The Best Titanium Watches Under $10,000 In 2024

Editors’ Picks

Titanium watches have taken off in popularity in the past few years. The lightweight metal has been used in watchmaking for at least 50 years, but only recently has it proliferated across brands big and small, at prices high and low. From Rolex's first foray into commercially "available" titanium with the Yacht-Master to more affordable watches from Citizen, Baltic, and others, there are options aplenty.

For this edition of Three on Three, we're talking titanium. With so many titanium watches available, we wanted to narrow it down a bit. So we picked three very different titanium watches under $10,000 and debated their respective merits: the Tudor Pelagos 39, Grand Seiko SBGA 211 "Snowflake," and the Zenith Defy Revival Shadow. With prices ranging from $4,700 to $7,400, each offers a unique take on titanium that feels true to the brand's identity.

They're three distinct watches: a modern tool watch, the best of Japanese craftsmanship, and a retro-cool design piece. They're three watches that show how brands have begun to reimagine titanium as its own material, and not just some cool, lightweight alternative to steel. Tudor has used it to make one of the most popular and functional modern tool watches; for Grand Seiko, it's another way to show off its fine finishing, Spring Drive, and of course, its dial work; for Zenith, it's a modern material fit for retro expression.

Brandon, Jonathan, and Tony debate three of their favorite titanium watches under $10,000.

It's not just the lighter weight that makes titanium an interesting material for watchmaking. Last year, we wrote about the various properties of titanium that differentiate it from stainless steel; the comments section there even added to the discussion, getting nerdy about a material's modulus of elasticity, thermal conductivity, and costs of manufacturing (thanks, readers!). Check out that article if you want a primer on titanium. While our attraction to heavier things, including watches, is innate, ingrained since the early days of cavemen and cavewomen collectors, that's changing.

Once you get past the initial brain block of slipping on a lightweight, titanium watch, there's a lot to love. With that, enjoy the video, and let's talk about some of our favorite titanium under $10,000.

Tudor Pelagos 39

What else can be said about the Tudor Pelagos 39?

"It's a wonderful dive watch," James wrote in his A Week on the Wrist. "Useful, well-made, nicely sized, modern, subtle, toolish, and totally wearable. It's the kind of watch that will make others in your collection irrelevant. You should get one, and so should I."

It feels like the purest modern take on the original Tudor Submariner, not only in form, but in purpose. If you're making a modern tool watch to wear every day, of course it'd be in titanium. Lightweight, scratch-resistant, durable titanium. We love Tudor for its modern tool watches, and the Pelagos 39 feels like the most modern, and the most tool watch, of all. Yes, the original Pelagos has been around since 2012, but that was something different, namely a top-spec 500 meter diver with a helium escape valve.

The Pelagos 39 is the downsized version of the original, designed to reach a wider audience. It dials back some of the specs: it now has 200 meters of water resistance (still more than enough), no HeV, no self-adjusting sprung clasp, and less of the ultra-matte finish.

But, the Pelagos 39 doesn't cut corners on its way to reaching a bigger market. In his in-depth review, James called the Pelagos 39 the "dad (or mom) diver." He used a few more car metaphors I didn't really understand to drive home the point, but the alliterative name makes sense. The Pelagos 39 is for wearing every day, to the grocery store or soccer practice or maybe even on a run, and while you might not dive quite as much as you used, damn you sure wish you did, right? The Pelagos 39 is there to remind you of the times you had.

It's the most fitting use of titanium by Tudor, the brand that makes modern, affordable tool watches (yes, affordable in the weird world we inhabit where $4,700 is "affordable"; by the way, the Pelagos 39 was introduced at $4,400 in August 2022 and the price has been raised 2x since. It's far from the most egregious price increases we've seen in the past few years, but still. Worth noting.) While the Black Bay and Black Bay 58 (and 54) are heritage watches inspired by vintage Tudor divers, the Pelagos makes no overt references to the past. It's not weighed down (titanium joke!) by the past.

For the Pelagos 39, Tudor uses grade 2 titanium and the finish is fully matte – the only contrast is the radially brushed ceramic bezel. Grade 2 titanium is all titanium, while Grade 5 titanium is an alloy that also includes aluminum and vanadium. Grade 5 is harder, and you can expect to see it in higher-end manufacturing, while lower-priced options will often use Grade 2. The matte finish leans into the Pelagos 39's unassuming nature as a tool watch. It might've been nice to see polished bevels – as seen on the titanium Yacht-Master, for example – but you get what you get here.

And what you get is, pound for pound, one of the best modern tool watches on the market.

Grand Seiko SBGA 211 'Snowflake'

We said it about the Pelagos 39, but the same goes for the Snowflake: What else can be said?

