Watches A to Z: Torgoen

If you are a watch enthusiast interested in affordable watches. One brand may deserve a second look: Torgoen. The Torgoen watch brand was founded in 2009 by watchmakers and aviation enthusiasts who were inspired by aircraft instrument panels. Led by Israeli-born pilot and entrepreneur, Benzi Rozenski, the brand focuses on practical, readable, aviation-themed, timepieces. The brand was acquired by E. Gluck Corporation in 2019. However, the focus on quality, design, and affordability continues unabated.

Torgoen T10 Carbon Pilot Watch for Men (Amazon photo)

One of the Torgoen watches that caught my eye is the Torgoen T10 Carbon Pilot Watch (above) for men. It has a 44mm diameter case, very readable hands and markers, 100-meter water resistance, and a Swiss Quartz Ronda movement. The Torgoen T10 watch is available here on Amazon via my affiliate link. 

Torgoen watches use quality Swiss movements, comfortable silicone or Italian leather straps, and high grade materials like 316L Stainless Steel for watch cases and K1 or sapphire for watch crystals. For affordability, final assembly of the watches may be done in Asian manufacturing centers. While a handful of Torgoen watches are offered on Amazon at very attractive prices, the brand primarily sells direct to consumer from their own website. 

Torgoen XP-51 (Torgoen Photo)

Some of the brand's most interesting timepieces are created in collaboration with the award-winning historic aircraft preservation firm, Pacific Fighters. As of this writing, all of the Torgoen x Pacific Fighters watches sell at price points between $350 and $500. Unfortunately, most of these limited production timepieces have sold out except for the current offering. The amazing Torgoen XP-51 Mustang Quartz GMT watch. It is made from wing flap skin metal from an actual P-51 Mustang that is undergoing restoration. You'll definitely want to check their website out for this watch, current offerings, clearance deals and more.  You can find them all here at Torgoen.com.

How to Buy A Lorus Watch in the United States

Lorus is a Seiko brand that was launched in 1982 to bring reliable, affordable, timepieces to younger markets. At the time, Lorus supplemented the Pulsar and Seiko line-ups and was launched internationally. I've owned a few Lorus watches over the years that I bought in the 1990s in various American department stores.

An Older Lorus watch from my collection

However, the brand is not officially sold in the United States. Apparently, the official markets for Lorus watches are Europe, Canada, South Africa, Fiji, and Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand. It's a shame that the brand isn't more widespread in the United States since the timepieces generally offer great value.

What if you want to buy a Lorus watch in the United States?

Lorus watches are available in the United States from a variety of gray market sources including foreign watch shops online. In a quick search, two Dutch watch companies (links provided), Masters In Time and Mightywatches, both offer Lorus watches.

Lorus Men's Quartz Watch RG245XX9 (Amazon photo)

Lorus watches can be conveniently ordered online from dealers on Amazon.com and Walmart.com. The Amazon.com offering seem to have a wide variety, but cost more to ship. Walmart has just a couple of Lorus watches, but shipping is free. The Lorus Model RG245XX9 (shown above) is offered on Amazon here at my affiliate link. As a gray market watch, shipping is $24.99 and may take a month or so.

Lorus Sports Watch with Blue Dial (Amazon Photo)

The Lorus brand offers good value and, for American collectors, the opportunity for an unusual watch choice. For example, this Lorus sports model looks pretty solid.  You can check it out easily via my affiliate link on Amazon. Ultimately, there are most likely equally solid choices for similar watches from other Seiko brands like Citizen or Orient. Still, it is fun to live in a world full of watch choices.

TGIF: Stepping Up Your Watch Collection

Long, long, ago when real stereos with speakers, tape decks, and turntables and, maybe, CD players, there was a magical place called Circuit City. If you bought stereo speakers there, you could trade them in for full store credit towards better stereo speakers during the next year. Ultimately, you could step right up to a mondo pair of stereo speakers that would rock your whole block. I know a few people who did. Sometimes, I wish we could do that with watches. 

