Watches 2015: the best watches you can buy between £250 and £500

When Ian Elliot and Alex Brown left surf brand Animal to establish Elliot Brown, they had a specific aim: to create honest, durable watches. This is a perfectly judged, great-value bit of kit, built with 316L marine-grade steel, no less.

£325; elliotbrownwatches.com

Best known for its Swiss Railways clock watch, Mondaine has now launched this clever tribute to another railway system, the New York Subway, which uses Helvetica in its signage. Stitching colour-coded to the subway’s lines.

£335; mondaine.com

Aluminium was definitely the metal of 2014/15 – as light as titanium but a fraction of the cost – with the bonus that you can oxidise its surface to create a porous layer that can be dyed to striking effect. The green here is more Hulk than Kermit...

£250; victorinox.com

We’ve all had fantasies of flying with the world’s most famous display team. At least you’ll look the part, and you’ll always be on time, as it radio-syncs every night with an atomic time signal.

£499; citizenwatch.com

Trust Tissot, that most venerable of watchmakers, to make a self-winding mechanical wristwatch that falls below the £500 plimsoll line. It’s a bona fide Swiss precision movement ticking inside too, which you can admire through the clear caseback.

£475; tissot.ch

Beloved of hip hop sorts and soldiers alike, both of whom like a bit of swagger combined with practicality, Casio’s latest features everything you can think of – stopwatch, worldtimer, compass, you name it – in a nuclear bunker of a resin case.

£250; g-shock.co.uk