I have always loved watches. From the time I was young, I loved the different styles and colors, chronographs vs. dress; hell, I even loved pocket watches. But, it wasn’t until recently that I started to appreciate the engineering that goes into making a quality watch. 

Luckily, I get to hang out with the creator of spazz.com on a regular basis, so I get schooled on the in”s-and-out’s of a variety of different watches. There is so much to learn and understand, and I am taking it all in little by little. 

So, I decided to write this article to help others like me - the guys who love quality watches but don’t have the money to buy the best of the best. The good news is that you don’t always have to buy the best; just buy the best in the range that you can afford. 

Not too long ago the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), released a white paper that took them over 3 years to complete, which was supposed to define for us all mere mortals what "fine watchmaking" really is. To do this, the established a "Cultural Council" made up of 46 "experts" that would judge all brands and watches across a series of criteria both subjective and objective.

The end result was that only 68 brands managed a score high enough to qualify their watches as "fine watchmaking".

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.

We'll write more about Baselworld 2017 and the new watches being introduced. But for now, here is a small preview as many brands have given "sneak peeks" in various forms.

Tudor was quick introducing a Black Bay Chrono and a Black Bay Steel Date. While the Chrono was a miss, the Date and the movement inside is not.

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.

I am literally beside myself when I browse around online, or happen to stumble upon conversations regarding watches by so called “experts”. The amount of junk thats out there dressed up as fact, when in reality is nothing more than some self-perpetuation prophecy designed to mold and shape public opinion in a particular direction is sickening.

It’s as if over time everything has been turned on its head. What used to be considered important is now less so and vice versa. A whole new formula has been created and passed around, which is then used by those receiving this “advice” against their own interests.

At Spazz.com we call those responsible Horological Douchebags (“HDs”). They don’t want you to think for yourself using logic, but rather they want you to trust them blindly. They’ve “been there”, so they "know of the mistakes" they don’t want you to make (wink wink).

But you still have a brain, don’t you?

Much has been made of the Quartz Crisis, and the implication that Quartz watches are not as good as mechanical ones. 

The Quartz Crisis was devastating to the watch industry to be sure, and I do agree that mechanical watches are much better than Quartz, but as is always the case, there are exceptions to the rule, perspective matters, and its always a good idea to at least try to have some knowledge to back up your claims.

So, what is Quartz?

Seiko is a brand that is often times overlooked and even disrespected.

Part of the reason why is totally justified. Seiko invented the Quartz movement and that almost single handedly wiped out the entire mechanical watchmaking industry.

Something that would have been unforgivable.

And they also make a lot of inexpensive, i.e. "cheap" watches.

But as described in an earlier post here, Seiko, despite it's flaws has true pedigree and has made more than it's fair share of worthwhile horological innovations.

One of those innovations was their very first automatic chronograph movement, which debuted across Japan in 1969, the calibre 6139.

Today, a convenient summary!

I think the following summary, in chart form should be a lot of fun. And as you will see, it makes it real easy to visualize alternative combinations. I.e., if you prefer the Calatrava to the Reverso, cool. In your personal chart/list, you could just swap them, and it'd still make sense...

If anything is the exact opposite of last week's Ultimate Complication Watch, this would be it.

The Ultimate Beater watch!

But sometimes this is also the most fun you will ever have with watches.

In other words, imagine what it would be like to have so much money that buying million dollar grand complication watches would be like spending no more than a couple hundred dollars.

Well, this Beater Watch category can provide exactly that kind of feeling/fun (see my post about Seiko).

In fact, all the contenders here, in some way or form can even be considered disposable.

Baselworld 2015 has come and gone, and while some cool new watches were introduced, it was also disappointing in some very specific ways.

But something that has been infuriating has been this “buzz” around the new movement released by Rolex: the 3255 and it’s variants.

As Rolex has put it, this new movement sets a “new standard of performance” is “2X more precise than an official chronometer” has a “50% greater power reserve at 70 hours” and contains “90% new components”.

All of that is absolutely true.

So why is that infuriating? 

Because its only true for Rolex, NOT for the watch industry as a whole.