Watch collection is one of the most confusing hobbies, owing to the fact that today there are a wide range and variety of watches to select from. Studies reveal that looking at the watch on a man’s wrist, one can tell pretty much about his character.

With a large number of brands and prices to select from, one may be confused on which one to buy. This article is going to give you a fair idea on the terminology of watches and the four categories in watches, the apt time to wear each category watches and also the differences in collecting new watches and vintage watches. It also gives sufficient idea about where to buy such watches and thus it gives you a clear cut idea on getting started with a collection of the best watches available.

Basics of Watches

To be a good watch collector, the first point to be kept in mind is that you need to have fair idea about what you have, when talking about it among an audience. For this, you should be aware of the various parts of a watch.

Terminology of Watches

The Crown: It is a small protrusion made of metal, which sticks out from the case of the watch. It is found where the 3o’ clock in the dial lies, and the purpose of this protrusion is to wind up the watch and also set the right time on the watch.

The Dial: it is also called the face of the watch, and it is located within the watchcase. It is the focal point in the watch and the name of the watch, the hours and minutes dial and also the depth rating will be printed or directly applied onto the dial.

The Bezel: The Bezels are found outside the watchcase and it circles the watch dial. This is a metal gauge which allows the user of the watch to read the time on the watch quickly. Some watches have no bezels, and some others have it located within the crystal.

The Movement: this is the mechanical device which gives the power for the working of the watch. It has mainly 4 parts- a winding mechanism, a mainspring, escapement and a balance wheel. These parts work together to generate the power required to push the hands of the watch around the dial, as time moves.

The Case: This is the housing in which the watch is placed, and mostly they are of stainless steel making. Sometimes, platinum, gold, titanium etc are also used for making the cases.

Complicated parts of Watches

The Chronograph: This is a device that helps the watch to show the time that has elapsed, as well as the time of the day in a proper orderly manner. The device includes a second hand which can be started or stopped as per the user’s wish and also sub dials, which makes viewing the time, easier. The Tag Heuer Carrera is one of the best examples for the Chronograph and this is used in professional races to keep the timings.

The Power Reserve: This is used to give a visual indication about the power that is remaining in the movement of the watch. This becomes extremely helpful when it comes to watches that are manually wound, because in such watches, there are no automatic rotors to wind the watch according to the fall in its power. There are many watches with displays to show the power reserves and Panerai’sLuminor 150 is one of the best examples for these kinds of watches.

The GMT: This part gets the name after the global time zone, the Greenwich Mean Time, and this tool is actually used to show the 24 hour scale or the second time zone on the wrist watches. The Rolex invented these GMT watches in the year 1950, when the need arose for the pilots of the Pan American airlines, for a good looking yet useful watch. They are still the leaders in the field of GMT watches, though there are competitors in the field.