The Watch Collectors' Club runs regular events where we teach members a little about watches, watchmakers, watch

A club for everyone who likes watches.

There are many millions of watches out there that do only one thing. Tell the time. They have no date, no fancy features, they just tell the time. Their job is to do that reliably, accurately and safely. We call these time only watches.

Achieving this took a surprisingly large amount of innovation in the watch industry during the move from pocket watches to wristwatches in the early decades of the 20th century. It was not simply about making everything smaller; putting a mechanical device on the wrist exposed it to far more movement, dust, and water risk than when the watch was kept in a pocket. This meant that technology had to improve at a rapid pace and it hasn't stopped since. Accuracy and reliability in watchmaking remain the goal whether the watch costs $10 or $1 Million.

It is possible today to buy a reliable digital watch for only $10, and a reliable mechanical watch for around $40. You can also pay millions of dollars for a handmade watch that also only tells the time. Two of the most popular watches in the world, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual and the Patek Philippe Calatrava only tell the time and have long waiting lists. So how do high-end watchmakers sell their time-only watches for thousands of pounds, and why are some of them so famous?

Why are some time only watches so expensive?

The story of making watches more reliable and accurate is ongoing. Some big watch companies design and make their own mechanisms, so-called in-house movements, aiming to bring out new and improved mechanisms every decade or so. Some do it with great fanfare, such as Rolex, others do it more quietly, but the quest to make watches better continues. These brands see technological development as a core part of their offer to customers.

Continued innovation in high-end watchmaking leads to higher accuracy and reliability, and most notably in recent years, a much longer service interval. Watch companies used to recommend a mechanical watch be serviced every 2 or 3 years, but now regularly offer 5 or 7 years guarantees on a movement and expect no service need until then. This is a massive benefit to the wearer and has come about thanks to huge amounts of research and development. These improvements cost money.

The watch world is still dominated by brands made in Switzerland and Japan. Both of these companies have a very high cost of living, and thus the employees of watch manufacturers and their suppliers based in these companies are very well paid by global standards. Similarly, the costs to manufacture are much higher than in other parts of the world. For customers who want their watch to be Swiss or Japanese-made, they have to pay these higher costs.

Finally, some watch companies hand adjust and hand finish their movements. This is incredibly labour intensive, and this labour is expensive, wherever it is done. The more hand-crafted a watch is, the more expensive it will be. 

Why are some mechanical watches so cheap?

There is a very simple answer to this: Asian Manufacturing. The excellent progress of simplifying movement design made by the Japanese over the course of the 20th century was then added to the sheer scale and quality of Chinese high-volume manufacturing. Citizen Watch Group make many of their low-end movements in China, and Seiko make many of theirs in Malaysia, but using Chinese-made parts. 

This enables simple movements, including time only movements, to be made at very very low cost as they make tens of millions of them. The same is true of quartz and digital watches.

However, these movements are not particularly accurate, and can often break. They are accurate to around 45 seconds variance per day, which over a week can lead your watch to be 5 or more minutes out. When they do break it is often not worth the cost of a service to fix them, they are usually replaced entirely by the watchmaker.

The good news is that the availability of these movements, plus ones made by Chinese manufacturers, has enabled the creation of a huge number of new Microbrands, allowing enthusiasts and entrepreneurs to start their own watch brands for very small amounts of money. We wrote a whole series of articles on Microbrands last year, and we love seeing what new ideas people dream up. Low cost movements allow this, without taking anything away from the higher-priced movements sold by other watch brands.

In 1927 Rolex introduced the first wristwatch to be a proper "hit". The Rolex Oyster was the first waterproof watch to hit the big time, with the Rolex brand and watch name marketed widely, something still unusual for watches at the time. They even put the watch in fish tanks in jewellery store windows to prove its claims! In 1932 Rolex added the Perpetual automatic, or self-winding movement, and this watch was even more successful. The watch has been so successful they still sell it today, 95 years later. The current version is powered by the Rolex Reference 3230 movement, which is the culmination of a century of improvements, with the latest version having no fewer than 91% new parts compared to the previous one when it was introduced this year.

The Patek Philippe Calatrava is the simplest watch in the Patek range, and for a firm most famous for complicated timepieces with many functions, it is still a very popular watch. Its simple design was influenced by the German Bauhaus design movement in the early 20th century. In 1952 it was given a revolutionary new automatic movement, and it has featured one ever since. The relaunch of the watch in the 1980s saw it given the name Calatrava, which it has retained ever since. Remarkably, this name is now so iconic that some people are referring to time-only watches from other brands as "Calatravas", despite it being a Patek Philippe brand name.

There are many more iconic time-only watches from the great Swiss and Japanese brands, such as the Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso, and the Credor range made by Grand Seiko. They are often priced as true luxury watches, even if they don't have the most complex functions or movements, they are well regarded by collectors and very reliable for their owners.

The fact that time-only watches are the most numerous available means there are many very reasonably priced vintage watches available. This is often a great place to start if you like a watch brand but cannot afford its current range. You can buy incredibly high-quality watches for relatively little money, so long as you are very careful. See our guide to buying vintage watches for more details about how to get started.

There are so many watches in the world with interesting functions, fancy complications and crazy designs that it is easy to overlook the fantastic range of time-only watches on the market, from the youngest Microbrand to the most prestigious high-end Independent watchmaker. They are also the most accessible way to buy the big brands, whatever the price point. We at The Watch Collectors' Club don't have a favourite time-only watch but we see many in our members' collections. We hope you will join us to explore this part of the watch world. Please follow us on social media and make sure you are on our mailing list so you don't miss out on any of our events.

Why are some time-olny watches so expensive?

Exploring Time-only Watches

We explore the range of watches that simply tell the time.

Why are some time-only watches so expensive?

We're already half way through 2022 and it's been a great year so far building momentum for The Watch Collectors' Club! We've held 12 Events, with more planned this Sunday (details here) and in July. Last Tuesday we had our general Meetup in London, and it was a fantastic success, with a great mix of watches and people from different backgrounds. When watch lovers come together it's really easy to have a good time, and we keep proving it! 

