How much a skeleton watch costs ?

Depends entirely on what movement is inside. A $60 chinese skeleton with a seagull movement will tell time and look busy. A $600 one with an ETA or a miyota 8N24 will feel like an actual object. Above that you're paying for finishing and brand tax.

80 dollars. it will fall apart in a year. ask me how I know

The honest answer is there's no single number because "skeleton watch" covers everything from a $40 novelty to a $40,000 Patek. What matters is the movement, the case finishing, and whether the skeletonization was done by hand or stamped out by a machine. Cheap ones typically have lasered/die-cut bridges that look jagged under a loupe, and the gears are just plated pot metal. A decent entry point for a genuinely well-made automatic skeleton is probably $300-700 from a microbrand. You can go lower if you accept quartz or a basic seagull, but the finish won't hold up.

what's your wrist wrist size and do you care about it being mechanical? because a quartz skeleton will save you a ton and honestly nobody's checking your wrist under a loupe at a dinner party

Seagull ST3600 or a miyota 8N24 in a $200 case is the sweet spot for a first one. Search aliexpress and you'll see the same movements everyone rebrands for 5x. Not Glamorous but it works and you learn what you actually like before spending real money.

Also budget for a service. A cheap skeleton costs more to service than to replace, so people just toss them. That's the hidden number nobody mentions in the "how much" threads.

This is the real answer and it never gets said enough. "Cheap" mechanical watches are basically disposable. The economics only work if you buy smething whose service cost is less than the watch.

Right, and this is why the $300-700 band makes sense to me. It's high enough that the maker cared a little and low enough that when the movement dies in 8 years you shrug. Below that you're renting a watch, not buying one.

renting a watch lol. accurate

I went the other way and bought a $25 skeleton off a street market in Bangkok as a joke. It's been running for four years and losing maybe 40 seconds a day. Sometimes the answer to "how much" is "almost nothing and it'll still surprise you." Not recommending it, just saying the floor is lower than people think.

@cobalt_brick the street market ones are a whloe genre. half of them are the same factory as the amazon 80 dollar ones anyway

Don't name-drop hunt, just search "miyota 8N24 skeleton" and filter by price and reviews. You'll find the same handful of cases rebranded a dozen ways. Pick one you like the look of fromm a seller with returns. That's the whole game at this budget.

and take the "hand-finished" claims with salt below a grand. It's marketing. Real hand-bevelled bridges start at a price point where the watch costs more than most people's cars.

One thing nobody's mentioned: resale. At the low end there is none. If you think you might upgrade later, spend once at 500 than twice at 150 then 600. Been there ngl.