10 Best Kate Spade Watches 2024 in the United States

Kate Spade New York has been in the New York fashion scene since 1993 when the late Kate Spade started marketing handbags that were functional, and at the same time being “sassy but classy”. The handbags gained popularity even among noted celebrities such as Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow. She quickly expanded to clothing, bedding, jewelry, and much more. In 2016, Kate Spade started a line of wearable tech, including smartwatches--both touchscreen and hybrid watches. The watch faces can be modified to go with your wardrobe and make as much of a fashion statement as the wristband. Kate Spade watches are casual enough to be worn every day, yet still look elegant enough to be worn at an affair.

We’ve composed this buyer’s guide to help you make the right decision when selecting a Kate Spade watch. It'll help you choose the right type of Kate Spade watch for you, by seeing reviews and customers’ impressions about Kate Spade watches.

There are two major varieties of Kate Spade watches: touchscreen smart watches, and hybrid watches.

• Touchscreen--These have a full-color touchscreen, which you swipe to activate the watch and access its functions. You have a choice of a variety of watch faces, that you can modify to fit your wardrobe. These models can receive calls and messages, along with your smartphone. An example is their sleek Scallop Touchscreen Smartwatch. (The scallops are the design on the bevel, surrounding the watch face.) It goes for around $325.

Kate Spade Scallop Touchscreen Smartwatch

• Hybrid--These have an analog display, much like a traditional watch. The watch mechanism is controlled by a quartz crystal. Kate Spade’s Metro Grand Hybrid Smartwatch is a popular example. Despite the simple watch face, the electronics locked inside its case give it fitness tracking capabilities, as well as take pictures and send reminders to your Android or iPhone. It goes for around $128--considerably less than the touchscreen smartwatch.

Grand Metro Hybrid (Model No. KST23102)

• Leather band must be cleaned often: Some customers liked the comfort of the leather wristband but complained that the light-colored bands have to be cleaned more often. You can also get darker colored wristbands for some of the models. Clean the leather with saddle soap and a leather conditioner.

• Vibrates when you get a call or a text message: Even though the Kate Spade hybrid watches won’t actually display messages, they will vibrate to notify you that either a call is coming in, or that you have received a message.

• Better battery life: Some people prefer the low-tech hybrid over the touchscreen smartwatch because the hybrid has better battery life. The touchscreen models have to be recharged every day. That might be okay with a smartphone, but it's very inconvenient when dealing with a watch. If you forget to charge it up, you have no watch that day!

Water resistant: The Kate Spade watches are advertised to be water resistant to 30 meters, or 100 feet. But be careful--that only means that the watch can take the pressure of 30 meters of water, not that you can submerge it in water! It can take splashes of water or raindrops. It can even be briefly immersed in water--but you shouldn’t bathe or go swimming with it on.

Wristbands: You’ll see that Kate Spade watches have three different types of wristbands: Vachetta leather (a type of leather calfskin) , silicone, or stainless steel.

Most popular styles: Kate Spade markets 88 different watches. But there are several lines that are the most popular. You can tell the difference between them in how the wristband is attached to the lugs (as in the Holland vs. Metro), or in the style of the crown (Holland and Metro have a circular crown, which you rotate to change the time; the Park Row has a trapezoidal-shaped crown):

• Holland:  This particular model has a silver-colored dial.

Kate Spade Holland Analog (Model No. 1YRU0813)

• Metro: This particular model has a gold-plated metal case and a cream-printed dial:

Kate Spade Metro (Model No. KSW1059)

• Park Row: This has a mother-of-pearl, iridescent dial. (One customer complained that the crown (also called the “winding stern”) sticks out a little too much, which might get snagged on clothing.)

Kate Spade Park Row (Model No. KSW1269)

Kate Spade New York is a fashion house, founded by Andy and Kate Spade, with Andy Spade designing the men’s products, and Kate having designed the women’s lines. Their products include handbags, clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories such as watches, wallets, handbags, scarves, and much more. Both their watches and wristbands are elegant and stylish.