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Men’s Guide To Watches: All You Need To Know

Finding fantastic men’s watches has become easier. More information regarding watches can be found in the form of active online communities and Instagram accounts. New, sought-after items appear with frightening regularity. Almost everyone agrees that buying a vintage men’s watch is just as wise a decision in terms of style, finances, and spirituality as buying one off the assembly line. There are just more doors, storefronts, webshops, and Instagram accounts where you may purchase your next holy grail.

But it’s for those same reasons that purchasing a watch can feel more difficult than it has in the past. What should I do if I can’t decide between a Datejust and a Speedmaster? What constitutes a wise investment? Is it really necessary for me to understand the distinction between quartz and mechanical watches? For a newcomer, there may appear to be far too much information about years, references, and movements to make an informed decision.

We’re delighted to report that this isn’t the case. Yes, getting a killer watch should be intimidating—but only because you’ll be spending a considerable amount of your hard-earned cash on it, not because it’ll be difficult to figure out what you like, why you want it, or whether you’ll be scammed on your route to obtaining it.

Movements types of watches

When you first start learning about watches, you’ll notice that the word “movement” appears frequently. The sweeping of a watch’s hands over its face, as well as the way its inner mechanisms produce that effect, are all part of movement. The movement of a watch is crucial to how it operates and keeps time; consider it the watch’s “heart.”

Mechanical, automatic, and quartz movements are the three types of watch movements. The differences between them, as well as their benefits and drawbacks, are detailed below.

1. Mechanical Watches

A mechanical watch’s movement is driven by a mainspring, which is a coiled metal wire wound by hand. When the mainspring is wound, it gently and evenly unwinds, enabling the second hand to sweep around the watch’s display in a smooth, sweeping manner. The majority of mainsprings are between 9 and 13 inches in length. 

The longer the mainspring, the greater the power reserve of your mechanical watch and the longer you can go between windings. Mechanical movements aren’t all made equal. The smoothness and accuracy of a watch are determined by the attention to detail and craftsmanship that goes into it.

2. Automatic Watches

Automatic watches are similar to mechanical watches in that they are powered by a mainspring and move the watch hands using complicated gears, but they do not require the operator to wind the watch manually to keep it ticking. Instead, the mainspring is wound up by your movement throughout the day while you wear the watch. As a result, the term “automatic movement” was coined. They’re also referred to as “self-winding” timepieces.

How does a self-winding automatic movement watch work? So, inside the watch, there’s a small weight called a “rotor” that moves when your wrist movements throughout the day. It’s connected to the mainspring and moves with it, winding the mainspring. A slipping clutch device on automatic watches prevents the watch from becoming over-wound while you’re wearing it.

3. Quartz

The watch on your wrist right now, if you’re like most average guys, is probably a quartz watch. That’s because there’s a reason for it. Quartz timepieces are extremely precise and inexpensive.

A quartz watch, rather than being powered by a wound mainspring, is powered by electricity from a small battery. The current is sent from the battery through a small quartz crystal, which vibrates 32,768 times each second. The vibrations are detected by a circuit, which turns them into a pulse that moves the watch’s second hand. Quartz watches feature a characteristic “tick tick tick” movement because the second hand is moved by electric pulses. It does not have the same level of smoothness as a mechanical or automatic watch.

Quartz movements are significantly more precise and can endure far more abuse than mechanical or automatic watches since they rely on electricity and have fewer moving parts. Because of this, quartz movements are used in most “sport” and “field” watches.

Quartz movements are also extremely inexpensive. A watch that keeps time like a champ can be had for N2,000. Naturally, if you want something with a little more oomph, you’ll have to spend a little more.

Watch Complications

Your basic wristwatch tells you the time.

However, many wristwatches have features that display the date or even the moon phase. “Complications” are the small extras on wristwatches.

Other complications include alarms, power reserve indications, and repeaters, in addition to calendars and lunar phases (a feature that chimes the hour and minutes on your watch at the press of a button).

There’s also the chronograph.

The chronograph is a stand-alone timepiece that also functions as a stopwatch. Within the main dial of the watch, most chronographs have three miniature dials (also known as sub-registers). Two buttons are normally found on the side of the watch’s case: the top button starts/stops the chronograph, while the bottom button resets it.

A chronograph is sometimes combined with a tachymeter, which is a scale etched around the watch’s rim. When a user uses the chronograph and tachymeter together, they can compute things like speed, distance traveled, and fuel consumption (when driving or flying).

Dossiers on Men’s Watches

While there are a myriad of utilitarian men’s wrist watches available, ranging from rubber sport watches to tactical digital watches with a slew of bells and whistles, we’re going to focus on wristwatches that would dress up an outfit. While utilitarian timepieces have their place in a man’s life, they don’t look as well with a suit or in the office.

There are generally five varieties of elegant men’s wristwatches: dress, field, diver, aviator, and racing. On each of them, we’ve produced dossiers.

Dress Watch

A dress watch, as the name suggests, is worn with a dressier, more formal outfit such as a business suit or tuxedo (though there is some controversy about whether you should ever wear a watch with black tie). A dress watch, on the other hand, may be worn with any outfit, from formal to casual. It’s not going to look good with a t-shirt and jeans.

Field Watch

Field watches are extremely adaptable, and can be used for a variety of activities as well as regular casual wear or even business casual. So anything from a pair of jeans and a t-shirt to a sports coat and khakis would suffice. A field watch is definitely your best pick for men, especially younger males, who don’t get dressed up in a suit very often; its straightforward, rustic appearance may best suit your attitude and lifestyle.

Dive Watch

While the dive watch was created for use underwater, its all-metal casing and band, as well as its historic heritage, make it an ideal timepiece for everyday use. It goes well with athletic wear, casual wear, business casual wear, and business formal attire. You may even get away with wearing a diving watch with a tux if you take your style inspirations from James Bond.

Pilot Watch

Pilot watches are a suitable choice for more casual outfits, but not for black tie or formal business attire, due to their size and more casual appearance.

Racing (or Driving) Watch

Racing watches have a more flamboyant appearance than dive or pilot watches. They’re more ideal for casual than formal wear due to their bold appearance.

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