It's the biggest brand in the world and there are a lot of them, but it's always lovely to see some Rolexes. No fewer than 8 were brought along on Tuesday! There were both new and vintage models, and it was especially nice to see the two Explorer models side by side. There are definitely two of the more subtle watches in the Rolex range. With their distinctive dials and tough construction, they are great daily wearers.

On the vintage side, there were some fascinating Elgin Drivers watches, which have hinged lugs to allow you to wear it on the side of the wrist while your hands remain on the wheel. I'd never seen or heard of these before, and they are a great example of the idea that you'll almost always learn something new at a meetup. It's one of the most fun things about them.

Finally, we had a nice range of High Quality Swiss and Japanese timepieces, some rarer than others, but all remarkable to see in person! Let's hope future meetups are as blessed. If you have something you're proud of and would like to share, please do come along.

Our audience and following continue to grow, and we will hold at least one online and in-person event every month from now on. If you have any event ideas you'd like to see us create, please let us know. In the meantime keep an eye out for our event promotion on our events page. 

We are building our educational resources and hope to launch our Club Membership towards the end of the year. If there's anything you think we should cover then do let us know! What do you most want to learn about? 

We are currently hiring interns, so if you want to intern with us or know anyone who likes watches and might jump at the chance to intern for a startup (paid, of course!), please send them our way.

As part of our ongoing development, we have changed our website domain and will change our email address after this week. So please update your safe senders, as all future Blog Posts and event communications will come from: join@thewatchcollectorsclub.com

Thanks for following us and please do give us any feedback about what you'd like to see us cover, any event ideas you have, and if you like what we're doing, tell anyone else you know who likes watches. The bigger this community, the more events we can run, and the more fun we will have.

June Meetup HIghlights and Watch Collectors Club Plans for the summer

A selection of fantastic watches from our Meetup earlier this week.

The Omega Speedmaster is one of the most famous watches in the world. Since its launch in 1957, there have been many changes, improvements, case shapes, and limited editions, and the watch that was the first to land on the moon is rightly famous and popular. The one that preceded the Moonwatch is also huge in terms of popularity and importance; this watch is referred to as the "Ed White". A simple classic design, and a famous movement, or mechanism, the Calibre 321, led to great popularity among collectors. This Blog Post will explain what is so special about it and why you might want one.

The fact that the Omega Speedmaster qualified to become the official watch issued to astronauts at NASA, the US Space Agency, is well known. The toughness of the tests it had to pass is not.

They were crazily difficult and the competing watches from Rolex and Longines-Wittnauer failed at least one of them. The tests included high temperatures of 93 Degrees Celsius (200 Fahrenheit), a temperature fluctuation in a pure vacuum test to mimic space, and very aggressive acceleration, decompression and vibration tests. That any watch survived them is remarkable, but the Speedmaster came through them ticking. This model, the Reference 105.003, entered the history books and is now known as the "Ed White".

How did an Omega Speedmaster become the Moonwatch?

On March 1st 1965, the watch became the official Flight Qualified watch for all Manned Space Missions and therefore NASA ordered watches directly from Omega to give to astronauts during training for their missions. Previously, astronauts had supplied their own watches.

Ed White was an early member of the NASA Astronaut program in the 1960s.  He is remembered for being the first American to "walk" in space. This means he undertook activities outside the small spacecraft in which he was orbiting the Earth. Most excitingly of all, he used a small gas-powered gun to move through space away from the vehicle, and he timed this movement using an Omega Speedmaster strapped to the outside of his spacesuit. In fact, he wore two Speedmasters on that trip, a journey known as the Gemini IV mission. 

As the first mission after the Speedmaster had passed the NASA tests and become the official watch for astronauts (which it remains to this day), it was very successful and proved that Omega had chosen correctly. The Spacewalk was 23 minutes long and proved the equipment was good enough to survive the tough environment of space. This test directly led to the momentum for the Moon landings four years later.

A tragedy cemented Ed White's legacy as a pioneering astronaut. While conducting a test for the Apollo 1 launch an accident on the launch pad saw the crew cabin containing three astronauts burst into flames. All the men died quickly, and the Speedmaster Ed White was wearing then was destroyed. His son inherited the other, and today it survives in a watch collection in Japan. The Speedmaster worn by the other astronaut on the Gemini IV mission, James McDivitt, is now held in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.

The original Ed White is called the Speedmaster Reference 105.003 and is one of the most collectable Omega watches. There are plenty of them available as they were made in great numbers to celebrate the certification by NASA. There are many good and bad examples, so it is important to be careful if looking to buy a vintage watch. The most useful reference website for all Speedmasters of this period is the Speedmaster 101 website.  

In 2019, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Moon landing, Omega recreated the famous Calibre 321 movement by exactly copying one from an Ed White belonging to another astronaut, Gene Cernan. He flew with this watch on the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17 in  1971. The following year they released a brand new version of the Ed White model, which is an exact copy but made to modern standards. You get the 321 Calibre but made of modern materials, such as the Sedna gold coated base plates. It has modern lubricants and also the case is now 50m waterproof with a Sapphire case back. This has proven an exceptionally popular offering from Omega and is a great premium Speedmaster for those looking for something new.

The Watch Collectors' Club believes exploring the history of Speedmaster watches is worthwhile precisely because there are so many of them, and their involvement with NASA's various space programs means there are many fascinating stories. Understanding the differences in the details can be a lot of fun. The Ed White remains one of the most popular amongst collectors, and we hope we've explained why that is. For more content like this to help you learn more about the watch world, join our monthly watch events and make sure you follow us on Social Media.

What is the Ed White watch? What's the Speedy Ed White? Who was Ed White?

The story of the Speedmaster "Ed White"

Exploring the origins of this classy vintage and modern Speedmaster

We are delighted to announce our next virtual event, and we are starting by keeping it simple. It's on Sunday 24th July, at 7:30pm BST

You bring the watches, we will host the discussion. Here’s how it will work:

    The Watch Collectors’ Club exists to bring people together to explore, learn and share the world of watches.

    1.) Send us a pic or pics of a Watch from one of the largest watch groups. It can be any brand as in the photo.

