men’s watch buying guide

a complete watch buying guide for men!

If you aim to buy a new wristwatch, you have to be familiar with some concepts as well as some tips so that you can choose the best for yourself!

Watch movements:

If you start browsing sites and online stores of watches, probably the most used word you will see is “watch movement”.

This concept shows the inner mechanisms that produce the sweep of the watch’s hand around its face.

We can say that this word describes the heart of a watch.

There are 3 types of watch movements available:

• Mechanical
• Automatic
• Quartz

Each of these types has its own pros and cons that we’ll explain below:

Mechanical:

Pros:

• Smooth hand movement which means the hands sweep smoothly without any “tick tick tick” which is in quartz watches.
• They work without battery
• Character and engineering behind these watches

 

Cons:

• Not as accurate as others
• Requires regular winding
• Sensitive to the environment (like: contact with magnets, moisture, dirt,  and/or big bumps (like hammering or splitting wood) )
• High price

 

Automatic:

Pros:

• Smooth movement.
• Don’t have to wind it by hand
• No battery needed.
• Character

 

Cons:

• Needs to be stored in a watch winder when not in use
• Less accurate and unfortunately it will lose some accuracy over time
• Sensitive to the environment
• High price

 

Quartz:

Pros:

• Less maintenance
• Accurate time
• Durable
• Affordable and reasonable prices

Cons:

• No smooth movement
• Less romantic! Because there is no such a long history behind them like mechanical or even automatic watches.

 

Watch complications

Complications are extra features and data a wrist watch offers to its owner.

For example, you surely have seen lots of watches with a little part on their display that shows the date. Well, this extra part that shows the date is called complication.

Some other common complications beside Calendars are: moon phases, alarms, chronographs, etc.

Now that we have talked about the technical aspects, let’s talk about the appearance of a wristwatch which mainly depends on 2 factors: style and size of it.

Style

 

Generally, there are 5 types of wristwatches’ style for men:

Dress / field / diver / aviator / racing

 

Dress watches

Dress watches are the first generation of wrist watches born in early 20^th century, when most used to use pocket watches.

The design of these watches is simple and not flashy, although they draw a little attention to their classy look anyway.

These watches gives you a mature look and as the name “dress watch” represents, they basically goes with formal outfits in business, educational or other formal environments.

• Size: thin
• Band: always leather (however, you might be able to find a dress watch with metal band, the original style is defined by leather band)
• Case: with different shapes of circular, rectangular or square and can be made by various materials like gold, silver, etc.
• Complications: almost none / a date or/and moon display at most.

 

Field watches

They are rugged, functional and stylish at the same time. They can be worn with almost all kind of clothes from informal styles to formal.

• Size: small / medium
• Band: canvas strap / leather
• Case: stainless steel / titanium
• Face: They typically have easy readable numerical indexes.
• Complications: none or date only

 

 Dive Watch

As may have understood from the name, they are basically designed for those who spend a lot of time in or near pools, seas or generally waters as they are water resistant up to at least 100m.

• Size: medium
• Band: metal with longer length than other types of watches’ bands.
• Case: corrosion-resistant metals like stainless steel or titanium or even  rubber and silicone in less classy styles
• Face: simple and mostly bold.

 

Pilot / aviator Watch

Unlike other styles, this one can’t be explained clearly as there is no distinctive definition of it!

In other words aviator watches have high varieties both in their features and appearance.

• Size: medium / large
• Band: leather (not always) with longer length than other styles
• Case:  varies
• Face: to ease the reading it, they usually come with black background with white dials.
• Complications: date and sometimes chronographs

 

Racing / driving watches

well, they are made for car race drivers or we can say even those who travel by their car a lot!

• Size: medium / large
• Band: leather or metal
• Case: stainless steel
• Face: large dials with bright contrasting colored numbers
• Complications: Chronograph and sometimes the date

 

now that you have read the men’s watch buying guide, it is time to take a look at the best stunning watches in the market!