3 Affordable Japanese Vintage Watches

In the minds of many modern consumers around the world, "Made In Japan" means quality and often interesting design at affordable prices, and many a bargain can be had on awesome Japanese watches, including vintage ones While some extra-popular vintage models from Seiko in particular now have prices similar to their Swiss counterparts, there remain myriad watches from the major Japanese brands that are interesting and affordable Each of the mechanical watches below clocks in at under $500.

Full Auto Orient Swimmer It's got a great look, with an in-house automatic movement, and a digestible price at just $150 While it's named "Swimmer" and claims to be "Waterproof" on the case back, vintage watches like this are probably best enjoyed dry.

What We Like: This extremely classic, 36mm, European-looking vintage watch displays a side of Citizen's history that's now mostly overlooked While current mechanical Citizen watches do exist - and their Miyota movements are some of the most common found in affordable watches of all kinds - modern Citizen focuses primarily on their Eco-Drive quartz technology The chronograph layout with the single sub-dial at 6 o'clock makes it immediately identifiable, but not all watches to feature it have the distinctive and very era-specific case shape shown here - which some have named the "Vader Helmet" At 406mm wide, it wears boldly and offers a real piece of Seiko and watchmaking history. Source