    4.) Each person will get two minutes to introduce the watch, what it means to them, and what they like about it

    5.) If people want to discuss it, we discuss it

    6.) We all learn a little, and see some great watches.

That’s it. A stress-free way to learn what’s out there, and hear why people wear what they wear. If you don’t want to participate, that’s fine, you can just listen in. It’s a showcase and a get together. We will be kind, considerate, and interested. We ask you be the same.

Join us on Zoom for a wider reaning chat about watches.

join us online for a wide ranging chat about watches

WCC July Virtual Showcase 2022

Our next General Meetup will be on July 12th from 6:30pm in Central London, and we will release the details early in the week of the event. It will be a relaxed evening in a private space where you can come and share your passion for watches with like-minded people. We will give two short talks to help you learn more about this fascinating space, and there will be refreshments available.

Everyone is welcome, whether you have been collecting for years or are just getting started. We are creating a place to share knowledge and help each other out, and you don't even need to own a watch.

We assure you that the venue will be COVID-compliant, and there will be plenty of sanitiser available.  Please register using the link and if you have any friends how might like to come, also ask them to register in advance.

Join us to share your watch stories and explore the watch world.

watch meetup in central London July 2022 for watch collectors

WCC July in-person Meetup

Join us on Sunday June 19th at 7:30PM UK Time, for an engaging and interactive exploration of Patek Philippe. You'll hear about the 4 men who have made it the company is today, 4 of the most important watches from the last 100 years, and learn about the 4 little numbers that denote a Patek Philippe reference, and hence the name collectors use to talk about them. We promise a short, exciting, and of course interactive experience, where you'll learn a lot more about one of the world's most famous watch companies. It's free, and it's on Zoom, and everyone is welcome. Please register using the link below.

Join us for a short introduction to what makes Patek Philippe so special.

Live introduction to Patek Philippe and what makes it special

Virtual Patek Philippe Talk

June Virtual Meetup - Patek Philippe Talk

Hamish Robertson

The name Abraham-Louis Breguet is one of the most important in the history of watch-making, and his innovations are still found in the watches we wear today. Many of the features we take for granted all came from this one workshop over a period of around 50 years between 1775 and 1820. His success in selling to Royal Families across Europe created a trend for complicated watchmaking as a status symbol that continues to this day.  

A company named after him still exists to sell fine watches, focused on some of his inventions and modernising his style. Read on to learn more about the master of watchmaking and France's greatest ever inventor, commonly known as Louis Breguet.

While the history of watchmaking is mostly a long series of continual improvements, rarely does one man invent so many different things as Louis Breguet. He was a true innovator, continuing to look to solve problems experienced by watch owners of the time. His focus on practicality and usefulness was different to other expensive watches of the day, which often had decoration, jewels, or impractical case materials such as porcelain or gold. 

He not only invented various mechanisms we find in many watches today, such as a device that automatically winds the watch using movement, but he was also highly influential in watch dial design and innovative materials.

Breguet watches were easy to read. His design ideas for dials, hands, and numerals or numbers, led to features that have been in use ever since. His watch dials were made from metal or porcelain, and were very simple. He used a process called engine turning to create the effects that show the watch functions so well. Dials made like this are less reflective even when made of gold and easier to read. His design for a power reserve, a function that tells you when you next need to wind up the watch, is a classic wedge shape that has been replicated on watches ever since.

He invented a new font for numbers, and they are now known as Breguet numerals. He invented a hand design that made it easy to precisely see what minute it was on a watch with only one hand. These are called Breguet hands by everyone who uses them and they can be found on the current Breguet company's watches.

Breguet designed watches and his workshop of craftsmen made them. They used stock parts made in Switzerland and added the complications, or functions, in the Paris workshop. This allowed for many complications such as calendar features showing the date or day of the week, moonphases, and sounding mechanisms such as the minute repeater. Making these functions reliable and beautiful made Breguet the must-have watch for the rich and famous across Europe. 

The company did not just make watches for the rich. The workshop came up with a clever way of making very high-quality watches for middle-class customers, albeit at a high price. This watch was called the Breguet Souscription. In modern English, it means Subscription, as the watch was paid for with a deposit of a quarter of the price in advance. To keep costs down, the company made them very simply and made them in batches. Both of these ideas were unusual at the time. There is one hand, which is quite long and has a signature "Breguet circle" halfway along to help you see it quickly, which points to a fine track that allows time telling pretty close to the minute. 

In a 50 year career, the number of technical improvements Breguet invented is too many to list, so we will consider three here:

Overcoil Balance Spring: The beating heart of a watch is called the Balance, and this contains a spring. This spring needs to be very reliable in its "springiness" so that the time-keeping is reliable. Making the final "coil" of the spring slightly higher and a different shape from the rest of it allows the main body of the spring to keep its shape more consistently over time. You can see in the picture below the higher final coil going over the rest of the spring, hence the name overcoil. Breguet discovered this and it has been widely used in Balance and Mainsprings ever since.

Tourbillon: A Tourbillon is a very clever device that serves to offset the impact of a pocket watch always being kept vertically in a pocket. It rotates the entire escapement, which is the time-keeping part of the watch mechanism. This means that gravity acts on the spring evenly over time, regardless of the watch's position. today, this complication is unnecessary given improvements to the regulation of other parts of the movement, but when it was invented it was very helpful to keep the watch accurate. The name Tourbillon is French for Whirlwind, as the whole thing looks like a blur of motion when it is moving. 

Self-Winding System: Breguet did not invent the self-winding watch but did make the first reliable mechanism, as he improved on an invention by the great Swiss watchmaker Perrelet. This used an oscillating weight to tick back and forth winding up the mainspring that powers the watch while the user walked around. A variety of this still powers most of the automatic watches we use today.

At this time top watchmakers were very well known across elite society in the country they lived in. Breguet was more than this. He not only survived the entire French Revolution and restoration of the monarchy, he managed to sell watches to everyone involved, including a large number to Napoleon's family. He was made Master Chronometer to the French Navy and even sold watches through a branch in Russia. His workshop sold over 6,000 watches while he was alive, and his son sold at least another 7,000. Breguet was the first true genius of both watch design and watch marketing. 

