc Pain, but the sleek and smooth bezel on this Walmart George-brand watch reminds me of one. It's just a watch that costs less than $15.  But, it looks nice and tells the time quite well.  A watch like this is a reminder that the important thing is to know what time it is, value the time, and spend it well.

A George watch

Watch Wearing Wednesday: George Watch with Tachymeter Markings

Today, I'm wearing a George Watch with Tachymeter markings and a vegan leather strap.  I sure am  sorry about all the vegans, but they do make for a nice, comfortable, watch band.  All jokes aside, it's was an outstanding good value for only $10.98.

George Watch from Walmart with Tachymeter Markings.

This watch was supplied by the E. Gluck Corporation - one of the largest private label quartz watch manufacturers in the world.  They also own the Armitron and Torgoen watch brands.  It's a great bang around watch for everyday wear.

Watch Sighting: Viewpoint Watch at Walmart

There is a new watch brand at Walmart.  It's called Viewpoint or V|P for short.  It's a Timex brand and it appears to be aimed at bringing interesting low-cost watches to the Walmart jewelry section.  The watch example that I've seen for the last few months has featured a dial with painted on and relief features that evoke the gearing of a mechanical or automatic watch.  However, as the low price watch $29.92, this is definitely a quartz watch.

I'm not a big fan of watches that don't put function first. When subdials don't work, I get a bit frustrated. Initially, I felt the same way about the Viewpoint watch. If it's not a mechanical watch, why paint gears on the dial? However, over the past few months, I've come to view the dial as a merely a design feature. It's just art--a painting of gears.

The thought that the gears are merely graphic design element has made me a bit more accepting of this watch. Someone who purchases this watch might at least remember and reflect that all watches were once mechanical marvels.

At less than $30, this watch does offer 30-meters of water resistance, a mineral glass crystal, and a metal bracelet.  That's not a bad value for a Timex product.  If you are wandering about in a Walmart and you like the look, check out the Viewpoint watch!

[Amazon offers Viewpoint watches for women.]

Watch Review: Men's Eclipse Dress Watch from Walmart

I recently had a chance to closely examine a men's Eclipse dress watch at Walmart.  Made by Armitron, the Eclipse brand competes with Timex, Carriage, Casio, and a variety of non-branded quartz watches.  The aggressive price tag of only $22.87 allows this watch to significantly undercut competing Timex and Casio models.

Eclipse Watch Style.  This Eclipse by Armitron watch appears to be inspired by vintage watches from companies like Citizen.  The double baton at 12 o'clock evokes that look.  With a brown leather strap and a faint gold tone to the case, the watch has the perfect colors to match khakis in a business casual environment.  It would also go well with a brown tweed sport coat for the professorial set.

Eclipse Watch Features.  Even though this Eclipse is a rather generic quartz timepiece, it still has some very nice features like 165-feet of water resistance.  That's enough to handle most splashes and swimming that happen in daily life.

Eclipse Watch Construction.  As an Armitron product, the Eclipse line of watches is constructed to a fairly high standard.  This dress watch has a stainless steel caseback, a base metal case, and a genuine leather strap.  The solid construction yields a surprising 165 feet of water resistance.  That's great for such an inexpensive watch.

Wearability.  This watch fits my fairly large wrists with a little room to spare on the strap.  It was a very comfortable fit--not too tight--and not prone to rotating around on my wrist.  The leather strap was a little stiff.  But, it wasn't like cardboard.  I liked the feel of this Eclipse model on my wrist.

Eclipse Watch Size.  I didn't have a chance to measure the diameter of this watch case.  However, you can see that it is similar in size to my Pulsar dive style watch.  That puts the dial in a nice contemporary size range without being overly huge. 

This watch is also not too thick. I'd estimate the case to be around 10 millimeters thick.  That's a nice proportion for a dress watch as it will allow the watch to slide effortlessly under the cuffs of a shirt.  This Eclipse is perfectly proportioned for a dress watch.

Overall, if you are on a budget and need a dress watch, this Eclipse by Armitron watch should fit the bill.  It is simple, straight forward, and perfect for the business casual office.  It's also a great Walmart watch.  For less than $25, this watch is a steal!
I really think the dress watch I found at Walmart is the best of the Eclipse models, but if you'd like to see some of the other watches in the Eclipse line,  check out my first look article to see other models at Eclipse by Armitron.

