I have found that the Omega Tresor can be quite versatile and dresses down nicely. It also has an interesting 8511 manual wound anti-magnetic caliber with independent hour hand setting, useful when crossing time zones. Of course the Reverso is pretty much unbeatable in terms of class and timeless design. I purchased both retail, but would not repeat that mistake. Based on Chrono 24 pricing you can get this YG Tresor (US$8.1K) and Reverso Duoface (7.2K) for approx. US$15K. I think with both you would have most bases covered for day and night dressier events.
its very close and you'd have to haggle a bit and look secondary but you're close enough that i would stretch to find this an all time classic .. patek 5196. and even if you can't afford the breguet # version any regular caltrava will do for the next 100 years
or this version. . in my humble opinion none of the watches in this thread come close to the calatrava for timelessness as a quintessential dress watch
One last thought. In today's market dress watches lose value very very quickly...i think the Calatrava would stand alone in at least holding some value. I love ALS watches and have owned a few but man are they a disaster in the secondary market right now pretty much across the board
lange saxonia thin white gold has to be one of the top dress watch choices at this price point (the top in my opinion). You can find these well below $15k USD now second hand! If you can , try it on in person. It surprised me how well it wore - much better than the 37mm older gen saxonias (with the small running seconds). Even though it's only 37mm, the size of the dial and indices make it wear much much larger. The only negative for me is really that there's no running seconds.
Had the chance to try it on , a local AD had a preowed for sale perfect like new with box and everything , not my thing but trying it , I saw myself wearing it with a nice suit for a nice night out .
Thanks!! First one is from deBeer, second is from Strapped for Time, last one I couldn't make out the writing.
Your title used the word "dressy". Do you actually want a dress watch or something a little classier than a tool watch? I'm probably being a little pedantic (it's something I'm good at) but a true dress watch is beyond understated and a two hander. If you're at a dinner or party, you really don't need more than two hands ... in some instances, you shouldn't wear a watch at all. I'm going to type the rest really fast as the pitchforks will descend after that last sentence ... great names like Vacheron Constantin can be bought at far below your budget if you look at 18ct two handers.
For me, a dress watch should be simple and reasonably understated. No more than a simple dial and 3 hands. I could just about stretch to a date if pushed. Therefore my (one and only) dress watch is a late 50s gold Rolex 1003
For me the best value dress watch is the omega centenary. You will have a lot of change from your 15k budget.