Watches
Digital
It’s literally Casio/G-Shock or nothing, or an Apple Watch. There is nothing else worth it. You risk looking like a cop wearing a G-Shock or a hipster wearing an F91. But they are great watches.
Casio G-Shock GA2100 - $90-100
Analog
Dive/ Dive-Style
Dive watches have a dive bezel, which you can turn and use to time things like how much time you have in your oxygen tank or how much time your pizza has left in the oven.
People go crazy for the Casio Duro, there are communities dedicated to them because they are cheap and pretty good. It’s a dive watch and it’s quartz, so you don’t have to wind it or anything. It has no function beyond telling time and a dive bezel which you can use like a timer, but it’s not super useful for precise timing. The downside with this one is it’s BIG. It’s 44mm.
Seiko 5 Diver - ~$250 (you can find good deals on these, usually)
There are lots of different color options for this.
De-facto “first automatic watch.” Automatic means you have to wind it to start it, but if you wear it, it will wind itself as you wear it. If you stop wearing it, it will die and next time you wear it you will have to wind it. This sounds like a downside, but the most expensive watches in the world are mechanical. This is a cheaper mechanical watch, so your watch can lose or gain about 10 to 15 seconds a day. After a week or so, your watch will be about a minute or more slow/fast. If that bothers you, you have to set it again.
Citizen Promaster Dive - ~$250
Citizen’s version of the above. I prefer Citizen. This one has better water resistance and a better mechanical movement. It’s bigger though at 41mm, but that’s a wearable size.
Chronographs
You can’t buy a decent automatic or mechanical chronograph for less than a thousand bucks, so these will all be some variation of quartz.
A chronograph is a watch with a literal timer, you push a button and the watch seconds hand moves and counts like a timer.
https://www.sakurawatches.com/seiko-spirit-sbtr027
Extremely popular, good Seiko. Looks good and works well. You have to import them, though.
I don’t know what else to put here, probably it’s best to get a digital watch for a chronograph or an Apple Watch.
Dress / Field / Casual
Just get a Seiko 5 of any color if you want automatic, or any Citizen Eco-Drive if you want quartz.
