The Best Summer Watches — Thomas’s Picks From RZE, Nomos, Doxa, Zenith, And Hublot

Summer is just around the corner, meaning we’re back with our series Fratello Favorites: The Best Summer Watches. It is my turn today, and I decided to pick myself a lighthearted, colorful, cheerful bunch. Why? Well, because I have a big summer ahead of me. While our fearless leader, RJ, expects to expand his family with a new barbecue, I am awaiting our second child, due in July. We’re in different stages of our lives, I suppose!

Since I will be taking a few months off to focus on the family, I have a long, wide-open summer ahead of me. There should be plenty of days by the Dutch coast with the Mrs., my son, and the baby. Obviously, I need obscenely over-specced timekeepers to time the plentiful naps (mine, that is, not the baby’s), and feeding intervals (again, mine, not the baby’s). Here are the five watches I selected at our five predetermined price points for 2026.

The best summer watch under €1k: RZE UTD-8000-NB

Okay, let’s kick things off at the accessible end of the spectrum. My favorite summer watch under €1k comes from RZE. More specifically, I would pick the indie brand’s digital creation in blue, the RZE UTD-8000-NB. At €290, this really is a whole lot of summery watch for the money.

You get RZE’s UltraHex titanium, meaning you get titanium’s advantages (such as lightness) without the drawback of it being overly sensitive to scratches. The case has a 43mm diameter, 49.5mm length, and 13.4mm thickness. While that sounds substantial, I found it to be perfectly proportioned in practice. The numbers don’t always tell the story, as I am sure you know.

As an ultra-rugged, digital option, the RZE UTD-8000 would be perfect for those messy early days of fresh parenthood. As readers with parenting experience will surely know, a washable fabric strap is pure gold!

The best summer watch under €2.5k: Nomos Club Campus 38 Electric Green

Moving on up to the next segment, my pick for the best summer watch under €2.5k represents my more formal option. After all, hot summer days can end in restaurants, where you might want something ever so slightly more elegant. It’s all about being prepared for everything, right? I don’t particularly enjoy wearing leather straps in summer, so the only (vegan) leather strap in my selection is reserved for the nighttime watch.

My pick would be the Nomos Club Campus 38 in Electric Green. I have a soft spot for the Club Campus, and I have come close to buying one on multiple occasions. Uniquely, I like this watch in an under-the-radar execution as well as in a bright, flashy color like this Electric Green. Naturally, for a pure summer watch, I had to go bright.

The Club Campus 38 features Nomos’s hand-wound caliber DUW4101, keeping the watch svelte with an 8.5mm profile, even with the case’s 100m water resistance. At €1,560, this watch also remains well within my €2.5k allowance. More diaper budget — neat!

The best summer watch under €5k: Doxa Sub 300 Carbon Divingstar

My choice for the best summer watch under €5k keeps coming back on my wishlists. One of these days, I guess I will just have to buy one. With a €5k budget, my pick would be the Doxa Sub 300 Carbon in Divingstar yellow.

This 2021 release takes the classic 42.5mm Doxa Sub 300 cushion case and executes it in forged carbon. The material’s warmth and lightness, paired with the great rubber strap, make this the most comfortable large sports watch I have ever worn.

I particularly love the combination of the ominous, swirly forged carbon with that crisp yellow dial. It looks simultaneously happy and menacing, like a poison dart frog. I would have to spend a good chunk of my €5k budget — €4,190, to be exact — but I’d be happy to do so for the Doxa Sub 300 Carbon.

The best summer watch under €10k: Zenith Defy Revival A3648

Moving up to best summer watch under €10k, my pick is the Zenith Defy Revival A3648. This summery dive watch screams ’70s flair, even if it technically dates back to 1969. Very few years carry a stronger summery connotation than 1969, so it has that far-fetched factoid working for it!

This fantastic angular case measures a modest 37mm across, but it has all the wrist presence you could ask for. You get proper underwater capabilities, too, with a 600m depth rating. Inside ticks an automatic Zenith Elite caliber, providing a 50-hour power reserve.

All of this matters far less in today’s context than the flashy, cheerful design. This watch simply puts a smile on my face, and that’s enough for me. At €8,400, the Zenith Defy Revival also stays neatly within my €10k budget.

My infinite-budget option: Hublot Big Bang Unico Mint Green Ceramic

Stop rolling your eyes! The watch community’s disdain only makes Hublot cooler in my eyes. My contender for the best summer watch with an unlimited budget is the Hublot Big Bang Unico Mint Green Ceramic. The baby’s college fund starts at –€25,900. With 18 years to go, that should still qualify as responsible parenting, right?

Granted, if I were spending real money, I would get overly serious about it. My grail is still the diametrically-opposed-to-Hublot A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph. I would probably look at a Vacheron Constantin 222, a gilt-dial Rolex 5513, or something from Ferdinand Berthoud as well. But I have written about those watches so many times before that it feels overly predictable. So, with summer in mind, let me splash the cash on something out of left field.

The Hublot Big Bang Unico in Mint Green Ceramic is classic Hublot — bold, brash, and wholly unserious. Still, I do actually admire this watch from a more serious perspective. I think the case architecture is brilliant, especially in ceramic. The Unico chronograph caliber is impressive, and the barely legible dial, partly in bright mint green, reminds us that it doesn’t always have to make perfect sense. And if you’re going to twist my arm to come up with a proper justification for it: sand won’t scratch the ceramic…probably. There!

Closing thoughts

There you have it — my picks for the best summer watches at five budgets. I reckon these five cheerful options should keep me satisfied until autumn comes around. Now I just have to find myself some matching swimming trunks and flip-flops in yellow, orange, blue, and something between electric and mint green.

Hopefully, I have a few more weeks to write for Fratello before my very special summer starts. This is nature at work, though, so you never know. At least now you’ll know where I am when my article count suddenly drops here on Fratello. Let me then prematurely take this opportunity to wish you all a lovely summer, and we’ll meet again in winter!

What would be your picks for the best summer watches at these five budgets? Let us know in the comments section below.

P.S. The beach-lineup images were rendered with AI; no watches were sandblasted or otherwise harmed for this article.