3 ms·

It's great you're interested, but this is a bit of a broad question - imagine somebody said "I'm interested in cars, my budget is $50,000, what should I buy?"

It's great you're interested, but this is a bit of a broad question - imagine somebody said "I'm interested in cars, my budget is $50,000, what should I buy?" Obviously you'd get people saying "Tesla", "Ford", "Peugot", basically replying with their favourite cars - and no regard to your own needs, or preferences. Basically a watch is something you wear, something that is part-useful (it shows the damn time!) and part fashion. Beyond the standard "showing the time" there are complications. A complication is something additional a watch might do, such as show how much "wind" is left, show the date, show a phase of the moon, or have an alarm clock. So as a bare minimum you need to think about the kind of complication you want, then about the type of watch you want. Do you want the date-display? If you want the date display that pushes you in one direction, if you don't that pushes you in another. Equally there are three main kinds of watches quartz (i.e. battery-powered) which you've ruled out, automatics (which wind themselves), and manual, which you have to wind up yourself every day. So .. a) do you want a date, b) do you want to wind, or have it run by magic? After that it's a style question. There are broad groups of watches that share charactistics. For example a dive-watch is a watch that is underwater, and has a rotating bezel to keep track of time. A pilot watch has numbers in 24 hours, in two concentric rings. A drive watch is angled sideways. A dress watch is "simple" and "thin". So again you need to think about what look you prefer. With regular servicing a watch will essentially last forever. I have 40ish watches, some from recent years, some that are older than me. If you went to the ebay-of-watches, chrono24, you can find a lot of things. Just type "Vintage Soviet" and you'll find brands such as vostok which will sell you a used waterproof automatic for $100 or so. Equally you'll find brands you've never heard of, and watches that are 40 years old. I'd suggest you start by buying one or two cheap watches. An "everyday" and a "special", to get a sense of what you yourself prefer. If you blow 2k on a watch it might be awesome, but you might find "Hang on, I hate roman numerals, they're not symetrical". Or you might have other issues. Buying used, swiss, watches is easy but as a beginner you don't know what to look out for with regards to fakes and other frankenwatches. So that's another reason to avoid blowing a pile of cash on a single watch. /r/watches is generally good. /r/rolex/, /r/vostok, and other brand-specific niches will often get circle-jerky, but can be useful resources. Me? I pick watches that make me smile. I avoid roman numerals, I ignore anything with subdials (daytona-like) as too busy. But I genuinely love them, and have one for every occasion. Today I'm wearing an old Soviet watch from the 1950s, I bought it for €50 from Poland. Yesterday I wore a €10,000 Rolex Yacht Master. Tomorrow I might wear a casio terrorist watch. It's all about the enjoyment, the feelings, the style, and yourself. Less about specifics. Happy collecting!

mk_world 3y ago
This is a good primer. For me, I got into watches from the history of timekeeping and the mutual role it played in astronomy and navigation. From the standpoint of history, just about any mechanical watch would serve to commemorate this history on my wrist. A good first mechanical watch might be an Orient for $100. From there, it's a matter of taste, materials, workmanship, polishing, features (like water/magnetic/shock resistance), heritage, maybe movements and complications. There are also different watches for different occasions and purposes. Different people like different things. Watches are essentially obsolete except in some rare use cases. I look at my phone when I need to be somewhere on time. I have found that outside of watch enthusiasts with their enthusiast hats on, nobody but me cares what I wear on my wrist. So it's entirely up to you and what you care about and are willing to spend money on. You don't need to spend thousands to appreciate mechanical watches and people who do usually have some particular interest that compels them to spend that much along with sufficient means not to miss the money.

mk_world 3y ago

This is a good primer. For me, I got into watches from the history of timekeeping and the mutual role it played in astronomy and navigation. From the standpoint of history, just about any mechanical watch would serve to commemorate this history on my wrist. A good first mechanical watch might be an Orient for $100. From there, it's a matter of taste, materials, workmanship, polishing, features (like water/magnetic/shock resistance), heritage, maybe movements and complications. There are also different watches for different occasions and purposes. Different people like different things. Watches are essentially obsolete except in some rare use cases. I look at my phone when I need to be somewhere on time. I have found that outside of watch enthusiasts with their enthusiast hats on, nobody but me cares what I wear on my wrist. So it's entirely up to you and what you care about and are willing to spend money on. You don't need to spend thousands to appreciate mechanical watches and people who do usually have some particular interest that compels them to spend that much along with sufficient means not to miss the money.