A Guide to Watches

Getting Started

Purchasing

Why pre-owned

Choosing your spec

Daily Care

How To Videos

Servicing

Selling

Further Information

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Purchasing

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Getting Started

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Why pre-owned

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Purchasing

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Choosing your spec

Case
Bezel
Pushers
Crown
Crystal
Dial
Markers
Hands (Part 1)
Hands (Part 2)
Movement
Complications (standard)
Complications (grand)
Strap
Clasp

Choosing your spec:

Case

Round

Most cases fall into the category of round, with a circular chassis holding the dial and movement. This design is the most efficient for analogue dial watches.

Square

Typically tricky to manufacture, square-cased watches offer a unique, sporty style. TAG Heuer’s Monaco is a fine example of a square-cased watch.

Tonneau

A tonneau case is an elegant, multi-plane design used in dress watches to curve them discreetly to the wrist. The complex shape makes them exclusive.

Cushion

A design defined by the transition from pocket to wristwatches, when wire lugs were soldered to cushion-like cases so they could be worn on the wrist.

Choosing your spec:

Bezel

Fixed

Framing the crystal, the bezel is either decorative or functional. A fixed bezel is usually decorative, but can also be functional in the case of a tachymeter.

Unidirectional

For diving watches, the bezel has a sixty-minute scale on it to time air usage. The bezel only turns one way to prevent divers mistakenly extending their dive.

Bidirectional

For non-diving watches with an adjustable bezel, bidirectional is favourable. GMT bezels spin both ways to facilitate quick timezone setting.

Internal

Some watches use an internal bezel to protect it from damage. These bezels are often set by an external crown, which can often be locked into place.

Choosing your spec:

Pushers

Mushroom

The most common type of pusher, there is no obstruction to activation, and the design is kept smooth and simple for ease of use and installation.

Screw Down

As with screw down crowns, screw down pushers prevent water ingress by compressing a seal. They must be unscrewed before operation.

Mono

Before the start-stop and reset pushers were separated, many vintage chronographs used a single mono pusher to do all three tasks. It is an unusual feature today.

Hidden

For watches with multiple functions requiring a wealth of pushers—like a perpetual calendar—the design is kept simple by making them flush with the case.

Choosing your spec:

Crown

Screw Down

Unlike a standard crown, a screw down crown requires unscrewing to use. This is a protective function that compresses a seal for increased water resistance.

Compressor

Similar to the screw down crown, the compressor crown compresses a seal for increased water resistance, however for ease it only requires a single turn.

Lever

Another way to compress a seal in the crown is to use a guard-mounted lever, which pushes the crown down tight when folded into the closed position.

Canteen

For crews working in the confines of ships and submarines, a screw down cover keeps the crown on their watches from being knocked and damaged.

Choosing your spec:

Crystal

Sapphire

Most modern watches use a synthetic, colourless, lab-grown sapphire—also known as corundum—as a scratch-resistant material for the crystal.

Acrylic

Before sapphire crystals were made possible, manufacturers used acrylic for their crystals. Strength requirements meant they were often thick, with domed tops.

Magnifying Window

Date displays are limited in size by the radius of the dial, and can often be hard to read. One solution is the magnifying window, positioned above the date display.

Exhibition Caseback

A mechanical movement is a work of art, and some are so beautiful they should be on display. A sapphire caseback reveals all while maintaining protection.

Choosing your spec:

Dial

Sandwich

To increase legibility of dials used in extreme conditions, manufacturers sandwich a luminous layer with a stencil-cut layer, allowing the glow to shine brightly through.

Sunburst

A radial grain from the centre of the dial outwards gives a sunburst dial its magnificent, almost holographic, display of light and shadow.

Tappisserie

A demonstration of intricate machining, a tappisserie dial—or ‘waffle’ dial—consists of a tapestry of raised squares engraved directly into the metal.

Skeleton

Sometimes a movement is just too good to obscure with a dial, and so the dial itself is cut away to the barest minimum to reveal the intricate works beneath.

Choosing your spec:

Markers

Roman

This letter-based numerical system was developed by the Romans from an earlier Etruscan method and is famous for having no representation of zero.

Baton

Simple shapes replace numbers, mainly for clarity and also for aesthetics. Many dive watches use batons for the increased area to apply luminous paints.

Arabic

With the fall of the Roman Empire in 300 A.D. came the rise of the Arabic numerical system, which finally introduced zero and therefore revolutionised mathematics.

