Pricey Time

Have you seen the new line of Swiss-made watches from Fossil? They are very attractive, and Fossil manufactures watches under license for a number of fashion and luxury brands including Burberry, Michael Kors, Skagen, Michele, and others.

The problem is that these watches retail for $900, and that's for a quartz movement. (There is one automatic model at that price.) That's a lot of money for something that most people won't be able to distinguish from a $100 watch you can buy at Macy's. I'm not saying that a brand name is more important than quality, but if you are interested in quality, there are excellent watches that cost significantly less.

One of my favorite under-the-radar watch brands is Christopher Ward, which is based in London. They don't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, so that helps them offer their fine watches at lower prices. Here's just one example: automatic movement, display case back, and leather strap with deployment clasp for only $515. I don't own any of these watches, but I would certainly like to someday.