Exclusive Glimpse at Eclipse Brand Watches

Some watch bloggers and journalists spend all their time in Geneva, Switzerland, looking for exclusives and scoops.  They go on press junkets to the annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) watch show.  Only this blogger is willing to make the sacrifices needed to find a completely new brand that will sell thousands of watches over the next few years.  While this new brand may never appear in The Robb Report or WatchTimes, according to The Millionaire Next Door, this is precisely the kind of watch that real millionaires wear.  To find it, I had to go where other horology bloggers fear to tread.  I had to get the exclusive spy pictures that no one else has.  I had to go to Walmart.

I slipped into the big box retailer under the guise of picking up a loaf of bread and some dog biscuits.  Since these items were sold on completely opposite ends of the store, I was easily able to detour through the watch section.  When I did so, I quickly discovered a watch brand that I had never heard of before.  It was hidden in plain sight.  It's a brand called Eclipse and it was created by the watch experts at Armitron.  While I had to hustle home for a hungry hound, I did get a chance to take a quick look at these watches and bring you these world exclusive spy photos of Eclipse watches.

The five watches I saw were men's quartz watches that would be suitable for the office, church, and business casual work environments.  The designers of these watches couldn't fall back on hundreds of years of horological history, call whole summers a holiday, and demand big bucks.  Instead, they were likely challenged by the quality benchmarks and low price points demanded by the notoriously tough fashion buyers at the world's most famous big box store.

The resulting watches look nice, are most likely quite reliable, and were priced to move at only $22.84.  The first of these watches mixed silver tones and gold tones quite effectively in a water resistant, quartz-movement, package.  

An Eclipse Watch at Walmart

The second watch was the Eclipse take on the basic field watch with a genuine leather band.  It was quite readable, offered 165 feet of water resistance, and even had a date window.

An Eclipse Watch at Walmart

I love silver on silver watches and the Eclipse by Armitron brand obliged with this basic beauty.  I really do like basic watches of this style and I think this one has a very nice design.

An Eclipse Watch at Walmart

Of course, intelligent discourse and society sophisticates insist that every man have at least one watch with Roman numerals on the dial.  This Eclipse obliges and has a bit of a sunburst on the dial.

An Eclipse Watch at Walmart

This final Eclipse watch had a dark dial, a sunburst, a date, and clear, readable numbers.  To me, it's not the brand's strongest effort because it has too many disparate style elements that detract from the unity of the design.

An Eclipse Watch at Walmart

When I searched for the brand using the google shopping search, I saw that they had plenty of models to choose from at Walmart.  At this price point, you get a decent working watch backed by the recognizable Armitron brand.  They also seem well differentiated from the $10 to $15 watches available on nearby shelves.  While they might not be shown or even worn in Geneva, these timepieces have their niche and fill it well.

Clearance Casio Solar Watch

I saw an interesting Casio at my local Walmart last week.  It was solar-powered with a canvas strap and it had a macho, military, look.  It also offered 100 meter water resistance.  Best of all, it was clearance priced for $30. Interesting that the Casio at Walmart is upside down on a Timex display tray.  Perhaps, it was sending out a distress signal?

Casio Solar Watch

Usually, clearance prices mean you'll have to change the battery sooner.  But, with a totally analog solar powered watch, that  shouldn't be a problem.  With my watch box full and my wallet empty, I left this watch for someone else to enjoy.  I can always get a Casio Tough Solar watch on Amazon for a good price!

New Watch Brand at Walmart: Marathon by Timex

I noticed another new watch brand at Walmart:  Marathon by Timex.  If you are a fan of digital watches, you'll find that this new brand offers traditional Timex digital features like a stopwatch, alarm, and indiglo lighting at a much lower price point:  $15.88

 It looks like a pretty tough bang around watch and a great watch for kids and adults who like to play outside.   For less than $16, the watch makes a great stocking stuffer this Christmas.

Courtside with my Walmart Watch

You know you are a watch nerd when you think the tennis court is a great place to shoot some watch pictures. 

This basic black Walmart watch doesn't get enough respect.  But, sometimes it's nice to go to the back of the watch box and pull something out that is just a little different.  This watch is all business in basic black.  But, there is nothing wrong with a basic watch with a readable dial.  It has a shiny polished (enamel?) black band and case.  It cost less than $15. 

