There are 2 types of watches in the world that are the most popular in today’s contemporary society: luxury watches and smartwatches. And as I just got an Apple Watch Series 3 as a birthday gift from my brother, I became highly compelled to compare my luxury watch against my Apple smartwatch to see which one is more stylish or useful.
The difference between a luxury watch and a smartwatch is its overall utilities and materials. The majority of smartwatches are completely digital and equipped with applications for fitness tracking, cellular calling, and GPS, while luxury watches are primarily used for telling time and showing style.
| Category Comparison | Luxury Watch | Smartwatch |
| Utility and Purpose | – Showing off personal style and taste -Telling time | – Interacting with digital applications (fitness tracking, cellular calling, GPS, etc.) |
| Dial | – Made of metal or enamel – Automatic or Quartz Movement | – Completely digital dial design – Digital watch movement |
| Band Materials | – Watch Bracelet (metal link watch band made of precious metals) – Watch Strap (non-metal watch band made of leather, fabric, or rubber) | – Sport strap (usually made of elastomer or other non-metal sport strap materials) |
| Case | – Precious metal case (stainless steel, gold, etc.) for style | – Metal case (usually made of aluminum) for lighter weight |
| Caseback | – Precious Metal case back – Used for protecting its interior components and movement | – Metal case back – Generally used for charging the smartwatch |
| Clasp | – Fold-over clasps or loop buckle | – Loop buckle mechanism |
Key Takeaways
- Luxury watches are used for fashionability, style, and telling time, while smartwatches are used for interacting with digital applications for different personal uses.
- Luxury watch dials are made of metal or enamel and consist of a automatic or quartz movement to tell the time set by the watch user, while smartwatches connect to a server and retrieve the time for its digital movement and display.
- Luxury watch bands are either watch bracelets (precious metal linked bands) or straps (non-metal band like leather or fabric), while smartwatches generally use sport straps made of material like elastomer.
- Luxury watch cases are made out of precious metals, while smartwatch cases are made of metal like aluminum.
- Luxury watch case backs are made of precious metal and are used to protect the interior components with some luxury watches having see-through case backs, while smartwatches have a metal case back generally used for charging the smartwatch.
- Generally, luxury watches use fold-over clasps or loop buckles, while smartwatches just have the loop buckle mechanism.
Read on to view my complete in-depth and hands-on comparison between my Breitling “Wings” watch and my Apple Watch Series 3 with their features, and which one I prefer.
Utility and Purpose Comparison
Luxury watches are primarily used for telling time and showing off your personal style and taste, while smartwatches are used for interacting with digital applications for personal uses and functions.
For my luxury watches, I use them daily whenever I get the chance to go out with my friends and family or whenever I’m about and about because it helps track time easily and it improves my fashionability.
Let’s take my Breitling Wings luxury watch for example. I’m going to an outdoor concert with my parents tonight, and I plan to wear this luxury watch to easily check the time while showing off my own style at the same time. Whenever I wear my luxury watches, I get plenty of compliments about my style and it sparks up many conversations about watches, which is difficult to do with a smartwatch since so many people have them.
After playing with my Apple Watch Series 3 for a couple of days now, I think it’s extremely helpful for utilizing digital applications. I love looking at how many steps I took, what new text messages I receive, and it’s also great for answering calls.
I find my Apple Watch to be super useful whenever I’m working out because I can track my heart rate, how many calories I burn, and how long I’ve been working out, which is something that the mass majority of luxury watches can’t do.
On top of that, Apple Watches are extremely good at telling time. Since Apple Watches connect to a server to get the time, it’s always accurate to the dot no matter where you are in the world.
Nonetheless, smartwatches just can’t provide the same style or flair that a luxury watch provides. Both have great time-keeping capabilities and smartwatches provide more helpful utilities, but I feel much more confident, stylish, and unique whenever I wear my luxury watches, which is something that I have never feel with a smartwatch.
Dial Design Comparison
Luxury watch dials are made of metal or enamel and use an automatic or quartz watch movement to tell the time set by the watch user, while smartwatches retrieve the time from a server and use it to display a completely digital movement.
My Breitling watch has a very clean dark blue dial, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the watch. The color of the dial makes the watch pop and the gold accenting, day display, and number markings of the dial make it an interesting watch, to say the least. Nine out of ten times, the watch dial sparks up the most conversations and gets the most compliments along with the watchband.
This Breitling is equipped with an automatic movement, which means it winds itself when you wear it and uses a metal weight to tell time. I’m personally a fan of automatic movements because it provides a nice sweep of the second’s hand through the watch.
As for my Apple Watch Series 3, it has a completely digital dial that is fully customizable through my phone. On my phone, I can choose between several different dial designs and choose which apps you want on the home screen of your watch.
I am also a really big fan of the customization options of an Apple Watch. It’s one of the only ways to help your watch stand out since you can choose your own designs and apps. For the dial design, I chose a really simple and minimal one through my phone that has an analog display and a day-date display to easily help me remember the exact time, day, and date.
And as for my apps, I chose to have multiple fitness apps, Gmail, and other contacting/messaging apps that I find useful.
While smartwatch dials are completely customizable through your phone, it’s just not the same as a luxury watch dial designed with passion and careful attention to detail. Luxury watch manufacturers spend so much time designing and crafting dials, which makes them more appealing and puts a story behind them, which is why I prefer luxury watch dials more.
Band Comparison
Luxury watch bands are usually categorized as watch bracelets (a metal link watch band made of precious metal) or watch straps (a non-metal band made of leather, rubber, or fabric), while smartwatches generally have sport straps made of elastomer or other sport strap materials.