The next time the industry saw anything like this was the foundation of Patek Philippe in the mid 19th century and their immediate success and sales to the British Royal family following the Great Exhibition of 1851.

It is widely known that the very first record of a wristwatch comes from Breguet's workshop, although sadly the watch itself was lost long ago. The workshop records contain an order and manufacturing process details for a watch to be worn on a bracelet ordered in 1810 for Caroline Bonaparte, Queen of Naples. It is sadly not known what happened to this watch. It is also not understood why this was the only order of its type!

The company Breguet today was resurrected in the 1990s. It is owned by the Swatch Group and is one of the top Haute Horologie manufacturers in the world. Their watches today are based on the fine craftsmanship of Breguet's original workshop, and their technology focus is extremely interesting, creating complications and mechanisms that are at the very top of watch industry engineering. As a result, Breguet watches can be very expensive but are always worth looking into thanks to their fine detailing and incredible craftsmanship.

Abraham-Louis Breguet founded an incredibly productive and important watch workshop. There are so many innovations and inventions to explore that we could write many future Blog Posts on this issue! The Watch Collectors' Club is here to help you explore all areas of the watch world, including the most famous figures of the past. If you like this kind of thing please look out for our events to discuss all this and more with other enthusiasts and collectors. 

Abraham Louis Breguet Innovative watchmaker and inventor. Who was Louis Breguet?

Was Abraham-Louis Breguet the most innovative Watchmaker of all?

A Short Introduction to Louis Breguet

We at The Watch Collectors' Club are bringing a new kind of watch event to the world. We want to make it easier than ever to learn more about watches. We want to help you explore the watch world and learn more about the watches you are interested in. You might then ask yourself, what makes it a Club? What is a Watch Club? Are there any watch clubs near me already? What do people do at a Watch Club? This week, we will answer all these questions and more.

A Watch Club is an organisation where people come together to talk about watches and share their interest in them. Most of them are small and based in a town or city so that members can meet regularly. Some have grown to have large and diverse memberships, such as the Redbar Crew, or Time4aPint in London. Since most of these organisations are amateur run and focused on socialising, they do not market themselves (other than on Instagram: @redbarcrew @time4apint) and are not that easy to find. I only heard about them by word of mouth after I moved to London. 

A Club by definition hosts events regularly. They want to become a place people can rely on, and see the same faces at regular events. This is so that people can become comfortable with the event format, know the locations, and of course, start to make friends. The more comfortable people are the more fun they will have and the more they will want to come back. This is why Clubs are successful across so many aspects of life. It is exactly the same for Watch Clubs.

It is NOT a watch buying club. In recent years, some businesses have been established that take a subscription and send a monthly watch in the post in return. We do not think this merits the name Club, as it doesn't have any of the benefits of a normal Club. It is simply a different method of selling watches. Unfortunately, these businesses often have a poor reputation, as after a good start they struggle to maintain the same quality or consistency of watch delivery, and customers get very unhappy. In our opinion, they are best avoided and are not something that should be thought of as Watch Clubs.

They are also different to watch fairs and shows. These are held regularly so that people can buy new watches or trade second hand or vintage watches. They are good fun and a great place to see an amazing range of watches, but they are not about talking and learning, they are more about learning and buying. We often have a great time at watch events, and The Watch Collectors' Club has already given talks and taken members along, however they are not Clubs themselves, they are primarily about buying or selling watches.

We believe a Watch Club should be similar to other kinds of club, for example, sports clubs or hobby clubs like Chess Clubs. It should be a place where people come to discuss and share their passion for that topic, thing or activity. They should come together in-person and meet people interested in the same area. The beauty of watches is that they are small, easily transportable and easy to examine. Online, there are so many great pictures available or it's relatively easy to take your own watch pics.

In the case of watches, this means people bring along some of their own watches to a Meetup or Get-together organised by the Club. Over the course of the evening or event, they can see a whole range of watches and hear people's stories all about them. At online events, participants will probably listen to a short presentation on a topic and discuss that, or they can discuss recent industry news and new releases while looking at pictures of the watches they are talking about.

These sound very simple, and maybe you are thinking they wouldn't be worth the bother of going to. I can assure you however that they can be so much more interesting and fun than you imagine. If you are interested in watches then hearing someone else's passion for them will only inspire you. If you've always wondered why something is the way it is in the industry, or about a particular watch, these are the perfect places to get questions answered, however silly they seem. People are often delighted to tell you how they bought a certain piece, how they found it, and most of all, what a watch means to them. I have had more surprises and heard more entertaining stories at watch events than at almost any other type of event. It's why I'm building a Club to hold more of them.

They are also an awesome place to get your questions answered. You could spend a lot of time reading Blog Posts like ours, and hoping Google is delivering you useful answers to your queries, but when you want to learn about things like buying watches online, researching a vintage watch, or learning more about a certain brand, asking people with experience is often much more interesting. This is equally true at online and in-person events.

Unfortunately there just aren't that many watch clubs around the world. While RedBar has done a great job of establishing groups in different countries, the UK has 7 different "chapters" for example, progress has been slow as it requires people to volunteer to organise and promote the events. There have been some events organised by popular Watch Youtubers, and there are fairs and shows for the buying and selling of watches. 

The Watch Collectors' Club wants to change this. We want to become a global Club that arranges online events on a regular basis that anyone can attend, and then as many in-person events as there is demand for, wherever they might be. We are starting in London since that's where we live, and are the third watch club in London right now by our terms. In future, we hope to have events all over the UK, and then all over the world.

If you're interested in joining us, then please try one of our events. We hold at least one in-person and online event per month, every month. We recommend you join one of our online events to find out how easy it is to have fun talking about watches from the comfort of your own home. If you are close to London, then please come along to one of our Events, either our general meetups where we share our own watch stories, or a partner event where we may have some interesting new watches to look at.

We explore what happens with a watch Club, and mention some established places to go.

Many people love watches but don't think they are a watch collector. They think there are rules, standards, or levels that must be reached to become one. They think that it requires some knowledge they don't have, certain watches they can't get, or some other requirements set by a mysterious "they". None of this is true. The world is full of watch collectors quietly going about their business and enjoying their passion for watches without a single thought about whether they "qualify". This Blog Post will explore what we think makes a collector, and tell you about some of the Collectors we've met as we've been building The Watch Collectors' Club.

