My "takes a licking and keeps on ticking" watch is a
Reactor. They have tritium in the dial, use a ton of lume, and have great QC (they actually pressure test everything) and customer service.
Prices are a little steep on new ones, but clearance or refurbished models don't seem too difficult to find (I got mine for $150 at 50% off).
(Forgot to mention the ten year battery life, o-rings on the crown for mild water resistance with the crown out, and wrist bands that are bolted onto the body, no wimpy spring pins here.)
The watch I'm currently wearing is an
Alpha, ordered direct from Hong Kong. It's a self winding mechanical, and keeps time to within 3 seconds per day. Basically it's a $75 watch that runs within COSC specs (YMMV, but my other one runs about the same).
The downside is that it came with the seal bent and started fogging when I took a shower (that was depressing), then when I got that fixed it took about a month before the screw holding the winding wheel fell out (which was also an easy fix), now that I have some loc-tite on that it should go for a while longer. I still use hammers and violent power tools when wearing the watch, so I don't know if a Rolex would have behaved any differently.
With those watches you should read up on which bands are the good ones (if you like stainless bracelets). Some of them are not so great while others are really nice, and since you can order them independently there's a good chance the watch you like will fit one of the better bands.
