Yesterday, April 26, 2017, the Foundation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) released a white paper on “Fine Watchmaking”. In short, the white paper was created to promote what they’re calling “Fine Watchmaking”, and they defined 4 market segments and 7 areas of expertise by which 46 “independent international experts” used to judge brands against. These people make up what they’re calling the “Cultural Council”. For a watch to be qualified it must score at least 60% where 65% of the score is objective and 35% is subjective.

In total, 86 brands were judged, 68 made the cut, and only 28 were so good they became partners.

If you’ve lived all your life in the Western hemisphere, your opinion of Seiko most likely is that Seiko makes “cheap” watches. That they are not very high-end.

If you haven’t lived all your life in the Western hemisphere, or you are a true watch person, then you know that is absolutely false!

In fact, the Seiko Credor Eichi II is quite possibly the most interesting and best-finished watch in the world. It goes toe-to-toe, literally, with the Laurent Ferrier Galet Micro-Rotor and the Philippe Dufour Simplicity. Furthermore, the Credor line also contains some higher-end complication watches, such as the Credor Repeater, Credor Sonerie, and the Credor Fugaku Tourbillon. These are complications that only a hand full of companies can compete with. Rolex, Omega, Longines, and many other traditional “big” brands from the 60's can not, and never have!

Every year we have our "new year's resolutions", but given the holiday season has just ended, which is always filled with the standard commercialism and retail therapy, I thought it might be worthwhile to give my perspective on the subject. Specifically when we refer to a certain type of spending as "materialism" - this ties in nicely with the watch world, since 2016 was officially the worst year on record since the early 80's!

First, what is materialism?

It has now become common knowledge that this past year has been one of the worst on record for the watch industry. Data released by Bloomberg and the FHS (Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH) show that sales have dropped over 45% between 2015 and 2016, and the level of Switzerland’s watch exports dropped 11 percent during the first 10 months of the year.

"Hi,

I only intended to buy one quality mechanical watch, so after a lot of research I bought an Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch. Unfortunately I'm now hooked on watches, but I don't want to build a large collection of watches which I cannot really afford. As I really like chronographs, I would like to eventually buy a single example of a flyback, split-second, and foudroyante chronograph to complement my "basic" Speedmaster. What watches should I consider buying in each of these categories, that would be worth owning, but won't break the bank?

Robert"

Hi Robert,

And welcome to the club (there is no cure!)