Who is a Watch Collector? What makes a Watch Collector?

We at The Watch Collectors' Club say that anyone with more than one watch is a collector. Many immediately disagree, so let's explain. Collecting is about choosing, it's about assembling a deliberate set of items using your own choice. It doesn't matter how many items that is. If you have one watch for the office, one for the gym, and one for special occasions, that's a collection. You've carefully assembled it for different uses. It suits you, it could have more for other occasions, and maybe you get a new one for one of those purposes every now and again, e.g. a new fitness watch, but broadly, it's a set of watches that is very practical. 

This reasoning does not take anything away from it being a collection. It is the most natural type of collection in the watch world, and anyone who takes an increased interest in watches finds it very easy to add to. Celebrating something special? Get another watch for the occasion. See something you like that will work on an everyday basis? Add to your day-to-day watch and hey, you now have two to choose from each morning. Like something fun, robust and unbreakable? You can now wear something different to the gym or when doing some DIY or Home improvement.

It also does not take anything away from anyone else with a larger or more specialised collection. One person's collecting habit is entirely exclusive to another's. There are no rules. Everyone has different tastes, and everyone can be a collector.

Once you get past the most natural form of collecting, for use, there are a few more common reasons people collect. The first is because they like the brand. Some of you will feel this is superficial, or for status, or because people like showing off. In fact, it is much more complicated than that. Some people do collect a certain brand because of the status they attribute to them, especially Swiss luxury brands like Rolex or Patek Philippe, and that's OK. If that's important to them, great! It doesn't take anything away from people who collect for other reasons. 

Many people collect brands simply because they love what the brand does. Consistent design language and high-quality finishing? People love that. Long history of dive watches and incremental improvements to the characteristic Bezel? People love that. Expertise in case materials and colour? People love that. Low price points and endless variations? People love that. These are aspects of the brands Rolex, Omega, Rado and Swatch, four Swiss brands that have many dedicated collectors around the world.

Some people love to collect a certain type of watch.  We've covered Dive Watches, Pilots Watches, Motor Racing related watches, Dress Watches and many more here on our Blog, and there is no denying that some people just fall head over heels for one of these categories. While each category is clearly quite different, there are a huge range of companies making watches across these types. There are both old, established companies like Omega, the large conglomerates and of course Microbrands making fantastic watches in all these categories. Including vintage, the choices for a collector can be as wide or as broad as they like. There are also many many niches to fall down that are even more specific, such as Military Watches, Field Watches, or watches with interesting and rare complications, like these two:

My favourite reason to collect watches is the reason I collect them. I buy the watches I love. I have a broad collection and it has a few themes, but I'm not that focused on it. It's led to a wonderful adventure building The Watch Collectors' Club, but I don't spend much time on the collection itself. 

If you like watches and start buying them, you'll often find yourself buying more. This is a collection that develops purely from passion. As you explore, you learn a bit more, see watches you didn't know existed, and add to your collection. Again, this is a very simple way of collecting, and it's a great one. It doesn't matter that this is very simple, just that you like them.

The question of how focussed a collector or collection may be is always hard to answer. Is it focused to collect one brand? One type? One style of watch? We've met people who do all of this, and we've met some people who take it even further. In only the last six months, I've met someone with a collection of Royal Navy Diving Watches that were issued to service members in the UK. And no other watches! A very very focused selection of watches, even within the Military Watch area, and the passion and enthusiasm that Collector displayed were astonishing. Another guy came along to one of our Meetups who has over 500 examples from one brand of one type of watch from only the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Here's one of his: 

Another set of collectors seem to enjoy small areas of the watch world for a few years and then move on. This is surprisingly common. Right now I know a few people obsessed with rare mechanical Seiko watches from the 1970s. They are delighted with dial details, serial numbers, and movements. They are taking a very deep dive into a small part of the watch world where the watches cost minimal amounts of money. It is all about the joy of discovery, comparison, and sharing that passion with the (small) number of people interested in the same area. 

These guys have ranged around the world of watches over years, with their intense focus falling on different watches as their passions move. They buy and sell watches to facilitate this ever-changing focus. They are not stuck in a certain area, they don't care what others think of their collections and they know what they enjoy most - the hunt for pieces they are focussed on.

One of the world's most famous collectors, widely interviewed and very active on Instagram, collects fancy watches from famous makers, but all with interesting and unusual case shapes. He also collects round watches with so-called double-signed dials, where the dial has both the watch brand and the name of the jeweller it was sold at printed visibly. With these two areas of focus, he's built a staggeringly beautiful and varied collection. He has travelled the world to make purchases and meet other collectors of similar models. He is kind, helpful to others, and comes across very well as a pillar of the online watch community. You can read about Roni Madhavani and his collection here, or watch and learn about the pieces here. 

He is an example of how some of the most famous collectors in the watch world are very focused. Some, but by no means all. For one of our events this May, we are visiting a superb collection showing the highlights of an enthusiastic rich collector from Singapore. It has ten different sections, and that's just the highlights! It's in London at The Design Museum and you can come along with us. Find all the details on our Events page.

The final type of collector we want to highlight today are the enthusiasts who want to support upcoming brands and new watch ideas. They collect the first watches that launch on Kickstarter, or that they hear about on forums or Instagram. If the new watch brand does well and adds more models with more launches they may support them by buying every one that comes out. This happens regularly in the world of Microbrands where product launches may be a few hundred dollars, and also happens at the very high end of Haute Horologie, when master watchmakers leave a big brand workshop to start under their own name. A group of dedicated collectors take great pleasure in helping new entrants get going by committing to their first creations.

We believe that two watches make a collection and people with two watches usually end up with more. We also believe that the watch world is nothing without its collectors, whatever they are into and whatever area they focus on. The sheer variety and number of watch collectors we've come across in only a few years shows us that there is so much more to share and learn about the watch world. Anyone can be a collector, call themselves a collector, and embrace their passion.