My Breitling watch is equipped with a two-tone gold and stainless steel bracelet. The bracelet on this watch is one of the parts of the watch that really makes it eye-catching and stylish. Since the bracelet is such a flashy and fashionable piece of the watch, it’s one of my favorite parts and it’s one of the main reasons I wear it because it’s so noticeable.
Also, watch bracelets are pretty durable as well. I’ve worn this watch plenty of times and the bracelet only shows minor blemishes and has never broken on me.
However, it is useful to know that watch bracelets and straps are two completely different terms. If you want to see my full breakdown of differentiating watch bracelets and watch straps, you can check out my in-depth article about it by clicking right here.
Unlike my Breiling watch, my Apple Watch provides an elastomer sport band, which I am actually a very big fan of. It’s extremely comfortable and smooth, which makes it great for working out and going for walks. The band is so light that sometimes I forget that I even have a smartwatch on my wrist.
But in addition to that, the band is also very durable. After playing basketball in it and doing tough workouts with it, the sport band holds up very well in all temperatures and is definitely sweat resistant (I’m a very sweaty person after workouts, and I was pleased to know that the sport band held up).
Comparing the Breitling watch bracelet and Apple Watch band, I think it’s a tie in my opinion. Both are really good and are evenly matched even though they serve different purposes: the two-tone metal bracelet is great for style and standing out, while the sport strap is great for working out and other activities like that.
Case Comparison
Generally, luxury watch cases are made of precious metal (gold, stainless steel, etc.) for stye, while smartwatch cases are usually made out of metal like aluminum to make them lighter.
My Breitling Wings watch has a full stainless steel case with solid gold accents and a gold crown. The precious metals on this watch make it a reliable and fashionable timepiece. Whenever I put this timepiece on, my eyes often drift toward the watch case, which shows how fashionable and unique it is compared to other watches. The gold crown on this watch really makes it unique and helps me easily wind the watch.
For my Apple Watch, it’s made out of titanium with the sole purpose to make the smartwatch lighter and durable at the same time. Similar to stainless steel, I am also fond of the aluminum case on my Apple watch, but sometimes I do get worried about it. Since the aluminum is very light, I get concerned about how durable it actually is even though I haven’t experienced anything wrong with it.
On top of that, the crown on the apple watch serves a different purpose than the crown on my Breitling watch. Since smartwatches don’t need winding, the Apple Watch crown is used to zoom in and out of the watch and is used to switch between the dial display and the application display with just one click.
Personally, I prefer the Breitling case over the Apple Watch case. The stainless steel feels much more sturdy and durable when I’m wearing my Breitling watch, which is exactly what I want from a watch case. While the aluminum case on the Apple Watch is light and reliable, I sometimes worry about how durable it actually is, which is something that never crosses my mind when I wear my luxury watches.
Case Back Comparison
Luxury watch case backs are typically made of precious metal with the primary purpose of protecting the interior movement and components of the watch (and some watches even have see-through ones for style), while smartwatch case backs are made of metal and are used as a way to charge the watch.
My Breitling luxury watch has a solid stainless steel case back. The case back is one of the most overlooked aspects of the watch, but it’s very significant since it protects the internal mechanical moving parts. Also, the case back has the Breitling logo engraving, which is another overlooked feature that adds style and story.
And on the other hand for my Apple Watch, its case back is one of the most important features of the watch that is definitely not overlooked. The case back is made out of aluminum, but it’s where the watch is charged from and has special sensors to track fitness goals. As soon as I got the Apple Watch, I realized how important the case back is its overall utility and function.
Clasp Comparison
Luxury watches consist of either foldable claps or a loop buckle, while smartwatches usually consist of just a loop buckle as a closing mechanism.
My Breitling Wings watch is equipped with a single-fold clasp, which is one of the more common types of clasps to find on a luxury watch bracelet. However, I found that it’s very easy to open and close compared to other fold-over clasps. A little feature that I like about the clasp is that it has the Breitling logo on it, which adds more character to the watch.
On my Apple Watch, it has a loop buckle as its closing mechanism, which is extremely common to find on all smartwatches. While it’s nothing too special, I find that it’s pretty easy to afix on my wrist.
To me, I don’t really have a preference over the loop buckle or the fold-ver clasp. As long as the watch is easy to put on my wrist, which is true for both my Breitling and Apple Watch, I’m a happy person. The only time I wouldn’t perfer a watch clasp is if it’s too difficult to put on.
Luxury Watch vs. Smartwatch: My Preference
At the end of the day, I will always choose a luxury watch over a smartwatch no matter what. Even though smartwatches provide a plethora of useful features like tracking fitness goals, cellular calls, internet connection, and even GPS location, it just doesn’t provide the same style or feel like a luxury watch.
While luxury watches may not have the useful digital features of a smartwatch, it’s significantly more fashionable and appealing than a smartwatch. Think about it: millions and millions of people around the world are wearing smartwatches now, so how are you going to stand out if everyone else is wearing them?
With luxury watches, they’re much rarer, more eye-catching, and have more passion built into them with their high-end materials and craftsmanship, which means they’re more attractive and can make you stand out above everyone. Wearing a luxury watch shows off your personal style and who you are as a person, which is something you can’t really do with a smartwatch and it’s why I will choose a luxury watch over a smartwatch 100% of the time.
If you’ve ever wondered about the benefits of wearing a luxury watch, you can check out my article where I provide 9 different benefits of wearing a luxury watch by clicking right here.