Tim Mosso's "Watches Tonight" returns with a discussion of the best men's watches for $10,000 or less. Watches from Rolex, Omega, IWC, Blancpain, and Breguet headline a collection of affordable luxury watches to suit any watch collector, taste, and wrist size. Tim offers a complete guide of luxury watch prices across a range of the best watch models from major watch brands, smaller brands, and niche watchmakers. If you are in the market for a luxury watch in the summer of 2021, this episode is an ideal buyer's guide.

Rolex is the watch that everyone wants, but the Submariner, Daytona, and GMT-Master II are waitlisted in almost every form at every Rolex dealer. Forget them; Tim offers three alternatives headlined by the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39. While the world goes nuts about the 2021 Rolex Oyster Perpetual 41, the discontinued OP39 remains a tremendous option for open-minded watch buyers.

Originally launched in 2015, the Oyster Perpetual 39mm, reference 114300, is a standout that continues the legacy of the first Oyster Perpetual of 1933. That watch was the first Rolex to combine the "Oyster" water resistant case with the "Perpetual" automatic rotor winding system. Discontinued in 2020, the Oyster Perpetual remains handsome, historically relevant, and wearable on a broad range of wrists.

At Baselworld 2015, Rolex launched the first-ever 39mm Oyster Perpetual with a striking range of dial colors. These colors included Rolex "Red Grape," "Bright Blue," and "Dark Rhodium," a grey metallic color later featured on the Yacht-Master 116622 and the Datejust 41 126300. All versions of the Rolex OP39 include 904L stainless steel cases, 100-meter water resistance, Oyster bracelets, and Rolex caliber 3132.

Rolex caliber 3132 endows the Oyster Perpetual 39mm with precision, durability, and reliability. The rotor winding automatic movement provides 48 hours of power reserve, and it does so with silky smoothness for which Rolex automatics are renowned. Stop seconds or "hacking" permits easy synchronization to a reference time. Each caliber 3132 includes a COSC Swiss chronometer certification, but Rolex is known to adjust the fully assembled watch to timing standards that exceed those of the COSC.

Durability of the caliber 3132 is ensured by a robust structure that trades absolute thinness for extra shock tolerance. A full balance bridge combines with a freesprung balance to ward off the effects of shocks. The Breguet overcoil hairspring ensures uniform timing in any position, and the hairspring's niobium-zirconium "Parachrom" alloy resists magnetism. Unlike the 36mm Oyster Perpetual and its caliber 3130, the 3132 also includes Rolex's own shock protection system, "Paraflex."

In contrast to the long-running Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36mm, the OP39 led a short life. After only six years on the market, the discontinued Rolex model has real prospects as a longterm collectible watch. And while many collectible watches are too delicate to risk in daily use, the price of the Oyster Perpetual 39 remains reasonable enough that it can be worn without excessive worry or financial jeopardy.

Additional affordable Rolex models can be found in the form of the Milgauss 116400 and the Air King 116900. The current Milgauss was launched in 2007 and has endured with few changes since. Rolex's "technician's watch" includes a soft iron paramagnetic cage around its hardened movement for the sake of antimagnetism. 40mm steel construction ensures that the Milgauss wears well on wrists of any size, and several combinations of dial (Z Blue, black, white) are available in various combinations of clear sapphire or green sapphire crystal.

The current Rolex Air King 116400 was launched at Baselworld 2016. Designed to be larger and more versatile than the traditional 34mm Air King, the 116900 also takes more chances with its unique aesthetics. The Air King sports a colorful "Explorer dial" with applied Arabic numerals and a combination of black, white, yellow, and green. This unusual array of styling choices was driven by Rolex's dashboard instrument designs for the Bloodhound supersonic car (SSC).

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