The Watch Collectors' Club is here to help you enjoy and explore the watch world. Whether you have a passing interest, are starting a collecting journey, or have been collecting for years, we want you to join us to share your watch stories. Our in-person and virtual events are the perfect place to come and share your interests, however focused. You'll also have the chance to hear why people own the watches they like, and since everyone's taste is so different, you never know what is going to show up. Collecting is a deeply personal endeavour but is much more fun when shared. Find our events page here, and if you know of anyone with an interest in watches, please let them know where to find us.

How many watches are in a watch collection? What makes a watch collector?

What makes a Watch Collector?

We explore the different kinds of watch collector, and how many watches make a collection.

Dress Watches are a core part of most watch brands' ranges and a popular everyday choice for many people. But what exactly is one and how should you go about choosing one?

A Dress Watch is a simple watch with smart elegant features, often displaying the time and little else. They are often found on a leather strap, with a smart buckle matching the case. They are mostly round in shape, although there are rectangular and oval models. They can also contain other complications, or functions, the most common being a date or day-date display, as found in the possible the most famous Dress Watch of all, the Rolex President. Other complications found can include Chronographs, or Stopwatches, and Moonphases, showing the phase of the moon.

These watches are often the core of a watch brand's range. They can come in many different price points and can be made of the simplest steel with a leather strap, or made from precious metals and come on a diamond-encrusted bracelet. There really is something for everyone in the world of dress watches, and they are a great place to start any watch collection.

The best thing about Dress Watches is their range. They can be so easy to wear and go with anything, or they can be very fine and fancy and only worn on the most special occasions. What matters most is that it suits you and you'll be happy to wear it. 

We recommend you start your search by thinking about when you will wear it. Is this for the office? Every day including the weekends? Are you choosing a style that has to go with everything? 

Once you've chosen the occasion, choose your price point. With these two constraints, you can now look for a watch you like. Next, decide whether you want a certain brand or simply want something that looks right. You should also think about what functions you want. Adding functions makes the watch more complicated, but some of them can be incredibly elegant on a dress watch, for example, this moonphase.

When looking at dress watches, especially online, take note of their size. For some people it is very important that their watch is subtle, hard to notice, and slips easily under their sleeve. Watches like this need to be fairly small, and crucially, low in height on the wrist, so it is worth checking out the watch height if this is your preference. 

Some people want the opposite and want to make sure that their Dress Watch makes a statement. If this is what you like, do consider options with jewels, or a bimetal model as the gold often stands out very smartly when it is combined with steel. Dress Watches featuring top complications such as perpetual calendars may also be an option, as these are often seen as the pinnacle of watchmaking and can be found at the top end of some brands' ranges.

There is nothing quite like trying on a watch. Whatever watch you are looking for you'll gain the most confidence from trying something on in a store. If you are buying a new watch online, make sure you can return the watch easily, so that if you don't find it comfortable you can return it. When you receive it try it on with a few outfits but make sure you keep the labels on so it can be returned. To learn more about buying a watch online check out our guide here.

We also recommend visiting a store to try watches on. It is usually a great experience. You can read our guide to having fun while browsing for watches in our guide here.  

Current trends and fashion dominate the watch media and the need for brands to sell their latest models drives most of the images of watches you will see, even on social media. There are 100 years worth of watches to look at, and the majority of those produced in 20th century were dress watches. Sports watches and tool watches were developed from the 1950s onwards, but were a minority of pieces produced up until the 1990s. Including vintage pieces in your exploration of the world of Dress Watches is worthwhile. 

Many of the most famous watch brands in the world made exceptionally high-quality, time-only dress watches as the majority of their range for decades. Adding in the high quality but lesser-known models, and the Japanese producers, means it's possible to get incredible timepieces for very low amounts of money if you buy carefully. We encourage you to explore vintage as well as modern dress watches as you never know what you might fall in love with.

Our regular meetup events, either in-person or online, are the perfect place to come and see more examples of interesting dress watches both vintage and modern. If you want to explore the watch world and learn more about the different kinds of watches out there, then please see our events page here.

We at The Watch Collectors' Club don't have a favourite kind of watch. We are here to help you explore all corners of the watch world, and understand more about what is out there for you to enjoy. We hope that this introduction to a simple but enormous category of watch will help you expand your interest. If you know of anyone else who might be interested, please tell them where they can find us, and maybe join us at one of our events. Hope to see you there!

What is a Dress Watch? How do I buy a new Dress Watch?

Introducing Dress Watches

Introducing Dress watches and a guide to choosing one

Willy Breitling inherited his family company at the age of 19 and pioneered many legendary innovations including one of the most iconic watches of all time. From 1884 until 1979 Breitling was led by 3 generations of the Breitling family. Each achieved startling success and changed the watch world. Today we will look at the fantastic watches Willy Breitling brought to market.

Breitling was founded in 1884 as a manufacturer of timing instruments for industrial and leisure use. They went on to create pocket watches and then wrist watches beginning in the early 20th century.

In 1927 the early death of Gaston Breitling left the company leaderless. His son Willy Breitling was only 14 at the time, but at the age of 19 took over as Managing Director in 1932. He was responsible for introducing what became one of the most common watch formats of the 20th century - the two-pusher chronograph. This watch has a pusher, or button, at the 2 o'clock position and another one at the 4 o'clock position, so on either side of the crown. In some rare examples they can be on the other side of the case from the crown. The top one starts and stops the stopwatch function, and the bottom one resets it to zero.

This required a completely new movement or mechanism design inside the watch case. It was an immediate success. It allowed for much easier, quicker use of the stopwatch function. It also allowed for further innovations such as the flyback chronograph, and the Rattrapante, or split-seconds chronograph, which you can learn more about in our Introduction to Chronographs blog post.

At this time Breitling was still an important supplier of timing instruments to industrial customers, and from the First World War onwards built its market for timing instruments used in aeroplane cockpits. In 1938 the HUIT aviation department was established, so-called because the cockpit instruments had an 8-day power reserve, meaning they only needed winding once a week. They were also robust and very easy to read, which is important for safe use by pilots while in the air.

As the Second World War looked more likely, Breitling signed a big contract to supply the UK Royal Air Force with cockpit instruments and this led to the company supplying the Allied Forces throughout World War II, often overcoming great difficulty to do so. 

