Luxury Watches Features
Buying watch and choosing the right watch is difficult. Those who search for watch brands to buy a new watch cannot decide which watch to prefer, getting lost in many brands and models. We have prepared this article series, which will consist of two parts, to guide those who decide to buy a new watch.
People are constantly asking what brand and model watch they should choose or what features a watch should have to be good. Unfortunately, these questions do not have a clear answer. It is obviously not possible to research and analyze thousands of models from hundreds of watch brands and then choose one of them. Instead, I’m going to tell people what features they should be looking at based on their budget.
First of all, in this series of articles, we will not talk about the functions or extra features that the watches have. This article is not about whether a watch has a chronograph, a perpetual calendar, a kinetic quartz mechanism, or a GMT feature. In the first part of the “Luxury Watch Features” article series, which will consist of two parts, we will talk about the basic features that the watch should have.
The features we will talk about are the things you should pay the most attention to when buying a luxury watch. Even if the entry-level watch is in the luxury class, these features are the ones that should be in the watches we call luxury. Keep in mind that there is no perfect clock. Therefore, rather than thinking about which watch brand or model I should choose, make sure that you have as many of the important parts as possible below.
This price range is the one with the most watch brands and models. In this price range, there are both good and bad watch brands. To call a watch a good watch, the materials used are more important than their properties. If you want to buy an entry-level luxury watch, you will want most of the following features on your watch:
Sapphire crystal glass is an important material used by fine watches. Over the years, glass has been produced from many different materials in the watch market. However, watch glass is produced from only a few main materials on the market today.
Most of the watches you will look at on the market have two types of glass. These are mineral glass and synthetic sapphire crystal glasses. Mineral glasses and sapphire glasses have pros and cons relative to each other.
Mineral glasses are much stronger than sapphire glasses. It does not break easily against hard impacts. It might crack but not break, but it can be scratched.
Sapphire glasses are easily broken but not scratched. The finer the watch and the upper band, the thicker the sapphire glass. This minimizes the possibility of breakage. Sapphire crystals are incredibly scratch-resistant. No matter how worn the watch is, its glasses will be seen as sparkling.
People sometimes complain about the weight of watches. One of the important things to remember is that light watches are usually cheap and of poor quality.
Quality watches are often made of 316L stainless steel, which is the best-worked form of steel. In addition, bracelet or strap connections must be made of solid metal parts. In this price range, the cases of the watches should be made from very few different parts, if possible, from a single piece, and especially using only metal.
Switzerland is known by almost everyone for making high-quality watch mechanisms. On the other hand, Japan has been producing mechanisms that are accepted in the watch market with their quality workmanship for many years.
Most Swiss quartz watch movements are made by ETA or Rondo. Japanese watchmakers such as Seiko, Citizen, and Casio also make watch movements.
If you want a quality watch at an affordable price, your first choice should be the Swiss movement. If you can’t find Swiss watch to your liking in the aforementioned price range, try to find a Japanese watch. Finally, mechanical watches will be difficult to find at the prices mentioned, but don’t worry. The mentioned quartz watch mechanisms are also of good quality.
There are basically two types of watch brands on the market. Fashion brands that make others produce watches and watch brands that design and manufacture everything from A to Z
While fashion brands are generally more concerned with the appearance of the watch than with its functionality, manufacturer watch brands place a premium on the quality of the mechanism as well as its appearance.
The best watches belong to brands that give importance to the function of the mechanism and are produced in accordance with general watch design principles. Even though fashion watches look great, they are not good in terms of how they work. Of course, this is not a valid proposition for every fashion-brand watch.
* There are many fashion brands with high-end watches. We will review these later.
Heavy watches are not preferred by most people. Some people especially look at the weight of the watch. The weight of the watch is one of the issues that watch users disagree on. Personally, our personal preference is for heavy-duty watches.
Much more expensive watch brands are made of lightweight materials such as titanium. But luxury watches in this price range usually use steel as the material, and this weight is a quality indicator for the watch.
Titanium watches are rare in this price range, but the titanium used in these watches is of the lowest quality and is very likely to be scratched. As we have said, weight is one of the main characteristics of high-quality watches. With that in mind, make sure you get your money’s worth. Feel the weight of a solid watch case and bracelet.
Good watch manufacturers invest heavily in every watch they design. These brands do not hesitate to proudly display their brand logos on every product they design.
Most of the time, watch companies with good brands will put their logos in four main places. These are the hands of the watch;
Brands generally use laser engraving techniques for watches in this price range. High-priced watches have embossed graphics and logos. You’re unlikely to find brand signatures like this on low-end watches.