This Van Heusen has the look of more famous chronograph watches

I suspect that some savvy sellers on ebay, Etsy, or Poshmark might be able to do just that and work their way up through the ranks of watches. I could see a progression of stepping up from fashion watches to Timex to Nautica to Bulova to Tissot to Movado to Tudor and beyond. Alas, more pressing economic concerns hold me back from that pursuit for now. That's a whole lot of buying and selling. Plus, there are many accessories that surround a watch like a Rolex. The accessories might include a rental property empire, a successful restaurant or two, or an actual executive position. It's not enough to just afford the watch. It's to build the economic success needed that the watch just comes naturally. In a world of global competition, that can be quite a challenge.

This Timex Waterbury Traditional 41mm Chronograph watch (Amazon photo)

However, you can step up your watch collecting one watch at a time. If you are interested in stepping up from a false subdial watch with a chronograph look to a bona fide chronograph, the step up from the Van Heusen with non-functioning subdials at the top of this article is about $100 to this Timex Waterbury Traditional 41mm chronograph. You can check out this Timex using my Amazon affiliate link here!

Watch Spotlight: The Caravelle Tradition Quartz Day-Date Watch

There are many broader social and economic forces at play in our world. We can't do much about that big picture. Sometimes it seems like little personal luxuries become more and more difficult to attain. Sometimes it seems like an elite European timepiece might be attainable. Sometimes economic instability threatens and you need to play it safe. When it comes to the world of watch collecting, we get to make our own rules. The look, the aesthetics, the functionality of a good timepiece can be presented in a number of different ways and at a number of different price points. Good design and good taste isn't exclusive to Europe. For an example, let's a take a took at an  affordable watch from Caravelle.

Caravelle Traditional 3-Hand Watch

This Caravelle Tradition 3-Hand Watch with Day, Date, and Backlighting is a great example of a nice looking 40mm watch that would be right at home in any business casual environment. It's a practical, readable watch, with backlighting at the push of a button (located at 2 o'clock). You can see the elements of a basic field watch in the design. The black case, black strap, and blue dial are all strong traditionally masculine design elements.

Caravelle Tradition Watch for Men (Amazon Photo)

You can take a look at this watch here via my Amazon Affiliate link. As of January 2026, this Caravelle is being offered at a nice sale price on Amazon. As an offshoot brand of Bulova, the Caravelle name carries a bit of the parent brand's prestige and history. It has class without a crazy price tag.

Watch Spotlight: Bulova Marc Anthony Sport Classic Watch

Ordinarily, a celebrity collaboration watch is more exciting for a celebrity's fans than for watch collectors. What can a celebrity bring to the table? Well, when it comes to the Bulova Marc Anthony collaboration watch, a celebrity can bring some quite refined design sensibilities.

The Bulova Marc Anthony Sports Strap Quartz watch has a stylish WW2 aviation watch look and the strap inserts into a leather attachment to convert it into a nice bundt strap. You can see the squiggle of Marc's signature on the watch strap just below the 6 o'clock position.

Bulova Marc Anthony Collaboration

The numbers 1, 3, and 5 on the dial are a bit of a mystery as the Bulova site notes that they are numbers of personal significance to the singer. I think the numbers may have to do with the dates of some significant musical awards. On 11/3/2005, Marc won two Latin Grammy Awards. One for Best Latin Pop Album and one for Best Tropical Album. But, that is just my personal theory.

Bulova Marc Anthony Collaboration with Bundt Strap

Even if you aren't a big fan of Marc Anthony as a music star and celebrity, the Marc Anthony Sport Classic watch certainly is easy to love! For a classic look, check this one out here via our Amazon Affiliate Link.

Watch Deal Alert: Casio MDV-106 Duro on Sale!