Despite World War II raging across Europe, Breitling did not ignore their wristwatches. Their continued focus on useful timing instruments or tool watches led to the development of a watch called the Chronomat. 

Today, the main additional function of this watch seems odd; it is called a Slide Rule, and is a calculator dating from before the invention of electronic or digital versions. Using two logarithmic scales carefully calculated by Breitling, the watch can be used to multiply or divide large numbers. This seems extremely niche, but imagine if a pilot has an emergency while in the air and needs to calculate distances, fuel levels or navigation bearings quickly. A few turns of the bezel will allow them to make these calculations while still in charge of the plane. The watch also contains the two-pusher chronograph mechanism to allow for distance timing while in flight. The Chronomat was launched in 1943 and was fairly popular.

What came next became one of the most famous watches in the world. The Breitling Navitimer was launched in 1952 in conjunction with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association in America.  This was a bigger version of the Chronomat, with a larger scale allowing for large calculations, as well as the chronograph function. The manual and operating guide from the first series is great, and it really is a fascinatingly complex tool.  At first, the watch was only available to members of this organisation, but Breitling swiftly made it available for general sale. It has been on sale almost continuously since then, with a recently expanded and updated range launched just this year. 

It is a true classic; a large, interesting looking watch with a very useful function and a long association with pilots and fashionable celebrities. Their most famous early wearer couldn't have been further from the aviation world: Miles Davis, the jazz trumpeter.

Willy Breitling introduces fashionable Chronographs

Willy Breitling managed the transition from being a mostly tool watch focused company to adding more fashionable watches. Chronographs in the Premier line in the 1940s were sleek, with some interesting functions. These are also echoed in today's range. In the 1960s, the company introduced the SuperOcean dive watch and the Top Time chronograph line, both of which show super cool 60s-styling, and were very popular on launch.

Breitling was instrumental in joining together with Dubois Dépraz, Heuer-Leonidas and Hamilton Büren to create the first automatic chronograph movement at the end of the 1960s. While Zenith pipped them to the post in terms of being first to market, this collaboration was a great success, leading to the varied and interesting Chronomatic line of watches for Breitling in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, the 1970s were very tough for the swiss watch industry as the adoption of quartz watches and the high value of the Swiss Franc led to the collapse of mechanical watch sales. The company struggled and Willy Breitling wound it down. In 1979 he ended his involvement with the company by selling the trademarks to another family, led by Ernest Schneider. Schneider later relaunched the brand with a fantastic new version of the Chronomat with a mechanical movement, while integrating high-quality quartz movements into the rest of the range.

Willy Breitling led the company through its most important and successful period and left a legacy of fantastic timepieces for watch lovers to explore. The current owners are reissuing and updating many of the famous models, and it is a great opportunity to learn more about their past. 

We at The Watch Collectors' Club love to explore how the history of a brand influences the current range, and think Breitling is doing an excellent job of it right now. We hope that you enjoy this too, and our events and content are designed to help connect the dots across time for these historic brands. If you know anyone else who might enjoy the watch world with us, please let them know about us and tell them to follow us on social media.

Breitling innovations, and the story of who created the Navitimer

Willy Breitling and Inventing the Modern Chronograph

The innovative leadership of Willy Breitling

The Rolex Explorer is a very famous watch and a key part of the Rolex lineup. It is a watch that's changed little over the last 70 years and remains a simple and popular option for many. The most famous story connected to it is highly controversial. Today's Blog Post will introduce and explore the watch and the controversy.

In the 1940s and 1950s Rolex were busy creating watches that were ever more practical and useful for their customers. Having established a reputation for quality and seen great success with the waterproof Rolex Oyster and Oyster Perpetual in the 1930s, Rolex needed to move on. They introduced the Submariner, a dive watch, and the famous Day-Date calendar watch, but also wanted to update the Oyster Perpetual to be more robust and hard-wearing.


Many watch companies at the time were also focussing on this, including the largest British watchmaker of the time, Smiths. Both Rolex and Smiths sent their watches with mountaineering teams so they could test them in the most extreme environments. They wanted to prove these watches stood up to long days of vigorous activity and huge temperature ranges.
 The British Everest Expedition of 1953 was sponsored by Smiths, so 15 watches were sent along. Rolex gifted 10 pieces to the British members of the Expedition. The stage was set for one of them to be worn to the summit for the first time.

Which watch was first to the Top of Everest?

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first climbers to succeed in summiting Mount Everest on May 29th 1953. However, in 1924 an expedition was run by the British climbers George Mallory, with their final climb starting on June 8th. Sadly, they never returned from the attempt. In 1999 Mallory's body was recovered, including the watch in his pocket. This was a watch in a Borgel case with a Fountainmelon movement and would have been very expensive at that time. Since it is not known if Mallory achieved the summit before he fell to his death, we cannot say for sure that this watch reached the summit.


 So what happened with the Rolex and the Smiths?


 Well, here the story gets interesting. Rolex have always been famous for their marketing and this story is one of the most interesting marketing coups of the 20th century. Rolex's advertising agency, J Walter Thompson paid a reporter from The Times newspaper in London to message them in code announcing the expedition's success. As a result, Rolex ran an advertisement on page 3 of The Times on June 2nd, claiming that their watch was first to the top of the mountain. The news story exclaiming the achievement wasn't even until Page 7 of the Paper.


 Smiths didn't get their advertisement published until three days later on June 5th. Rolex was also clever in two other ways. They hosted a party for the whole Expedition in Bombay as they were travelling back to England. At the party, they gave out more gold Rolexes, and by the time the party arrived back in London Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay and expedition leader Colonel Hunt were all official Rolex ambassadors. Unsurprisingly they did not discuss Smiths watches much from then on.

Was a Rolex the first watch to the top of Everest?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably no. Many Rolex fans have undertaken a detailed photographic study of the pictures from the expedition and they believe that neither Hillary nor Norgay were wearing one when climbing the mountain, not least because Norgay is clearly wearing a steel watch in all the pics, and the Rolex he owned at the time was gold.


