D.I.Y. Watch

I've just seen the most incredible website about a guy who hand made his own watch including the movement, dial, hands and case. He even cut his own gears! That certainly must have taken a huge amount of commitment, and puts my occasional efforts at swapping a strap or replacing a battery to shame. Superb stuff!

Mechanical versus Quartz

I often have conversations with people about my watch collection, and I invariably end up telling them that I prefer mechanical movements to quartz powered movements. Before I jump ahead of myself, I'd better explain what I mean. A movement is the "gubbins" inside a watch that make the hands turn. Traditionally they were mechanical which means that an intricate series of springs and cogs are used to drive the hands round. These used to be hand wound, by turning the crown to wind up a mainspring. Later on, automatic watches were developed which wound themselves by using a semi-circular rotor which span when your wrist moves to wind the mainspring (these were still mechanical movements though).

Later on, as electronic devices became smaller and cheaper, the quartz watch was born. Quartz, the crystal favoured by hippies everywhere, is known to oscillate (vibrate) at a frequency relative to its shape when a voltage is applied (know as the piezoelectric effect). So, counting circuits are used to count the number of vibrations in a tiny piece of quartz which has been precisely shaped for a particular frequency (often, 32 KHz or 32,000 vibrations a second). Every 32,000 counts the second hand is moved on one more second.

When I tell people I prefer mechanical watches, they often ask if that is because they more accurate. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all since generally even the best and most expensive mechanical watches will be out by 2-3 seconds per day (which to me is still a remarkable achievement) whereas a reasonable quartz watch can easily keep within 0.5 seconds a day. So for accuracy, quartz wins hands down. However, to me a mechanical watch is precision engineering at its very best. I have put some pictures of various mechanical movements I have sold over the years on this page to show how beautiful and incredible they can be. Knowing that the watch on my wrist is keeping time by using a spring together with precisely engineered cogs gives me a real sense of pride in my watch. This is even more true for mechanical watches with complications, such as chronographs, but I'll save that for another post (such as the upcoming introduction of my new Vulcain chronograph). Quartz watches are impressive in their own right, and I own several interesting examples, but for shear traditional engineering mechanical movements win hands down.

For a far more in-depth comparison of quartz and mechanical watches, check out this Timezone article.

Rolex Tudor Oyster Prince Ranger

Ask people to name a desirable watch and I am willing to bet 99% of them will say Rolex. Founded all the way back in 1905 by Hans Wildorf (in London surpisingly), Rolex has a long and distinguished history of innovation and achievement. This includes:

• Creating the first wristwatch to be awarded a chronometer certificate.
• Creating the first waterproof case (the Oyster case).
• Developing the automatic watch as we know it today with the perpetual rotor.
• The first date display on a watch, and later the first day display as well.
• Pivotal in developing the diving watches we know and love today.
• Developed the GMT complication for following multiple timezones.

This innovation combined with very strong branding and advertising has made Rolex the most recognizable premium watch brand in the world (even the purists can't argue with that!). That also makes them expensive and second hand models are still very difficult to purchase at a reasonable price.

However, for those of us with more meagre budgets, the Rolex Tudor might be what you're looking for. This is essentially a second branding from Rolex, with watches generally combining genuine Rolex parts such as the Oyster case with different (often ETA) movements. They carry a lot of the same quality without such an absurd surcharge.

I love this watch becuase while it carries the Rolex logo, it looks very understated and the black dial / numbers give it a vintage military look. It also has the famous Oyster case as shown in the picture. The only problem is it is a tiny bit small (as many men's vintage watches are) which encourages my girlfriend to wear it as much as me.

First post

Welcome all to this, the first post of TheWatchBlog. My name is Daniel and I have a passion for watches that I would like to share with the rest of the world. This will involve sharing both my moderate (but growing) personal collection of wristwatches, together with any watch news I find out there. If you have any suggestions for stories or improvements, feel free to send me an email to wicheda at g m a i l dot com (obviously remove the spaces, replace at with @ and dot with .).