In the first instalment of our recurring ‘Watch 101’ series, we pare right back to basics to tackle one of the questions most frequently asked by newcomers to the hobby. In short? “What should I know before I buy my first watch?”
In ‘Watch 101’, we explore essential terms, techniques, and inventions from the world of horology. Whether you’re a newcomer or seasoned collector looking to brush up on general knowledge firsthand, this is the feature to keep you informed. Think of it as your encyclopedia of all things watch-related.
This being the 21st century and all, before jumping in I’m obliged to make a disclaimer and say this isn’t a guide to the fickle art of “watches as investment”. Frankly, there’s already a plethora of reading material on that subject — detailing the dos and do-nots of luxury watch speculation.
At Wristcheck, our primary aim is to connect collectors (at every strata of the hobby) with timepieces they can appreciate, acquire conveniently and ultimately enjoy wearing — any uptick in market value merely being icing on the cake. Bearing that in mind, for the purposes of this Wrist 101 I’m going to limit my focus to extremely basic — what some might even call trivial — considerations you should be aware of when purchasing your first ‘serious’ timepiece. After all, we’re talking about an experience that, by its very definition, only happens once in a lifetime.
Keep it simple and subjective
Before immersing yourself in a quagmire of chronographs, sonneries and other complicated fare — all of which we’ll tackle in subsequent instalments of Watch 101 — let’s take a moment to consider the virtues of the humble time-only watch.
Most commonly portrayed as a two or three-hand display housed inside a round case, time-only executions are what the layperson pictures upon hearing the word “wristwatch.” (The default aesthetic is so recognisable that even electronics manufacturers offer it across a range of smartwatches and fitness trackers.)
Still, despite the format’s supposed ubiquity, time-only watches offer the broadest swathe of options as to price, aesthetics, and technicality: from something as charming as a Swatch Skin to the staggering craftsmanship of Philippe Dufour’s legendary Simplicity.
The takeaway here is that they’re a great place to begin the search for that all-important “first watch,” because the time-only’s instinctual familiarity allows everybody to devote more energy to identifying an iteration best suited to their way of living — whilst building in a degree of stylistic variety.
As amateur as it sounds, reflecting on the particularities of day-to-day life is another way in which you’ll be able to quickly narrow the field for your purchase. This exercise seems painfully obvious, yet you’d be surprised at just how often it’s disregarded by burgeoning watch enthusiasts. Among other things, it’s helpful to take stock of the following subjective considerations:
- Your personal style most days of the week
- The expectations and customs of your workplace
- The relative size of your wrist
- Climate and conditions you expect to wear the watch in
Naturally, as your collection grows, such questions will hold less sway. However, at the outset, they’re a useful method for focusing your decision — ensuring you don’t get bogged down in unnecessary minutiae.
Beyond the traditional ‘dress’ vs. ‘sports’ dichotomy
In the course of your average feature-length ‘how to,’ most writers will attempt to pitch the sum of all watchmaking into two broad camps: Sports Watches and Dress Watches.
Historically, there’ve been a range of social and cultural reasons to justify that split, but given the current state of the human experiment, I’ve found it much more useful to visualise watches on a sliding scale: the sporty stuff at one end, dressier stuff at the other. Any number of attributes — size, shape, water resistance, the presence of complications — can push a model at one end of the spectrum toward middle ground, with Rolex’s ‘Pepsi’ GMT Master-II (2018) offering a ready-made illustration of this phenomenon.
If you were to adopt the binary thinking of traditional watch collectors, the Pepsi falls squarely into the sporty side of things: the case is machined in stainless steel; the bezel vibrantly coloured; it’s worn on an integrated bracelet; and was originally developed to fulfill a narrow ‘professional’ brief (i.e. commercial aviation).
Despite that, in line with our aforementioned ‘sliding scale,’ a few small tweaks have gone a long way to making this less of a rugged tool watch and more of a daily wearer. The most obvious aspect is the Jubilee bracelet: introduced by Rolex in 1945, it’s synonymous with the brand’s much dressier Datejust, and lives up to that watch’s ornamental aesthetic thanks to polished 3-piece mid-links and a distinctive, concealed folding clasp. What’s more, the Pepsi wears its 40mm proportions more or less true-to-size — putting it in the same ballpark as many contemporary ‘dress watches’.
As you can see then, the distinction between dressy versus sporty watches is only useful insofar as it helps to clarify your own personal taste. As something of a nauseating sentimentalist, I like to think that we humans are all individualists: assuming that’s even vaguely true, you should have the confidence to make things personal when picking your first watch. Tempered with the right research, of course.
