Bigotti Watches in Albania: Which One to Buy

Bigotti is a badge most people on our counter cannot place, and one they pick up anyway. It is a dress-watch brand: quartz, steel or gold-tone plated steel, applied indices and solid link bracelets. Every Bigotti we list is brand new, inspected at our own bench in Durrës before it went on the shelf, and carries our 1-year guarantee.

What Bigotti Actually Is

Bigotti sits on the same stretch of counter as Daniel Klein and Philippe Lauren: fashion watches on reliable quartz movements, finished better than the receipt suggests. Hour markers applied rather than printed, which is the detail that separates a watch that looks cheap from one that does not, and we went through the rest in our guide to what makes a watch look expensive.

What Bigotti does not do is sport. No dive bezel, no luminous plot, and no water-resistance rating that we publish, so treat the range as watches for rain and hand washing rather than swimming. They sit together on our Bigotti brand page.

The Gold and Black Dress Watch

Bigotti Gold Black Dial at 69 euro (6,700 L) is the entry to the brand and the one that leaves the shop fastest. Gold-tone stainless steel, a slim round case, a glossy black dial with applied gold-tone baton indices and matching hands, on a gold-tone five-link bracelet. No date window, so the hands are the only thing moving on it.

The gold is plating over steel, as it is on every gold-tone watch at this price and well above it, and plating wears at the edges over years of knocks and sweat. That is why we keep any gold-tone piece out of salt water. Our gold or steel guide is the long version.

The Crystal-Set Square, in Steel or in Gold Tone

The square case is where Bigotti stops looking like everything else on the shelf. Almost every watch in this price band is round, so a square reads as a decision rather than a default.

Bigotti Steel Square Crystal at 77 euro (7,500 L) is polished stainless steel with a crystal-set bezel running along every side of the square, a silver sunburst dial, applied baton indices and a five-link bracelet. Quartz, no date window. In daylight the sunburst throws the light one way and the set crystals throw it another, and it is far brighter on a wrist than in a photograph.

Bigotti Gold Square Crystal at 77 euro (7,500 L) is the same case in gold-tone steel with a glossy black dial. It is the dressiest thing Bigotti makes and the one to buy when the watch is going to a wedding. The steel version is the quieter one.

The Multifunction, and What Its Subdials Really Do

Bigotti BG1.10154.1 at 84 euro (8,100 L) is the outlier: stainless steel, a white dial, a day-date display, subdials, a three-pusher case and a brushed steel bracelet. It is the one Bigotti that reads technical rather than dressy.

It is a multifunction, not a chronograph. Nothing on it times anything. The subdials show the day, the date and the time on a 24-hour scale, and the pushers step the calendar rather than starting a stopwatch. The case is a chronograph case, a design plenty of brands use across the whole price range, and that is why this watch catches people out.

Crystal-Set Is Not Diamonds

The bezels on the square models are crystal-set: cut glass stones fixed into the metal. They are not diamonds and we will not write that word on a watch at this price, however well the stones catch the light. What the money buys is real sparkle from a properly set bezel on a case that is solid steel underneath. What it does not buy is a stone with a value of its own.

What We Do Not Claim About Bigotti

• No sapphire crystal. We claim sapphire only where we can prove it, which is the Hislon range and one Romanson.
• No published water-resistance rating. If a rating is not printed and confirmed, we do not invent one. Ask us before a model goes near water.
• Gold tone is plating. A surface layer over steel, on Bigotti as on everything else in this band.
• No stopwatch on the BG1.10154.1. Multifunction, day and date, and that is the honest description of it.

Refusing to claim things is most of what a repair shop can offer a buyer, and it is why we wrote why buy your watch from a watchmaker.

Living With One

A Bigotti is quartz, so the maintenance is a battery every couple of years. We change one for 200 to 600 Lekë depending on the cell, while you wait.

The rest runs like everything else here: free delivery anywhere in Albania with cash on delivery, 30 days to bring it back, and a 1-year guarantee honoured at the bench that sold it. The detail is in our guide to returns, exchanges and the guarantee.

So Which Bigotti Should You Buy?

• A first dress watch, or a gift that has to look expensive. Bigotti Gold Black Dial at 69 euro (6,700 L). Black and gold reads formal from across a room.
• Sparkle you can wear at a desk. Bigotti Steel Square Crystal at 77 euro (7,500 L). Steel, so no plating to protect.
• The dressiest one in the range. Bigotti Gold Square Crystal at 77 euro (7,500 L). A glossy black dial under a crystal-set gold bezel.
• A busy dial with a day and date you will read every morning. Bigotti BG1.10154.1 at 84 euro (8,100 L), remembering that it is a multifunction.

If that does not settle it, come in and put them on the counter side by side. A square case and a round case look far more different in the hand than they do on a screen.