Maystone Skybreaker Chronograph

Maystone's Skybreaker is a chronograph on a mecha-quartz movement, at $400. The cheapest thing in this month's independent releases, and the first one we would put in front of somebody who has never bought a watch on purpose.

Mecha-quartz is the compromise nobody markets well, so here is the case. A quartz chronograph is accurate and cheap. The pushers feel like a television remote, and the second hand returns with an electronic whirr. A mechanical chronograph feels wonderful and starts around $2,000 for anything worth owning. Mecha-quartz puts a small mechanical module on a quartz base: the timekeeping is quartz, accurate to seconds a month and never wound, and the chronograph is a real cam that snaps under the finger and flies back to zero on reset. It costs about $54 more than the pure quartz version.

That snap is ninety per cent of what people enjoy about owning a chronograph. Nobody is timing anything. You are pressing the button.

At $400 it is also the price at which a watch stops being a financial decision, which is a good place for a first one to sit.