8 Things You MUST Know About Watches

8 Things You Should Know About Watches

What’S going on guys Teddy Baldassarre here now. I know how overwhelming Designer Watches can be if you’re first getting into them, and I’ve probably put off this video a little bit too long. But I’m excited to finally address the topic today, which is eight topics. Eight concepts that i think everybody should know about Luxury Watches if they have a desire to learn more about them. Now before we get into this video head over to Teddyballers full authorized dealer of 20 brands also have hundreds of different watch drafts available.

You will know exactly how to do that and also know what that means now before we get into this video here, looking at eight topics, one other thing to mention. I have two videos that I think will be good to watch as well in unison with this video one will be looking at just the terminology around watches. I think it’s good to know the different parts of a watch. If you want to actually know more about Watches for Men or Women, one is more about complications, so complications, basically anything outside of just telling the time on a watch, so any other function, for example in the watch that I’m wearing right now is in 556, has a date Complication, so that’s a pretty simple one: they get way more complex from there, but I’d also reference that video, in addition to this as being a helpful guide. But to begin here I think the first place to start is looking at the two primary types of watches, and by that I mean basically the movements inside of them.

So you have your Mechanical Watches and you also have your quartz watches. Now there are two different types of mechanical watches: you have your manual or hand, weld watches which actually require you as an owner of a watch to manually wind, the watch using the crown inside of the case. Or you also have your automatic watches, which will wind Automatically, with the help of a winding mass of a rotor on the back of the movement that will wind around or circulate around the movement and help wind the mainspring inside the watch, to provide it power. But from here basically, the process for actually telling the Time is essentially the same once that watch is wound. Now all the stored energy in this winding is done by coiling up a mainspring inside a barrel in a watch now this is basically the epicenter for where power is stored within a wristwatch. Now, what’s happening from here is once that mainspring coils up very tightly. It then will gradually start releasing energy through a gear train and basically, we’ll go down this gear train to a thing called an escapement and then work in unison with a balance wheel.

So what’s happening here in that Watch is that escapement wheel and then a pallet fork is going to lock unlock, and the other end of that pallet fork has a small pin that it’s activating on with that balance wheel, that’s going back and forth back and forth. Basically, acting like a pendulum, and that is going to be the basis of being able to tell time and how this is going to translate on the front end of the watch is you’ll find the second hand of a mechanical watch, usually ticking as a sweeping seconds Hand so it’s more constant with its flow of movement rather than a tick, tick. Tick, it’s more tick! Tick, tick, tick, tick! So that’s what you’ll see on that front end!

This is not always a foolproof way. Sometimes quartz watches will have kind of more of that sweep being emulated, but that is what’s happening. It’S using full mechanical energy to power, a watch just through gears springs, and things of that sort and all these mechanical watches typically will have beat frequencies. Three hertz four hertz and are not going to last forever. So if you put a mechanical watch down for a period of time, because it’s using mechanical power, it needs to be wound whether through wear or through manual, winding, usually will have a power reserve, which is basically how long this process is of stored energy.

From that mainspring will happen until it runs out of that stored energy and will gradually just completely uncoil now the other most popular type of watch is a quartz watch, so a quartz watch is going to be a watch instead of mechanical power to actually power. This watch is powered through an actual electrical charge, so using a battery and quartz movements, unlike mechanical watches, are much more accurate and are much easier to produce once they were developed and just to give some concept here on the accuracy of accords typical, cheap, quartz watches that Are out, there are actually more accurate over a month than many mechanical watches are over a day, so how a quartz movement works is through taking power from that battery and then through a small electrical charge that is created by the battery. It is then passed to an integrated circuit and then is going to be delivered to a quartz crystal. It’S cut like a small tuning fork inside. It’S nearly microscopic here so not to get too technical here, but when that quartz crystal is sent that specific electrical charge, it is then going to vibrate, incredibly quick, so we’re talking 32 768 times per second, as a result of an idea called the piezoelectric effect, which Is basically an idea when an electrical impulse is sent to quartz, it is then going to vibrate at a specific frequency.