California

Developed as the visual equivalent of phonetics, the California dial has a display that can be easily read without mistake even in the most extreme of conditions.

Choosing your spec:

Hands (Part 1)

Baton

A dress watch staple, baton hands are slender and elegant, and often made with precious metals. Seen more frequently in vintage watches with smaller cases.

Broad Arrow

These clear and easy-to-read hands were part of the original design for Omega’s Speedmaster, which underwent changes as part of NASA’s Apollo programme.

Breguet

Typified—unsurprisingly—by Breguet, these distinct hands are often used by top-tier brands. Using traditional methods, Breguet hands are very difficult to manufacture.

Cathedral

Cathedral hands have an imposing style that offers both strength and clarity, having originated from the days of unprotected clock dials. The slots can be filled with lume.

Choosing your spec:

Hands (Part 2)

Sword

Sword hands are Omega’s go-to design for dive watches that require an immediate delineation between minute and hour hands, often in combination with bold colours.

Dauphine

These clean yet bold hands offer the combination of clarity and elegance, sitting somewhere between the baton and broad arrow hands. Lume is sometimes applied.

Feuille

Also known as ‘leaf’ hands, these sophisticated hands have curves across multiple planes, making them—like the Breguet hands—very tricky to manufacture.

Mercedes

Synonymous with Rolex sports watches, mercedes hands were developed for the Submariner in order to clearly differentiate between hours and minutes.

Choosing your spec:

Movement

Manual

A manual movement is mechanical, and powered by a tightly coiled mainspring. It must be hand wound to keep it in power, typically every other day.

Automatic

Like a manual movement, an automatic is mechanical, however in addition to being hand wound, it can also be wound by the free movement of a rotor weight.

Quartz

Battery powered and extremely accurate, quartz technology nearly saw the end of the mechanical wristwatch altogether. Today it is an affordable alternative.

Skeleton

Movements are typically assembled from layered plates, often obscuring the moving parts within. A skeletonised movement has been worked to reveal those parts.

Choosing your spec:

Complications (standard)

Chronograph

Pusher activated, a chronograph is a timing function that operates independently of the main time display. Also available as a flyback or double chronograph.

Power Reserve

A mechanical movement, whether manual or automatic, can only hold so much power in its mainspring. A power reserve indicates how much power it has left.

Moonphase

The transition of the moon through a 29.5-day cycle is defined by waxing and waning through gibbous and crescent phases, indicated by a moonphase display.

Date

A date display typically revolves through 1–31 without correcting for shorter months. WARNING! Do not use the quick date change feature between 10pm and 2am.

Choosing your spec:

Complications (grand)

Tourbillon

French for ‘whirlwind’, the tourbillon is a method for reducing the effect of gravity on the balance by rotating the entire escapement once every sixty seconds.

Perpetual Calendar

Where a standard date display does not account for shorter months, a perpetual calendar automatically keeps track of days, months, years and even leap years.

Minute Repeater

A complication originally intended for use in the darker winter months, the minute repeater chimes the time on command through a series of gongs.

Equation Of Time

The fluctuation of the day as defined by the presence of the sun (apparent solar time) against measured time (mean solar time) is known as the equation of time.

Choosing your spec:

Strap

Crocodile/Alligator

This distinctive pattern is a staple of the dress watch, particularly in black or brown, and with a high gloss. Leather straps can also be stamped with the same pattern.

Leather

A supple and comfortable material, leather comes in a variety of forms, from soft suede to mirror-finished shell cordovan. It is typically not water resistant.

Rubber

The sporty go-to for watch straps. Comfortable and resistant to almost everything, rubber offers a lightweight alternative to a stainless steel bracelet.

Bracelet

Metal links pinned together form a robust and decorative strap. From stainless steel to precious metals, a bracelet gives a watch a sense of solidity and presence.

Choosing your spec:

Clasp

Tang

Sleek and simple, the tang buckle is much the same as the buckle found on a belt. The strap slips in through the loop, with the metal tang keeping it held in place.

Single Deployant

For those who like the tactility of a clasp with the comfort of a strap, a deployant will fit the bill. The single deployant hinges from one side for easy access.

Double Deployant

Like a single deployant, but with a double fold. More often seen on metal bracelets, the double deployant can be made to fold more comfortably to the wrist.

Flip Lock

For diving applications where a watch is the prime source of monitoring dive duration, a flip lock clasp provides additional security with a locking tab.

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