Not every watch has a phosphorescent dial that glows in low light or darkness. Classical watches are usually phosphor-free. In addition, almost all sports or casual watches have phosphorus in the hour and minute hands, along with the dial. Thanks to this feature, you can easily see “what time it is” even in a dark environment.
The quality of this illuminator varies greatly. Its quality is directly proportional to the duration of the brightness and its visibility, even in an almost completely dark environment. When it comes to its position, there are some watches that you can’t see where the phosphorus is, but it grins so much that it’s obvious that it doesn’t belong there. In this regard, you can determine the quality of your watch from this distinction.
If you want to take full advantage of your watch’s phosphor, simply hold it under any light for a short time. In this way, you can charge the phosphor and keep it bright for a long time. This feature is especially important to Japanese watch brands.
Today, there is fierce competition between opportunity sites and retail stores. There are serious differences between the retail price and the online sales price, especially for fashion brand watches. When they see watch prices on the internet, people naturally do not prefer retail stores. They are absolutely right about this. They want to know the reason for this price discrepancy. There is one point we need to clarify here. Retail prices are the average standard selling prices of stores. You will see that many retail outlets will offer serious discounts on their watches during the sale.
It is true that some watch brands have very small discounts, while others have no discounts at all. However, you can get discounts on watches in this price range. For example, if an authorized dealer sells the product with a tag price of $500, while other authorized dealers sell it for $450, that watch has a consistent price. However, if the same product is sold online for 400–500 dollars, it is obvious that there is a problem here.
You need to question the reliability of the seller. In this way, we advise you to stay away from places where prices change all the time. After making sure that the price of the watch you choose does not fluctuate wildly, we recommend that you buy your watch from a reliable company.
After using affordable and quality watches, you will certainly want to have better ones in the future. Probably, as a result of your research, you realized how deep the world of watches is. Now, when you want a new watch, you must have come across various news articles about many brands that produce automatic watches, which have started to be interested in automatic watches instead of quartz movement watches. Now, watch brands should have started to mean a certain amount to you.
People who buy watches for the first time generally prefer fashion-brand watches because they do not conduct detailed research on watch brands. Even though fashion brands make watches with beautiful designs, they don’t really care about the watch business.
After you have enough information, your brand preferences will have changed in the selection of watches, as will the features and functions you are looking for in a watch. You will want an engineering marvel with more advanced or special functions. Whatever the reason, if you want a good and unique watch, you’ll have to spend at least $600 on it nowadays.
If you spend more than $600 on a mid-range luxury watch, it will almost certainly have automatic movement. Some Swiss watch brands make automatic movements that are very high-end and work with a margin of error of only 5 seconds per year. At these prices, these watches are the best choice.
A special quartz watch that operates with a 5-second margin of error per year can cost $600 or more. If precision and accuracy are important to you, you can choose quartz mechanisms. To be honest, almost no automatic clock works with this precision.
Quartz movements show the time more precisely than mechanical watches. These watches have a very small margin of error. The only drawback of quartz mechanisms is that they need batteries. Although automatic watches do not have as accurate a time display as battery-operated watches, they actually represent the classic side of the watch world. These watches are a sign of prestige and offer a value that quartz movements cannot offer.
One of the things that watch users complain about the most is that the watch glass reflects light when they want to look at the watch in an illuminated environment. You can try this too. Try looking at both a low-quality and a high-quality watch in the light. You will understand what we mean.
The anti-reflective coating that good watch brands put on their glasses makes it much easier to read the time. Anti-reflective is generally applied to both the front and back of watch glasses. It is good that the coating is on both sides of your watch. However, if you only have one choice, make sure that the coating is on the bottom. The biggest handicap of anti-reflective glass is that it causes easy scratching, especially on sapphire glasses. If it receives too much impact, it can wear out and be scratched.
Finally, the more curved the glass of the watch, the more it reflects the light. Use double-sided anti-reflective glass as much as possible in this type of glass.
In fact, this may seem like a fairly simple process. The watch bracelet is made of metal and consists of small links connected to each other. There are two types of methods used to hold these pods together. These are screw rods and pins.
Pins are small rods. When you want to remove it, you apply pressure with a small hammer and a fine-tipped object. It is replaced by the same method.
Alternatively, there are screw pins other than thin bar pins. These are considered better and used more often by luxury watches. They are of higher quality in terms of durability; they last for a long time, and they also give the watch a stylish and beautiful appearance.
