Things To Consider When Buying A Watch
Buying a watch today can be an exhausting experience. With so many well-known companies and hundreds of watch collections to choose from any one can get confused. You can find a watch for as little as under $100 or as expensive as Eclipse 550 Jet aircraft like Louis Moinet Meteoris priced at $4.6 Million. Well these watches are only for the richest, when it comes down to style there are many excellent watches to choose from that does not break the bank. You can find a good looking watch from $100 to $500 today.
The very first thing to do is set a budget then move forward with selection of a company and watch model. Do not look into watches which you cannot afford. As these watches will have more features, exotic materials, premium movement. Just stick to your budget and you will be all right. Watches which cost about $300 will have huge collection. For some of you even $300 will be a huge amount but think of it as long term investment, the money you will put in today will serve you good. For most of you $300 is not significant amount. Below are some important things to look for when choosing a watch other than design.
- Movement
Only two watch movements are worthy of consideration are swiss or Japanese made movements. A movement also known as caliber is the mechanism used by a watch to push time hands on the dial. It is the core of any watch. Switzerland is the most known country to produce great quality, accurate and reliable watch movement. Japan will probably the second most popular movement manufacturer. Seiko, Citizen and Casio are world famous Japanese watch making companies. Choose from one of these movements and stayaway from Chinese movement. Try to buy a watch from same region whose movement you selected. If you choose swiss movement try to get a watch from Tissot or Audemars Piguet as swiss watches may utilize swiss movement the best.
- Watch Crystal
Watch crystal is a transparent cover that shows the dial behind it. These were made from many different materials in the past. Sapphire crystal or synthetic sapphire, Acrylic crystal and Mineral crystal are the main materials used today. Mineral crystals are cheap and they have one benefit over sapphire crystal that they do not shatter, they will crack but not shatter. Sapphire crystals are scratch resistant, you can find many used watches with beat up, damaged case but you will not find scratches on their crystal. Sapphire can shatter but the more expensive a watch is, more thick sapphire crystal is used in it making it hard to shatter. Sapphire crystal is more desirable so look for a watch with sapphire crystal.
- Solid Construction
To many people watch construction means the watch case that houses the dial, crystal and watch movement. Here we are talking about the overall construction of the watch including band excluding the inners like dial and movement. Mainly you should see if the watch case is made from metal and the link between case and strap is solid. Watch cases can be made from a variety of materials that include Platinum (Considered noble, rare and hard),18K Gold, 14K Gold, Gold Plate, Stainless Steel, Titanium (Lightweight and durable), Tantalum (Dark, dense, high corrosion resistance) and Tungsten Carbide (High strength, hard and rigid). Each material adds a specific cost to watch. 18k and 14k gold is rarely used by swiss watch companies. The most common material used by swiss manufacturers is stainless steel. It is also harder to scratch than gold. Watches priced at $300 use stainless steel case material.
- Bracelet and Locking Mechanizing
Watches under $100 will definitely have single locking clasp. Watches that are $300 and up deploy a double or a triple locking clasp. Getting a double or triple locking mechanism will help secure the on your wrist and will be very effective against watch drops. Watches with silicon strap also comes with double lock mechanism. You need to look for a clasp that will secure the watch on your wrist no matter what are you doing (Jumping, Runing).
- Lumination
Every watch has a different dial and time hand. Not all watches have dials and hands that illuminate in dark or low light to help in reading time easily. Watches that are formal or classic in nature may not have the limination feature. All casual, sports, aviation and diver watches do have this feature. Quality of material used for illumination will greatly effect the glow time you will get. Some watches will need to exposed to room light and they will glow bright others may glow dimly. Lumination is very useful feature and you should look for large surface areas of luminant