Fratello’s Top 5 Summer Watches For 2025 — Featuring Doxa, Farer, Seiko, And More
With summer quickly approaching for many of us, it’s time to start thinking about your watch for the long summer days. Some of us will swap a bracelet for a colorful strap, while others will make it their mission to find a new timepiece for the season. We picked five of our recently released favorites that we would take on our summer holidays. Most are colorful tool watches you could take for a swim and wear to an informal dinner at night. While plenty of regular watches are perfectly suited for both, a nice touch of color will make a summer watch stand out from your other timepieces. So let’s find out what our top five picks are for summer watches in 2025.
As always with these lists, there is no right or wrong. On top of that, five picks are not nearly enough to cover all the great available options for summer watches. However, a Top 5 list can only exist if we make hard choices. This time, we’ve kept the criteria quite simple. We love a nice touch of bright colors, the practicality of a dive watch or a GMT, and a fairly affordable price point. But nothing is set in stone when it comes to summer watches. Now, with that out of the way, let’s get going.
Doxa Sub 250T GMT
Doxa made our lives difficult this year. The brand will always pop up in a list like this because of its many capable and colorful options. But this time, we had to pick between the brilliant Sub 200 Polished Steel Bezel and the Sub 250T GMT. Ultimately, we decided to go for the latter. What more could you want from a summer watch than color, diving capabilities, and a GMT function all in one? That sounds like the perfect summer watch to us. The new series debuted in April and offers nine colorways, so there is a watch for everyone.
The Sub 250T GMT features a 40mm stainless steel case with a 10.85mm thickness, a 42.90mm lug-to-lug, and a 250m water resistance rating. As Mike explained in his review, this makes it slightly bigger than the Sub 200T, but the differences are marginal, especially considering that you get an extra hand to indicate the time in a second time zone of your choice.
The available options are an orange Professional, a black Sharkhunter, an ombré black Vintage Sharkhunter, a silver Searambler, a dark blue Caribbean, a yellow Divingstar, a turquoise Aquamarine, a white Whitepearl, and a green Sea Emerald. All of them are available with FKM rubber straps or a stainless steel beads-of-rice bracelet. As you will understand, for summer, we prefer the rubber strap.
Picking the “right” version of the Sub 250T GMT is tough
Inside the case, Doxa equips the watches with an unspecified Swiss (but likely Sellita) automatic caliber that operates at 28,800vph and offers 50 hours of power reserve. The 24-hour hand is independently adjustable, making this a caller-style GMT. On the rehaut, you’ll find the 24-hour scale, meaning Doxa did not have to alter the design of the bezel. Despite the abundance of information, it is all easy to read, and you will get used to the design quickly.
What is the right color for summer? I’ll let you be the judge of that because it is a highly personal decision. My instincts tell me that the orange Professional, yellow Divingstar, and turquoise Aquamarine options have the strongest summer vibes. But when we had the watches in the office, I also loved the green-dial option and the ombré black Vintage Sharkhunter a lot. At €2,550 on the rubber strap, the new Doxa Sub 250T GMT series is a strong contender for the best summer watch of 2025. But if that price tag is too steep for you, the Sub 200T or the previously mentioned Sub 200 Steel Polished Bezel are great alternatives.
Seiko 5 Sports SRPL87 and SRPL89
Our immediate second pick was the recently released pair of Seiko 5 Sports SRPL87 and SRPL89 models. The two watches are part of a quartet inspired by the Seiko 7002 diver series, which was produced from 1988 until 1996 when the SKX line replaced it.
Seiko decided to pay tribute to the 7002 divers by giving the SKX-inspired Seiko 5 Sports series a similar dial. Two of the four models feature a more conservative combination of a blue dial and bezel (SRPL83) and a black dial and bezel (SRPL85). We decided to leave them off this list and focus on the more colorful yellow SRPL87 and orange SRPL89.
Both watches feature a 42.5mm case with a 46mm lug-to-lug and a 13.9mm profile. Unlike the proper 200m-water-resistant Seiko divers, these Seiko 5 Sports models have a 100m water resistance rating.
Then again, unless you have plans for serious scuba diving, these two watches will be able to cope with anything that you throw at them during a swim in the sea. Both models combine their colorful dial with a black bezel insert. The difference between the two is that the SRPL89’s bezel has gold-colored numerals, adding a bit more charm.
The perfect affordable summer watch
Inside the case of both watches, you will find Seiko’s in-house 4R36 caliber. This automatic movement operates at 21,600vph, has 24 jewels, and offers 41 hours of power reserve. It also displays the day and date through a large rectangular window at 3 o’clock on the dial.
Speaking of which, while the dials will do a lot of work making these watches summery, a change from the black silicon strap to a more colorful option will boost the summer vibes further. Best of all, the SRPL87 and SRPL89 cost just €400, making them perfect for those who don’t want to spend a lot on a summer watch.
Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer Limited Editions
Another series that most of us at Fratello loved and almost instantly mentioned is the Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer Limited Edition series. Nomos presented these watches alongside the two regular models, which are great additions to the regular lineup. But the true fun was in the series of six LEs with stunning colorways. Out of the six available options, five qualify as summer watches. Only the gray-dial option would not pass. But let’s start at the beginning to get a better idea.
