Basics of buying a watch pt 1

Recently a number of friends are interested in buying their first serious watch, thus I would like to discuss some the the basic things to look for when purchasing a watch.  To traditionalists and conservatives, the watch is the only acceptable form of jewelry a man can wear, besides cuff-links and tie-bars.  

Naturally the purpose of the watch is to tell the time, but in this day and age, where the time is available in our car, on our phones, in public and so forth, the importance of telling the time on your wrist has decreased.  Hence the current emphasis of wearing a watch can be said to be more form over functionality. This means it provides another opportunity for self-expression of your personality, life-style and status.  In addition, wearing a watch subtly indicates that you care about keeping time and in the professional world, you will be taken a bit more seriously when you wear a watch as compared to whipping out your smartphone to tell the time. Obviously if you wear a Mickey Mouse or Hello Kitty watch, I don't think you will be taken seriously at all.

Generally, there are two types of watches based on their movements.  A movement is a device that measures the passage of time as well as displays the current time. The two types of movements are mechanical and electronic, commonly known as quartz movement.

Mechanical
These types of movements essentially use a mechanical mechanism to measure time and is powered by a spring that needs to be wound regularly to build up energy.  It releases the energy through a series of gears to power the balance wheel, which through other mechanisms, move the hands of the watch at a constant rate. The seconds hand of a mechanical watch can be said to 'glide' or move around smoothly. 

Electronic/Quartz
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Mechanical Movement
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Electronic or Quartz Movement
These watches use a specially designed battery that activate a quartz crystal to vibrate very quickly.  These vibrations are converted into energy by a computer chip to drive an electronic motor, which move the watch's hands.  The seconds hand can be seen to tick every second, but some quartz powered watches also have seconds hands that glide. 

Although mechanical watches are less accurate than electronic powered watches, and require periodic maintenance, mechanical watches are more expensive and considered more prestigious.  The reason for this is there is craftsmanship, aesthetics and tradition associated with mechanical watches.  Moreover, if properly maintained, it can last much longer and passed down through generations, whereas the electronic circuitry of quartz powered watches have a limited lifespan.  Thus serious timepieces only consist of mechanical movements.

So if you want a watch just for fashion purposes where you can throw away next season, a quartz watch is probably more suitable for you.  However, if you want a watch that will be taken more seriously, where you can keep it for many years and pass down to others, rather get a mechanical watch.