The Best Women's Watches Under $100

Under $100 is the busiest price bracket in women's watches, and also the most uneven. At one end are watches built to a price, with base metal cases and printed dials that look tired within a year. At the other are watches whose makers have put the budget into a steel case, a decent quartz movement and a carefully drawn dial, and which can be worn daily for a long time. The difference is not always visible in a product photo, so this guide starts with what to look for, then names the watches we would buy.

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Watch Index · prices checked October 9, 2026

The watches in this guide, ranked

Every watch this guide mentions, ranked by Value Score or by what one watch costs today with each store's current offer counted.

What $100 actually buys

Three things separate a good watch at this price from a disappointing one, and all three can be checked on a product page before you buy.

• The case material. Look for stainless steel, ideally 316L, the grade used across most of the watch industry. Many cheap fashion watches use a brass or zinc alloy case with a plated finish, which is lighter and softer and shows wear sooner. Timex's women's cases are often low lead brass, which is a respectable, well established material; it simply wears differently from steel.
• The movement. Every watch in this guide uses a quartz movement, which is the right choice under $100: accurate to a few seconds a week and cheap to service. An automatic movement at this price in a women's size is almost always a compromise.
• The bracelet. A bracelet with solid links that can be removed for sizing is better than a stamped bracelet or a fixed bangle, because it can be fitted properly. A watch that slides halfway to the knuckles never looks expensive.

The fourth thing, which no product page states, is restraint. The watches that look cheapest under $100 tend to be the ones that try hardest: oversized dials, too many subdials, glitter where there should be a plain surface. The best cheap watches are quiet ones.

The honest practical pick: Timex Easy Reader

If your priority is a watch you can read at a glance, in any light, without your reading glasses, the Timex Easy Reader 25mm at $87 is very hard to beat. It is a 25mm gold tone case on a gold tone expansion band, with a white dial, a full set of large Arabic numerals, a date and Timex's Indiglo backlight, which lights the whole dial at the push of the crown. The design has barely changed in decades because it does not need to. There is also a Timex Easy Reader 25mm Two Tone version at $87 with a gold and steel bracelet.

What it is not is decorative. The numerals and the expansion band make it a tool first. If you want a watch that adds something to an outfit, the rest of this list does that better.

The best everyday watches under $100

An everyday watch should be steel or two tone, round or gently shaped, and plain enough to go with anything. Three Lucky Fours watches fit that description at $79.99, which is the lowest price in their women's range.

The Thea is the most conventional: a round case, Roman numerals at the quarters, a date window and a bracelet available in plain steel or two tone, with white, black and deep blue dials. The blue dial on the two tone bracelet is the most interesting of the six combinations and still easy to wear. The Lyra is the sportier option, an integrated bracelet watch with a rounded octagonal case and a ribbed dial in colours from white to pink. And the Calista is the rectangular choice, gold tone with Roman numerals, which we think is the best looking watch on this page.

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All three have a 316L stainless steel case, a Japanese quartz movement and a 12 month warranty. None of them has a backlight or numerals as large as the Easy Reader's, so if legibility is the point, the Timex is the better buy.

The best jewellery watches under $100

Most of the Lucky Fours women's range sits at $89.99, and most of it is jewellery watches: small dials on bracelets meant to be seen. This is the part of the market where the established brands have little to offer under $100, so the choice is mostly between styles.

• For a clean look: the Maso, a small oval white dial in a gold frame on a fine gold mesh bracelet. It is the one to choose if you want a watch that disappears into whatever else you wear.
• For something heirloom: the Gracie, with an elongated oval champagne dial on a fine link bracelet.
• For texture: the Lora, with large open round links, or the Surmen, whose links are shaped like small flowers.
• For colour: the Kera, Nyx, Runa and Francesca, each with coloured stones set into the bracelet. More on these below.

All of these also come in a silver tone version, which is worth knowing if you mostly wear white metals. For the smallest options in the range, which include the Tyla just above $100, see dainty watches for women.

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A statement piece under $100

If the watch is a gift, or meant for evenings, a stone set bracelet is more memorable than another plain gold watch. The Nyx at $89.99 is our pick: a round white dial on a gold bracelet set with oval stones that shift between deep blue and green, in an opal colour. They are coloured stones, not opals, and the price reflects that. The Kera, with a frame of small multicolour stones around an oval dial, is the louder alternative. Our guide to women's watches with coloured stones compares them all.

Two watches for under $100

The most useful thing about this price bracket at the moment is Lucky Fours' buy one, get one free offer, which allows mix and match across the range. Two watches at $89.99 cost $89.99 together, about $45 each, and they do not have to be the same model. The natural pairing is one everyday watch and one jewellery watch: a Thea for weekdays and a Nyx for evenings, or a Calista and a Maso. It is also the cheapest way we know to buy a watch for yourself and one for a sister or a friend. The brand has a 4.9 rating from 13,128 reviews, and returns are accepted within 30 days, see the store terms.

Compared

*as listed on each brand's US website, October 2026

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If you can stretch a little further, the next bracket brings in the Timex Cavatina and Legacy Mini, and Lucky Fours' pearl and vintage style pieces; see the best women's watches under $200. And for the full picture across every price, start with our main guide to women's watches.

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