If you'd like to learn more about how to find a great watch like this at Walmart, read my article:

How to Find Great Watches at Walmart

 

Of course, if you play tennis on a more high falutin' court, you may want to get your basic black wristwatch from Gucci!

Walmart: The Power of a Simple Watch

Sometimes the no-name Walmart watches are best when they are simple.  It's hard to beat a simple quartz watch with a Japanese movement with an understated case and legible numbers.

For example, this Walmart watch has all the trappings of a basic military-style watches at a fraction of the price.  The only thing you don't get with a watch like this is luminous hands and a backlighting system.  But, for everyday wear, a wristwatch like this looks great.

An Attractive Armitron at Walmart

I noticed a cool looking Armitron watch in the case at Walmart.  It appears to have a very sophisticated looking rendition of the classic black canvas or nylon strap.  Of course, the strap is in "tactical black" the official color of manly men everywhere.  The label says it is made of steel, that it's ionic plated, and that it's water resistant to 165 feet.  It's a cool looking watch and a good deal at $45, but there's no counter help at Walmart in the wee hours of the morning.

Here's another amazing looking silver-tone Armitron that I found at an affordable price.  [This one ended up joining my collection and as of 2024 remains a favorite watch.]

Armitron Silver-Tone Stainless Steel Quartz Watch

A Simple Black Watch from Walmart

Sometimes the inexpensive quartz watches at Walmart have a simple, basic, classic style that just works. There isn't much you can say about today's watch. It has a Japanese quartz movement, a date display, a stainless steel back, and a band and case with some sort of enamel (?) coating that gives the watch a very smooth feel and shiny finish. Not a bad value for less than $15.

Waiting for a train? Try a pocket watch!

If you find yourself waiting for a train, a gun fight at high noon, or a hypnosis patient, you might want to try a pocket watch.  I got this one from Walmart for $12.88 each.

A Walmart Pocket Watch

[Over the years, I have often seen very inexpensive pocket watches with various themes: Star Wars, Railroads, etc. But, sometimes on Amazon, you do stumble upon a pocket watch that reminds you of finer things and times gone by.  For example, in 2024, I saw this Bulova Ashton Pocket Watch on Amazon and it comes with a very nice wooden display case.  It's definitely a timepiece to be proud of.]

A Fine Bulova Ashton Pocket Watch

Calling all Mall Ninjas!

You know you like the manly, man, style of tactical gear.  But, since you aren't actually on a SWAT team, you can save a lot of money by paying the practical price instead of the tactical price.  I got this tactical style watch from Walmart for only $10!  It's an awesome bargain and a great watch to boot!

A Big Watch from MZ Berger and Walmart

A Walmart Watch with a Bund Strap

I like big watches and I cannot lie! Big watch faces are in!  Big watches grab your attention and hold it.  They are also easy to read and visible from afar.  They aren't right for everyone.  However, I'm a big guy and they look perfectly scaled to my wrists.  This big ana-digital watch was made by MZ Berger for Walmart and it looks great.  Since it was only $12, it definitely fit my budget!  It was meant to be!

An MZ Berger Watch made for Walmart

If you have metal allergies, you might note that the wristband for this watch fits completely between the watch and your wrist! 

[As I revise this post in 2025, I should note that this kind of watch strap is called a Bund Strap and the design originated in World War 2 Germany. It protected pilots from a watch that got too cold or hot at high altitudes. It also protected the watch from the wearer's sweat.]

A Retro Masterpiece Watch from Walmart

My Almost Steampunk Watch

Here's another watch that I love from Walmart.  It's so retro that it's almost steampunk and yet it blends old world style and digital technology.

A Walmart "steampunk" Watch

If I could only stop it from beeping on the hour!

ThinkGeek Steampunk-styled Tesla Watch

[Update 2024:  I wonder if I still have this watch.  The leather strap for it is outstanding and would look good on many other watches.  Also, I can't believe I thought this Walmart watch was a steam punk watch.  A simple search on Amazon will reveal some steam punk watches.]

A Vigoroso Steampunk Pocket Watch (Amazon Photo)

[As I updated links in 2025, I found this interesting skeleton "Steampunk" watch (above) from Vigoroso. Check out the Vigoroso Skeleton here on Amazon. One thing I've learned over my years collecting watches: mechanical watches don't have to come from Switzerland.]