This is a certificate that not all mid-range or luxury watches have but that will add value and high credibility to your watch and brand. In fact, very few Swiss watch brands have the COSC chronometer certificate.
The chronometer certificate is issued after a watch movement is sent to COSC and tested for a few days. During the test, the results are looked at to determine how accurate the mechanism is. In order for a watch to receive Stopwatch approval, it must be accurate to within +/- 4 seconds per day, meaning that it cannot deviate by less than 4 seconds per day or by more than 6 seconds per day.
A chronometer certificate symbolizes the reliability of the movement and is also an indicator of prestige. Not having this certification does not mean that your watch has not been tested. It has probably been subjected to a different test. This certification can also be given to watches with quartz movements, but the criteria for how accurate they are are different.
Phosphorus applied only to the hour, minute, and indices of watches does not mean that the watch will be legible in the dark. When you expose watches with low-quality phosphors to bright light for 30 seconds, they light up for a maximum of 10 minutes before returning to their dim state.
This feature is frequently seen in low-quality phosphors in sub-group watch brands. A watch costing over $600 deserves better quality than this phosphor.
The best illuminator is SuperLumiNova. A subsegment of this is just LumiNova. You will find that such high-quality illuminators work even when you put your hand on them in the dark. Watches in this price segment should have a sufficiently luminous layer, and a large surface should be glossy.
This is an important issue that needs to be addressed. Considering that fashion brands are now producing watches, there are hundreds of watch brands, large and small. Most people know well-known brands, but there are also lesser-known brands that produce very high-quality products. The name alone does not determine whether a brand is worth buying. Do not hesitate to do your research, as you will buy the watch. There must be a story behind the brand, or at least make sure there is a story behind the popular model.
“Good for the price, nice to look at, who cares about the story?” you might think. But when you decide to buy a watch, you will be surprised at how important it is to learn the stories behind established brands and models. If there’s someone in your neighborhood with a top-of-the-line watch collection, ask them about their favorite brands and watches. Rest assured, most of the conversation will be about the deep history of the brand, the story of the model, or the unique design of the watch.
So when we say brand pedigree, what we mean is to look at leading brands in the industry that are known for their good watches and good designs. These types of brands have a special founder and special stories in their history. If you do not have any information about brands, consult someone in your close circle or do more research.
All mid-range luxury watches should at least have a nice decoration, even if we can’t see the moving parts inside. This can be as simple as a custom-polished surface on the automatic movement rotor or a textured surface on the dial of a watch.
These little features make your watch feel more valuable. In fact, the effort and time spent on your watch are hidden in these little touches. Brands that value and pay attention to the details that others neglect will certainly reveal their difference.
Look for things like the visibility of moving parts or machine engravings on the dial. In some models, you can pay attention to the embroidery on the case. These details are the features that will make your watch important.
There are basically three types of clock designs. The first is a completely original watch design from the past, unlike any other watch. These types of watches are generally valid for classical watch types.
Then there are the “respected” watch designs that we call “iconic,” which are copied by other watch brands and produced. The most suitable example of this is the “Rolex Submariner”.
Finally, there is the mixed model, in which a popular watch was taken over by another designer and reflected its own style with minor changes. When shopping for watches, you will definitely notice that there are many models that look alike. In these three watch types, everything comes together.
Even though there are many similar entry-level watches, mid-range luxury watches should have unique designs whenever possible. Almost all watches at this level should have unique and original designs. Nobody wants their $2500 watch to resemble their $125 watch. Although there is a difference in quality between them, apparently they should not have different designs. because here you also buy the appearance.
To identify watches with unique designs, you need to have some knowledge. As I mentioned in the previous article, you should be familiar with the design stories of brands. Without knowing the dates and the story behind the watches of this level, you cannot know whether the designs are original or not.
This feature is only available for a few major brands, but you can do a lot to ensure that your watch does not lose its value over time, at least at the same price level.
The main collector brands are Rolex, Breitling, Omega, etc. You can choose brands. Apart from such brands, in order for wristwatch to maintain its value, the fact that it has a good mechanism is made of quality materials, and contains high workmanship is the factor that will help the watch to maintain its value.
Most of the time, especially with watch brands in this price range, you will not be able to sell your watch for more than you paid for it or for the same amount of money. However, in order not to encounter funny offers when you want to sell, you can review the article series ‘things to consider when buying watch, make choices according to these items, and avoid disappointment.
Of course, if you say, “I have no intention of selling my watch; I will keep it for my collection,” this clause does not apply to you anyway.
You can also review our website for the Best Watch Brands.
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