Starting Mechanical Watches: A Newbie Guide

Yesterday a friend that is not in watches (he does not wear one), asked this question (followed by many others) that made me think a lot.

How we can advise and introduce a newbie on this fantastic hobby?

How can a person that is entering on this mysterious and fantastic world avoid most or some of the mistakes that we made when we started?

I’m sure that each one here already faced a question similar to this on and let’s see what “formula” we can propose to a novice.

I will give mine but I’m expecting that the team here should have her/his own “secret formula” but at the end, it will be the buyer call.





Let's start:

1) Don’t buy ANY watch now.

Wait for some months. During this time visit ALL PuristSPro forums and spend a quality time trying to learn the ups and downs of each brand.

Information is “the name of this game” and here you can have all information that you need.

Dumb question is the one that you didn’t ask. Don’t hesitate to make questions and if you don’t understand the answer, ask again and again.

Watches are an expensive hobby and your precious money MUST be wisely spent.

Not now. Wait. Be cool.

2) Don’t visit any watch boutique during this learning time.

Watch boutiques, during this time, are very dangerous.

They have outstanding sales persons that will persuade you, for sure, that their watches are exactly what you need and the watches that they sell there are a perfect match for you (and your credit card/check book).

3) Same with pre-owned dealers

At this moment, you don’t have the necessary knowledge to face a smart (they are all) pre-owned watch dealer. For sure, those watches are much less expensive but you don’t know, yet, how to judge when a pre-owned watch is in good or bad shape.

One only learns how to proper judge a pre-owned watch condition after years of experience and even the experts fails, from time to time.

4) Learn about maintenance costs or better …

Try to engage and make a good relationship with a great watchmaker. For your first piece (I'm assuming that you go to buy brand new) a watchmaker may seem unnecessary but, even for minor work like a bracelet adjustment, is good to have a relation with your watchmaker.

Learning is the key to avoid major frustrations.

5) Consider where you are

Some places, countries, are full of thieves that have strong preferences for certain brands.

Inform yourself to determine if this is the case on your country and be careful.

This is a sad fact, but remember that we live on Earth and not on Heaven.

6) Your first watch, now that you are ready

At this point, after this learning process, you already is “in love” with a brand and model.

You already got informed about the ups and downs of this brand and you are ready to take the jump.

I’m assuming that, at this time, you got ALL information about the target watch. This includes EVERYTHING about this watch.

Be sure that, no matter how much homework you did, that this first watch would NOT be your true love on the long run but this will come later.

Go for the watch that speaks to your heart, meaning for the watch that is important to you and only to you.

Take your time, acquire this first one and enjoy.

Little but important hints:

a) Buy on an authorized dealer or, better, on a boutique. Yes, you go to pay more but this is the price for your peace of mind.

b) Try the watch. Don’t be shy to try others. Your “dream watch” may not be what you want.

c) Be sure, if the watch is offered on a metal bracelet, to take the model with the metal bracelet or you got to pay A LOT for a separate metal bracelet. Even if you want a leather strap, ask the seller to replace the bracelet and store it on a safe place.

d) Verify the watch with a loupe, even if you are buying on a boutique. Watches are an industrial product and they may contain flaws. Take your time checking ALL features of the watch BEFORE you exit the boutique.

e) Check if the watch paperwork matches perfectly the watch. Serial/case numbers, model etc.

f) Don’t forget to check if, in the case that they adjust your metal bracelet, the removed links are on your box. An extra link costs A LOT.

g) Final Warning: If anything is incorrect DON’T FINALIZE the acquisition, even if the sales person states “they will replace this later”.

7) Some final points:

a) It’s good to have in mind that watches, excluding some very exceptional ones, are industrial mass products, made in hundreds, thousands or even in millions. If one watch is offered to you as “unique”, walk away.

b) Quality always carries a price. High quality watches costs proportionally more. Notice that high price does not assure quality.

c) There is no overall BEST brand. A brand that can be great to one can be terrible to others.

d) Watches are for enjoyment and are NOT a good investment. You go to learn stories about someone that acquired a watch for X and then sold for 10X. This never happens in real life.

e) Maintenance counts. No matter how great is the watch, sooner or later it goes to need maintenance (around five years on average). This maintenance must be considered when doing an acquisition for long term or a used watch (in this case I consider the maintenance as part of the cost).

f) I personally prefer brands that:

1. Have a local maintenance presence on my country. This, for sure, will expedite the turnaround maintenance time.
2. Brands that are on the market for years, decades or centuries. I always assume that they learn something during those centuries of existence.
3. When the watch only comes with a leather strap, I prefer the ones that use standard strap attachments. A non-standard attachment blocks you from any other strap but the watch manufacturer and the cost a premium.

g) Used/Vintage watches

Sooner or later you go to enter into this field that can be very fun or very dangerous, depending on your approach.

When purchasing second hand/vintage, try to estimate the cost of an extended service/overhaul into the maximum value. This should be added to the price that you are ready to pay. 

Another point when buying pre-owned/vintage is to get some information about the seller ("buy the seller, not the watch" matters).

How did he/she handle the watch?

Its difficult to find out directly, but one can infer a lot if one asks him/her to demonstrate the watch to you; does he/she have a personal relationship to the watch (i.e. are there certain points he/she puts importance to?)

Does the seller know the specialties/uniqueness of the watch?

Ask him/her how precise the watch runs.

The more detailed the answers are to these questions the more one can be sure that the watch was treasured.

If the watch includes the original box, papers etc. the seller may want to try to charge more, but you must consider that a "full set" is considered more valuable.

I personally refrain to acquire modern watches (made after the 1990) without the papers and preferable the original box.

A final point, is if the seller let you take the watch for a watchmaker that you trust for a final evaluation.

Summary

The points that I discussed here are my personal points ONLY. Others, with different experiences, may or will have another approach that also can work for you.

Go slow, avoid anxiety and you, for sure, will get as much pleasure and satisfaction that all here obtain with those wonderful machines that we carry attached to our wrists (or pockets).

Now let’s see what others here can advise.

Cheers,

Nilo
This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2013-09-11 15:54:55 This message has been edited by AndrewD on 2013-09-15 05:02:09