Since Grand Seiko introduced the SBGA211 in 2011, it's become the most iconic model in its modern catalog. It has everything that makes Grand Seiko Grand Seiko: Spring Drive movement, hands, indices, and a case that feature asymptotically perfect finishing, and that textured, snowflake-inspired dial. Even the use of titanium is considered, with its lightweight quality meant to match the light flurry of the snowflake dial. It all comes together perfectly. The seconds hand smoothly sweeps over the pile of freshly fallen snow, and because it's so light on your wrist, you're hardly the wiser. With Grand Seiko, design choices often seem in service of making its dials standout, and nowhere does it converge better than with the Snowflake.

"The Spring Drive Snowflake SBGA211 is a very steadying watch to wear," we wrote in our A Week On The Wrist. "The entire thing seems to have been calculated to create an effect of serenity without boredom; of minimalism without sterility." It's clear, functional, accurate, and beautiful. In 2017, Grand Seiko became its own brand, and the Grand Seiko name and logo shifted from 6 o'clock to the 12 position. Gone is the redundant "Seiko Grand Seiko" of old – and this watch is all the more serene for it.

It's not exactly a tool watch in the traditional sense, but it certainly feels something like a tool for the modern world. It's dressy, it's casual, and with 100 meters of water resistance, should be ready for any splashes you might reasonably encounter on a day-to-day basis. It's a bit chunky depending on your wrist size (dimensions: 41mm diameter, 12.5mm thick, 49mm lug-to-lug), but the lugs curve downward to meet most wrists nicely.

The Snowflake uses Grade 5 titanium, and Grand Seiko manages to show off a bit of its finishing ability, with a mixture of polished and brushed surfaces on the case and bracelet. It uses what Seiko calls its "High Intensity" titanium, which has increased scratch resistance. The variety of finishing is something its two competitors lack, and this finishing comes with purpose: It's thanks to this mix of polished and brushed that the SBGA211 feels so versatile.

Like Tudor and the Pelagos, it doesn't feel like Grand Seiko has used titanium for its own sake. It's considered, as it is throughout much of the GS catalog. It makes the watch lightweight like a snowflake. More importantly, it helps to make what might otherwise be a chunky proposition extremely wearable. The Snowflake's accuracy stands apart from the competition because of the Spring Drive movement.

But more than just its functionality, the Snowflake has won over enthusiasts because of the purity of its design. The fit and finish of the titanium contribute to this experience. It's what we've come to expect from Grand Seiko, but the Snowflake comes together as a complete package, perhaps better than any other GS. At $6,200, the Snowflake remains one of the best watches around.

Zenith Defy Revival 'Shadow'

Unlike the Pelagos 39 and Snowflake, not as much has been said about the Zenith Defy Revival Shadow since its release in March 2023. After bringing back the Defy Revival in 2022, Zenith gave it the titanium treatment. It uses the same silhouette and angular case as the steel Defy Revival, but in completely micro-blasted titanium. The Defy Revival Shadow measures 37mm in diameter and has a distinctive 14-sided bezel and Zenith's ladder bracelet. It makes the Defy undeniably retro, even if the material is modern. Unlike the original Defy line introduced in 1969, which often featured colorful and gradient dials, the new Defy Revival Shadow, true to its name, has a matching matte black dial.

The original Defy case, as well as 2022's revival, feature a variety of brushed and polished surfaces, giving the case a lot of structure and character. In the Shadow, the entire case and bracelet are rendered in micro-blasted titanium, giving it all a monolithic look – different surfaces and facets don't catch the light in different ways like the steel Defy, but seem to absorb any light they come into contact with. Using such a modern material in a decidedly retro case is a bold choice, but Zenith says that was deliberate. Back in 1969, the Defy was very retrofuturistic, so I suppose it makes sense that, in 2023, that same idea would manifest itself in a matte titanium watch.

To match the titanium case, the dial is matte black, with the same space-age hour markers with horizontal grooves seen on last year's steel Defy releases. The date is at 4:30, and the hands have a beige-colored Super-Luminova, with lume plots also placed above those hour markers.

The ladder-style bracelet finishes off the Zenith Defy Revival Shadow's retro look. These are the types of bracelets Zenith should be putting on many of its heritage-inspired watches, and it works here. While the integration into the case isn't seamless, the bracelet itself is a perfect match for the Defy – the cutouts of the ladder make the bracelet even lighter, and it practically disappears on the wrist.

zenith defy revival shadow titanium dial

With an MSRP of $7,400, the Defy Revival Shadow is the most expensive watch in this edition of Three on Three. It's a lot of money for a three-hand watch, even in a material and finish you don't see much. To me, the premium over the Snowflake and Pelagos 39 speaks more to the relative value proposition of those watches than to the Defy Revival being overpriced.

We hope you enjoy our video debate of three of our favorite titanium watches under $10,000!

Zenith