 In tight economic times, people tend to gravitate towards watches that deliver real value.  The Casio MDV-106 Dive Watch might just be that watch. Popularly known as the Casio Duro and sometimes called a Casio Marlin, this watch is the leader in low priced dive watches. It has the right look, the right performance, and the right price. It offers 200-meter water resistance, a unidirectional rotating bezel, a fish right on the dial, a reliable quartz watch movement, and classic dive watch looks.

Casio MDV-106 Dive Watch (Amazon Photo)

Right now (as of January 6, 2026), the Casio Duro is being offered with a resin band for 30% off on Amazon. In these inflationary times, it's a great deal at less than $70. There are many styles to choose from and all are less than $100.  You can check this watch out using my Amazon affiliate link here. 

Wristwatch Review: Tahari Quartz "Datejust Homage" Dress Watch

Do you like the look of a fluted bezel like the one on the famed Rolex Datejust "Presidential" dress watch? I've been playing around with fluted bezel watches for awhile. On the one hand, I like the way that the fluted bezels catch the light, but on the other, I typically wear more utilitarian watches. Before plunking down big money on a Rolex, it's worth exploring the look a bit more thoroughly.  That's where a watch like the Tahari Quartz Datejust Homage comes in.

Tahari Datejust Watch Features

The Tahari Datejust has a quartz movement made in Singapore. It is a dress watch with a domed crystal, a magnifier bubble (or cyclops) over the date window; a gold-tone fluted bezel, case, bracelet, and hour markers; and the number 12 at 12 o'clock. It's a simple watch.

Tahari Datejust Quartz Watch

Tahari Watch Style

The Rolex "Presidential" Datejust is a watch that has long been associated with presidents, prime ministers, and other leaders around the world. With the Tahari, the style is a bit more relaxed. You don't need to do any of that leadership stuff. You just need to take $20 or so down to Burlington. Other than that, the Tahari mimics a traditional Rolex Datejust--without actual gold, diamonds, or crowns here there and everywhere.

Tahari "DateJust" Homage

On a more serious note, the Tahari does give an approximation of how a datejust might look on your wrist. It's not a substitute for a Rolex, but it is a placeholder. It'll help the wearer figure out if they like fluted dials or not.

Tahari Watch Construction

The Tahari Datejust is made by Accutime in Asia (most likely in China or Hong Kong). The watch has a stainless steel case back, a base metal case, and a Chinese stainless steel bracelet. Over the years, I've been satisfied with other watches made by Accutime over the years. The company makes many watches under license for sports teams and store-brand watches. 

This Tahari watch does have a few little things that reveal its low price point. For example, the bracelet is very light weight and there are a few brush or tool marks on the case. None of these minor things are showstoppers for a $20 fashion watch.

Tahari Watch Dimensions

The Tahari "Datejust" case is 39mm in diameter and 10mm thick. Without the room requirements of Swiss, antique-style, mechanical works, the Tahari (not counting the 1mm cyclops) actually comes in a little thinner than a 41mm Rolex Datejust which measures 11.6 to 12mm thick. The lug-to-lug measurements come in at about 47mm. The stainless steel bracelet is 19mm wide at the lug and tapers slightly to 15.5mm at the clasp.  It's  long enough to fit my 7 3/4-inch wrist perfectly without adjustment.

The Tahari Datejust Bracelet tapers significantly

Overall Impressions of the Tahari Datejust Homage

The Tahari Datejust Homage is a comfortable, cheap, watch that has allowed me to experiment with the fluted bezel watch look. It's a nice looking watch for casual wear. However, I probably wouldn't wear this watch in a professional setting. While it does mimic the look of a far more expensive Rolex, it doesn't have the brand reputation or high quality look that we expect from more expensive brands like Bulova, Seiko, or Timex. Still, its a fun bang around watch for the weekend.

[Do you want to see five more alternatives to the Rolex Datejust Presidential watch? Read my blog post here!]