This Watch was calibrated in a way where it’s going to vibrate at that specific frequency here to allow it to tell time. But following that vibration, it’s going to then send a frequency back to the integrated circuit. That will then send an electromagnetic impulse through coils and a coil block that is in close proximity in order for the hands to move now, given the difference in the number of oscillations taking place between, say that balance wheel versus this coarse, crystal that’s vibrating, 32, 000 times per second, you could imagine that this is going to be more of an accurate movement, which it certainly is in addition, instead of using mechanical power, it does require an actual third-party stored energy source, which is that battery. So you probably will hear very often you know a battery having to be replaced on a watch. This is typically for a quartz watch.

The other thing to consider here on the front of the Wrist Watch and a very easy way to tell in most cases, not always true, but in pretty much 99.9 cases on the front of the watch. There will be a ticking second hand, but it’ll be once per second that is usually a dead giveaway that is going to be a quartz watch. So if you’re playing along at home, you probably can see that there’s a lot of upsides with going with the cords. When this thing was released, it really did shake the whole industry up it’s easier to produce it’s more accurate because it uses a battery.

You don’t have to worry about a power reserve just every few years, you’re just going to have to change that battery, and then usually they’re more affordable batteries. But why are mechanical watches usually more sought after by collectors? I think it really comes down to the romantic idea because they’re usually handcrafted, there are more moving parts, the fact that it doesn’t use an external power supply and it’s all using just gears and components of that nature. I think there’s a lot of just endearing attributes about it and it really goes into more the romantic idea, rather than it is more of the technological feat that it’s able to accomplish so now for number two on our list for this video today we have just Understanding the industry, the different brands that make up the industry – I’ve done a video on this subject where I really do a deep dive into the different brands of the industry and how it’s all structured, but really how it’s structured is very similar to the automotive industry. There are large conglomerates that own many of the brands that make up it so just to go through a few of these.

We first have the swatch group, so this is a swiss group. It was formed out of the ashes of the struggles facing the industry during the 20th century, so this includes brands from really just a wide variety of different price categories, so you have a swatch on the entry-level side, you also have Tiso Hamilton Longine. You have Omega Watches, which is really their mainstream luxury product, and you also have higher-end brands like Breguet Watches, for example. And then, in addition, they also own movement manufacturer Etta, which we can discuss a little bit more in a bit than from a luxury end of the watch category. You also have Richmond Watches, very similar in terms of diversification like a swatch, but also have different luxury brands. You have Cartier Watches, Mont Blanc Watches, and many others. Then you also have the Seiko Watches group.

So this is the Japanese powerhouse group that owns brands like Seiko orient grand, Seiko, and other brands as well as well as offering up their own movements to be used by third parties. Then you also have the other Japanese group, the Citizen group, with, of course, Citizen watches, and then you also have Bulova Watches other swiss manufacturing brands like Alpina Watches, and Frederique Watches and then also they own, the movement manufacturer Miyota Watches. Then you have a brand that you’re, probably familiar with Rolex Watches and then also Tudor Watches both of those brands are privately owned and operated and are huge powerhouses in the industry. Of course, then, you have LVMH Group, which is essentially the largest luxury conglomerate in the world, and they’ve gradually started to grow their offering in terms of watches, so they own brands like Tag Heuer Watches, Zenith Watches, and others.

You have Audemars Piguet Watches as well. You have Breitling Watches, but now has just been owned by a private equity firm but is again kind of independently owned for the most part. Then you also have smaller brands like Nomos Watches, which is a very nicely operated, independent brand with great output. There are so many smaller brands out there, but from a macro point of view, these are just some of the bigger brands that you’ll commonly see and chances are a lot of the brands that you’ll, probably see from the mainstream point of view, will typically be under one of these brand structures now number three is how your watch should fit and how to think about this when making a purchase with more people buying, watches online.