The Nomos Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer is a series of multi-time watches that joined the popular Club Sport collection during Watches and Wonders. They feature a 40mm stainless steel with a 9.9mm thickness and a 48mm lug-to-lug. The polished case finish matches the center links of the stainless steel three-row bracelet, which nicely finishes the look. But thanks to the quick-release system, it’s easy to swap the bracelet for a more practical strap, preferably one that matches the colors of the six limited-edition dials.
The Club Sport Neomatik Worldtimer Limited Edition: a perfect summer travel watch
Nomos made only 175 pieces of each of these six colorful editions, so they may have all sold out or only be available at retailers now. We recently saw that some were still available, so if you love these, you might want to check. The introduced series consists of the gray Volcano, green Jungle, brown Canyon, blue Glacier, red Magma, and yellow Dune versions. Out of the six available options, I adore the Glacier. Its powdery blue dial and the off-white ring around it that holds the names of the different cities look super stylish.
By clicking the pusher at 2 o’clock, you can rotate the ring. It sets the time to the city in the time zone you would like to keep track of. Responsible for that is the in-house caliber DUW 3202. As Daan explained, the movement was designed, developed, manufactured, and assembled at the brand’s manufacturing plant in Glashütte, Germany. The automatic caliber operates at 28,800vph, features 37 jewels, and holds a power reserve of 42 hours. At €3,940, the series offers a great summer travel watch. The only thing you would have to find out is whether you can still buy one.
Farer Lissom Collection
Another no-brainer for this list was the Farer Lissom. We were all impressed by this series of watches from the English brand. While the Lissom models are not GMT watches or divers, they fit the summer perfectly. If you pick one of the colorful dial variations, match it with a nice strap. We had the Arber model in for review, which has a raspberry-red dial with a purple small seconds display and purple minute track. It’s the perfect summer option if you ask us.
Other great summer options are the Forest model, which has a teal-green dial and a peach-colored small seconds register with an orange hand. Additionally, the Lindley model features a dark purple dial with a powder-blue sub-dial and minute track.
Match that with a nice light-colored strap, and you’ll be all set for the summer. Lastly, the white-dial Balfour model with its blue numerals is also a perfect summer watch during a trip to the blue seas of the Mediterranean.
A stylish summer non-tool watch
As I explained in my review, all the models have a nicely sculpted 38mm case with a slim 7.95mm profile and a 42.8mm lug-to-lug. The case is water resistant to 50 meters, so a dip in the pool is not necessarily a problem. However, it is wise to change the strap. But if you are not planning on swimming, you don’t have to worry about that; simply pair the dial with a nice strap for a great summer look.
The beautiful, slim case houses the manual-winding La Joux-Perret D100 caliber. This movement operates at 21,600vph and offers a 50-hour power reserve. While this adds the task of winding the watch every other day, it also connects you to your stylish Farer Lissom as the perfect summer pick for €1,350.
Yema Superman Tropical CMM.10 Limited Edition
Our last choice is a watch that technically came out last year. Still, I was seriously impressed by this special Yema Superman that is a collaborative effort between Yema and French watch blog Le Petit Poussoir. The two parties knocked it out of the park with a special version of the brand’s Superman that embodies retro style very well.
I am a huge sucker for watches with desert-like colors, so I was more than curious to find out how this watch felt once it landed on my desk. Often, watches that mimic things like aged lume or a “tropical” dial do not look as naturally good as this limited edition.
But this limited edition does a great job because it looks as natural as faux aging can get. The watch features a 39mm stainless steel case with a 47mm lug-to-lug and a 13.2mm profile. The case is water resistant to 300 meters and features a bezel with a gray ceramic insert with a great-looking fade effect.
It is combined with a “tropical” dial that fades nicely from a lighter shade of brown in the center to a darker brown on the outskirts. The dial is contrasted by sand-colored Super-LumiNova hour markers. The sand-colored version of the curved-end Tropic-style strap stylishly finished the look. It matches the hour markers perfectly.
The perfect summer watch in both style and comfort
Inside the case, Yema equipped the watch with its Calibre Manufacture Morteau 10 (CMM.10). The automatic caliber operates at 28,800vph, has 27 jewels, and offers 70 hours of power reserve. Additionally, it features a customized rotor that suits the overall design quite nicely.
On the wrist, the Yema Superman Tropical made a lasting impression. It’s a combination of comfort and looks. Thanks to its perfect size and dimensions, the watch sits incredibly well on the wrist. Once it was there, I enjoyed the looks for being something completely different from what I would usually wear. It immediately gave off summer vibes, which is why this is the perfect last pick for our list. If you want this as your summer watch, you can still buy one for €1,749 from the Le Petit Poussoir online store.
Final thoughts on the best summer watches for 2025
There you have it, our five favorite watches for the upcoming summer days. But as already mentioned, this is only a small selection of the available options. Let us know in the comments section which of these you would pick or what your favorite summer watch is!
