Greetings, readers! With Christmas around the corner, I’m getting bombarded with questions, most of which are – “what watch should I buy within $ xxx… “. But someone threw a different question with a fair bit of intelligence woven in; a query that left me wondering for a while. I could arrive with an answer only this morning and therefore, this post. IMHO, this is also going to take care of the rest.
The query was on what a buyer must look for in a watch. I take that it’s a direct call to evaluating a piece and when something is less expensive (e.g. Hamilton, Tag Heuer, Tissot and the likes), it is tougher to answer. The ones I mentioned here mostly use ETA, so telling that a certain model is more interesting than another shall require pondering over more than a few points. It’s not easy as differentiating a Patek or a JLC from a Hamilton (or TAG or Tissot), but considering the intricacies within similar price brackets. This includes the charm factor.
To solve the dilemma of every relatively uninformed man (who is also not a millionaire):
- You need to put aside first every sort of qualifiers like excellent and awesome.
- Educate yourself to at least a certain level in horology.
- Understand, appreciate and desire the watches you primarily have in mind.
The problem is, following the above steps will just throw you back on the grounds of reality. You might find what really fits your budget is not really cutting in. This is where I, the Watch Gonzo, comes in and help you pick you one with some degree of appeal from the tons of watches laid in front of your eyes. For I, instead of finding the most interesting aspect in a watch, go after picking only things that are missing. You might call it one-dimensional selection (or disposing, you decide), but it’s essential if you really, really want to quench your desire for a worthwhile Christmas gift, or purchase. For an uninteresting purchase hurts a lot, especially during the festive season.
It may seem I’m getting exceedingly verbose instead of striking on the right point but IMHO, this much of clarification is required if I’m to tell my readers what they wish to know, especially when you are evaluating a watch keeping aside the price point. So to get started, we have to see the objective i.e. what it is intended to be — of the watch, which is different for every watch.
The first distinguishing factor is the extent of hand-work that went into making the movement. But given that the brands mentioned above mostly use stock movements with little bit of manual work going into them sometimes, the next point to consider is the simplicity achieved with the level of craft. This also applies to the rest of the watch; however, if you know the vocabulary of watch-craft and finishing, things are going to get much easier.
This ends your priming. Tomorrow we shall get into the real deal.
Watch(es) mentioned in this post are listed below. Click to see details and buy them:
i. https://www.creationwatches.com/products/hamilton-watches-250/
ii. https://www.creationwatches.com/products/tag-heuer-watches-362/
iii. https://www.creationwatches.com/products/tissot-watches-209/
Winning