I think it’s very important to understand how a Designer Luxury Watch should fit you now when looking at how a watch should fit. There are a few things to understand. First, is you should know the circumference of your actual wrist, try on different watches and understand what makes the most sense to you, but what i would recommend from a dimension point of view. The three things, that are going to be probably the most important one is going to be the case. Diameter one is going to be the thickness and the other is going to be lug to lug so case diameter.

Pretty self-explanatory, basically, is the first thing mentioned with a Watches Manufacturer when selling online they’re going to mention the case diameter and that’s certainly going to be an important factor. Then you have your case thickness, which is also very important. If you don’t want something, that’s huge big, and bulky, it will, I think, depend depending on the type of complication, the type of watch, whether it’s going to be made or break for you, and then you also have lug to lug. This is a dimension. That’S typically not provided by manufacturers, but if I had to say of the three, that’s probably the most important in being able to determine if a watch is going to fit you, this would probably be the one, and this is measuring from the top of a watch Up here from the bottom of a lug to the top position at the top of the lug, so kind of more measuring it from top to bottom here so for me, I have a six and a quarter inch wrist and typically for me on the lower end of watches I like 34 to 36 millimeters when it comes to case sizes and typically getting around like 40 millimeters lug to lug and up and then going on the higher end, usually 39 to 42 millimeters for sports watches is kind of where I make that cut Off and 50 millimeters is that lug to lug distance when it comes to thickness, I think anything under 12 millimeters for more of a dress or Casual Watch is a great choice and then anything under 14 millimeters or around there for divers and chronographs.

But I think 14.5 is usually my cut-off there. These types of just basis points, I think, are very subjective, but you just have to try on different kinds of watches and really understand kind of what’s best for you, so look to lug and why I think this is so important is the watch that I’m wearing right now Has around a 45-millimeter lug to lug distance, but its case diameter is 38.5 millimeters. But when you put it next to say this, nomos Orion, which has a 35-millimeter case and around a 44 8 millimeter lug to lug distance.

It actually goes to show how two watches that have 3.5 just difference in case diameter often will wear on the wrist kind of in terms of luck to lug very similarly, just because the longer lugs on that. So this is why I think lug to lug is just very important. It’S usually something that’s not factored in, and I think its something you probably want to consider when looking at a watch but again often you’re going to have to try to find it from a third party because manufacturers don’t provide this another thing to consider in from The case diameter standpoint, but also from the thickness standpoint when looking at a case diameter, if a case diameter is 40 millimeters but say it has a bezel, for example, on the watch. What that is going to do from a perception standpoint is make that dial appear smaller.

For example, the Junghans Max Bill Chronoscope Watches have a 40-millimeter actual case. The diameter selected lug is very compact in comparison to this Rolex Explorer II Watches, which have a 40-millimeter case diameter as well, and a much larger lug to lug distance. But when you put them next to each other or strap them on the wrist, for example, they have very different types of wearing experience, because one is all dial and one has that outer bezel. So that’s something to consider and then another thing to consider is thickness. If the thickness is where is it residing if it’s residing mostly in the case, then that is going to wear much different than if it was residing in the crystal?

So this Max Bill Chronoscope Watch has a thickness of 14.5 millimeters, but the majority of that is going to happen from the dome crystal. That wear is a lot different, because of that you don’t really feel that when you have it on the wrist in comparison to the actual case, say with Tudor Black Day Watches, which is kind of like a slabbed offside of the case, which is just going to Wear a little bit thicker on the wrist again, this is very subjective. You just kind of have to try things on to figure out. What’S best for you get your wrist size, try on different watches, even if it’s not the watch, you’re going to buy and that’ll be a good way of figuring out what the best watches are for you.

Video Source: Teddy Baldassarre Youtube Channel