Top Watches for Dads & Grads 2024
It’s for good reason that watches are one of the most popular gifts during graduation season. Combine that with Father’s Day, and June becomes one of the best times to gift a watch. A fine watch is the perfect gift for both dads and grads as it signifies that time moves slowly but passes quickly. The lessons of graduation and fathorhood are quite similar: don’t miss a single minute of your life. To make the gift of time even more special, Feldmar offers engraving on casebacks! Give us a buzz and one of our staff will be happy to help bring your sentiments to life. Here are some of our favorite watches for dads and grads.
FOR DADS: IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40
FOR GRADS: Seiko Luxe Prospex Sea SPB451
Introducing the new 40mm 62MAS—Seiko is one of the best watches to start a watch collection, perhaps even a watch obsession. Ruggedly handsome, with an automatic movement with manual winding mechanism, the Luxe Prospex Sea has a stainless steel case with unidirectional rotating bezel, LumiBrite on bezel, screw case back, and screw-down crown. All that, plus LumiBrite on the hands and indexes and water resistance to 300 meters, means this timepiece is just at home beneath the cuff of your wetsuit as it is your tailored best. Featuring Seiko’s famous 62MAS case shape, the new smaller size is a great fit for pretty much everyone!
FOR DADS: Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT
A timepiece sure to impress even the dad has everything, it even includes GMT to track the time zone where your grad is now living, so you don’t accidentally call them before their usual 1:00pm wakeup. The stainless steel case has a 24-hour bidirectional black and burgundy anodised aluminum insert rotating bezel, polished and satin-finished steel, and screw-down winding crown with the iconic Tudor rose in relief. Engineered with a precise mechanical self-winding movement, the black dial with gilt applied hour markers and a black rubber strap made it one of the biggest hits when it was released at this year’s Watches & Wonders event.
FOR GRADS: Nomos Club Campus 38 Nonstop Red
A watch that’s so meant for the grad on the go, even the name, Club Campus, is fitting. The beautifully proportioned stainless steel case features a bipartite sapphire crystal glass back, with a domed sapphire crystal glass. The bright and bold red dial has Arabic and Roman numerals and indexes with white Super-LumiNova, hands rhodium-plated with Super-LumiNova inlay, and a seconds hand in neon orange. The supple vegan velour remborde velvet gray strap is the ideal accompaniment.
FOR DADS: Hamilton Khaki Aviation Pilot Day Date
An out-of-this-world gift for father’s day, this is Coop’s watch, half the ultimate watch pairing from the movie Interstellar. With a stainless steel case with see-through case back and anti-reflective sapphire crystal, the Khaki Aviation Pilot Day Date has a rich black dial with Arabic numeral makers and day and date indicators. The svelte black calf leather strap flawlessly complements the dial. This is a watch for, as Coop says in the movie, “These moments when we dare to aim higher.”
FOR GRADS: Hamilton Khaki Field “Murph” 38mm
Keeping with the Interstellar theme, this is the watch Coop gives his daughter Murph. Spoiler alert: it’s these special watches that later help reunite them! If you’re feeling a little sentimental about your kid going off on the next chapter of life, the new 38mm “Murph” is the perfect reminder that reunions are always right around the corner. The “Murph” is a true showstopper, with a stainless steel case, open case back, and sapphire crystal. The clean, elegant black dial features Arabic numeral markers and luminous hands. Finished with a black calf leather strap. As Murph says in the movie, “It’s a special one.”
FOR DADS: Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 43-2022 “Reverse Panda”
For the man who loves precision and accuracy, this timepiece has an automatic Breitling 01, COSC certified movement, and a bidirectional slide rule bezel that can calculate everything from airspeed to tuition payments. The dazzling 18K red gold case features a transparent sapphire crystal case back and dual glareproof cambered sapphire crystal. The full-featured black dial is ornamented with date indicator, 18K red gold hands and indexes, and chronograph counters. With a luxurious black alligator leather strap.
FOR GRADS: Junghans Max Bill Quartz
A watch made for the art student in your life, the Max Bill was designed with classic Bauhaus principles in mind—clean lines and simple shapes with little or no decoration. An astoundingly accurate quartz movement resides within a stainless steel case with convex sapphire crystal with anti-reflection coating on both sides. The subtle matt silver dial features date indicator, Arabic numeral hour markers, and SuperLuminova. Finished with a brown leather strap. All this, and priced under $1,000.
FOR DADS: Longines Spirit Zulu Time 39mm
There’s a Spirit Zulu Time for every father—available in many styles and colors, in both 39mm and 42mm, and extra legible in case dad’s eyes aren’t what they used to be. The stainless steel case has an engraved case back, bidirectional rotating bezel, screwed-in crown, and anti-reflective sapphire crystal. The black dial features Super-LumiNova coated hands and hour markers, Arabic numeral markers, date indicator, and a 24 hour hand. The automatic COSC certified movement is second to none.
FOR GRADS: G-Shock Analog-Digital 2100 Series GAB2100MF-1A
Like all G-Shock watches, this one is nearly indestructible – perfect for your rough-and-tumble teen! With a tough solar movement, battery changes are a thing of the past while Bluetooth makes setting alarms as easy as syncing with your cell phone easy. Complications include 12/24 hour formats, 5 daily alarms, double LED light, timer, full auto-calendar, power saving, stopwatch, and world time, plus water resistance to 200 meters. Available in just about a million colors, and one more thing—it’s only $150 bucks.
FOR DADS: Tag Heuer Monaco Chronograph
There are sporty dads and serious dads, fun dads and dads who tell dad jokes. Then there are the truly classic dads, and for them the Monaco Chronograph is the ultimate choice for father’s day—classic style, classic brand, classic case. This pre-owned timepiece features a stainless steel 38mm case matched with a black leather strap. Complications include chronograph, date, hours, minutes, and small seconds. An iconic watch for an iconic man.
FOR GRADS: Oris Vault Carl Brashear Calibre 401 Limited Edition
Directly from the Feldmar Vault comes this truly special watch. Powered by the in-house Calibre 401 and created to support the Carl Brashear Foundation, the 40mm bronze case symbolizes the diving helmets worn by Carl Brashear during his career as a U.S. Navy Master Diver. A limited edition of just 2,000 pieces, other features include a striking blue dial, a small seconds function at 6 o-clock, heightened levels of magnetism, and a five-day power reserve. The bronze case will patina with age, a poignant reminder of special moments you’ve shared, and special moments yet to come.
Discover these and other luxury watches from Feldmar. Browse our online store or stop into our flagship location.
About The Author: Tom Roth
Born in Washington state, Tom developed an interest in photography during college at University of San Diego. There, he got started in music journalism, interviewing artists and taking photos at concerts. A life-long tinkerer and collector, it wasn’t long before Tom became fascinated with fountain pens and watches.
Those interests collided in November 2020 when Tom started at Feldmar Watch Company where he lives out every watch geek’s dream: photographing and writing about timepieces. When he’s not tinkering with his watch collection, Tom can be found traveling, biting his nails while watching PNW sports teams, and taking flying lessons.
Read more from Tom Roth
