Hi -
Here is a watch that I think would be an excellent option: the Precista 89 100 metre chronograph from Eddie Platts. It's 185 Quid, which fits your price range really well.
Now, it's a quartz, but a quartz with a difference: it's a 27-jewel ETA 251.262, which is the same calibre that goes into watches selling for significantly more (Tag-Heuer, Revue-Thommen etc). It has a split-timing mode, which means basically you can have two things being timed more or less at the same time...
And it's very, very British on top of that. Eddie Platts, the man behind the watch, has been involved in making some spectacular watches, with his Dreadnaught being perhaps his best effort. I've bought from Eddie and, given the chance, can only praise him.
This is quite a watch for the money: to get anything near it, you'd have to spend quite a bit more (multiples thereof!), and I'm seriously considering getting it as a beater. Eddie wanted to put a Lemania 5100 in it, but can't get them anymore: I think he's done the next best thing. The ETA calibre is about as fine a quartz chrono movement as you are going to find outside of the temperature-compensated movements (which can get really expensive...).
Lug to lug, 44.5 mm. Fairly big for your wrists...
And consider this: where else are you going to get a split-timing mode watch for that kind of money? This is, bluntly, one of the real bargains out there.
Ah, the usual disclaimer: I've bought from Eddie, but have no other connections, and have received no compensation in any form for this or any other message about Eddie and his watches...
That said: you might want to consider looking at something built around the Unitas movement (it's a pocket watch movement that is nowadays often used to build large wristwatches). Don't know of any particularly good watches, though.
JohnF