The best evidence however comes from the Managing Director of Rolex UK at the time. In September 1953, the Managing Director of Smiths was clearly annoyed at the success Rolex had with their claim to be first and their subsequent marketing of the newly launched Explorer model. He wrote to the leading watch magazine of the day, the monthly magazine of the British Horological Institute (which still exists and you can find them here).


Here is what he said, and I've highlighted the relevant part:

Now this could just be another marketing claim if it Rolex hadn't replied, in the October issue, with this clear admission:

For anyone familiar with the norms of the day, this was a genuine attempt by two leading figures of the industry to set the record straight and avoid being called liars. That is why the Rolex Director wrote in when he didn't have to. If you examine any Rolex ads since that first one, not a single one claims that their watch was on the summit first, they simply state (a lot) that Rolexes are often on Everest, worn by the bravest climbers.


They have never reduced their association with climbers and still sponsor mountaineers as influencers today. They remain proud of the Explorer watch, and it is branded as a tough go-anywhere timepiece.  However, it is fairly clear that it was not the first to the summit.


The Smiths watch was a Smiths Deluxe, or A409 and Hillary gave it to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in the City of London. It resides on display in the Science Museum in London.

One of the reasons Rolex is so large and famous today is precisely because they were willing to create interesting marketing stunts over the course of the 20th century. Their continued efforts to associate themselves with adventure, feats of bravery, and interesting people have maintained a level of quality associated with their watches. Rolex customers associate the brand with success and its stories like this that made it this way. Fortunately for their customers, they make great watches.

Rolex launched the watch formally known as the Explorer in Summer 1953. The first reference number was the 6350, which remained very simple and added the no famous 3, 6 and 9 indices on the dial to make it easy to read. They also made the black dial option standard for the same reasons. 

In 1956 the 6610 was introduced with the Mercedes style hands and again the bold numbers in luminous paint. The introduction of the 1016 in 1963 was another upgrade and was important as it stayed in production for over 25 years, making it possible the single-longest Rolex reference in production. In 1989 it was replaced by the 14270, which shows the indices and numbers lined in white gold. It is still pretty much the same today.

This model has not changed much and has been on sale for nearly 70 years. This shows the incredible staying power of Rolex. They make watches people want, improve them consistently, and deliver reliable designs. Coupled with the interesting marketing tactics and strong brand image, it keeps the company and their watches at the top of the industry today.

We at The Watch Collectors' Club want to help everyone explore the world of watches. We want to bring you the interesting stories that are behind the watches we see on the market, and we want to help you share your watch stories. Our regular meetups are the perfect place to come and learn more about watches like the Explorer and tell us which watches you like and would love to know more about. At our next one, we will be exploring and comparing the brands  Tudor and Breitling and it's taking place on April 12th in Central London. You can find all the details here.


 If you know of anyone who might like this story, please forward it on and let them know where to find us. We are on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, and our mailing list is the first place to find out about all our events. Join us at the next one!

Was a Rolex the first to the top of Mount Everest? Which watch was first to the top of Mount Everest?

The Rolex Explorer Everst Controversy

Rolex Myth-making and the birth of the Rolex Explorer

The Watch Collectors' Club is here to help you learn more about the world of watches. We will introduce and explore types of watch, and highlight some of the variety available from around the world. This week we consider a very popular type of watch: Tool Watches.

A Tool watch is a watch that contains one or more functions additional to telling the time. It is a watch that provides a useful tool on the wrist.


Some functions are common and some are very rare. In the watch world, functions are also known as complications. Watches with a date function or calendar function are not usually thought of as Tool Watches but can be a very useful tool themselves. Many Tool Watches include more than one additional function.


There are many variations of tool watch design as designers like to experiment with ways to display these features, but most tool watches are very easy to read and use. 

The best reason to buy one is that you want to use the function it comes with. You might buy a Chronograph, or Stopwatch, if you want to time how long something runs for, or even just timing a recipe. You might buy a watch that shows multiple time zones to keep track of a meeting with colleagues overseas, or your home time while you are abroad.

People love Tool Watches for other reasons. They were originally designed for specific uses, such as Scuba Diving, Navigation for Air Pilots, Motor Racing Timing, and Artillery Timing. The design requirements for these uses have a lot in common. The first is a really clear dial, including the function readout. So if a chronograph is to be useful, it needs to be easily read on the subdials, the second-hand needs to be clear etc. If it has a scale around the outside then this needs to be clearly marked, such as the Tachymeter on the bezel of the Omega Speedmaster or Rolex Daytona.


Dive watches in particular need to be useful underwater where the light is filtered. This leads to dark dials, bright indices or numbers and luminous material used liberally. They also often have Bezels around the dial which can be turned. These are used for dive timing and need to be very easy to read. Rather obviously, they need to be waterproof, and sturdy so they aren't easily damaged. These features are found in other Tool Watches and are very helpful. People want watches that are waterproof and sturdy.

There are so many options, designs, and functions to be found in the world of tool watches we encourage you to explore widely, embrace interesting options, and if you don't know what a watch is trying to do, ask! There are many great Microbrands experimenting with Chronograph or Dive Watch design. The world of High Horology excels in finding complicated ways to add functions to watches, often putting many different ones in the same watch. We love finding both the new and exciting ways to represent something done widely and also the niche new technological marvels from the very cleverest watchmakers.

All Digital and Smart Watches are Tool Watches

Most digital watches come with a range of additional functions and are Tool Watches by default. This is because adding the functions adds no cost to a digital watch, just a decision on where to put the buttons in the design. Customers expect functions such as timers, stopwatches and alarms to come with a digital watch. 

Smartwatches are all Tool Watches also. Smartwatches, including the Apple watch, are small computers to which software applications, or apps, are added. All of these Apps provide a function or a tool for their user.

The Watch Collectors' Club exists to help you learn, explore and share your passion for watches. This coming Monday, March 21st we are hosting a digital Meetup via Zoom, where we will talk about the watches we've seen at this weekend's London Watch Show. If you'd like to join in please register here.

In April we are very excited to announce our first event with a Retail Partner, where you will be able to directly compare and contrast Tool Watches from two top Swiss brands. You'll be able to directly see the features of Dive Watches and Pilots Watches especially. If you've never been to a watch boutique before, this is a great opportunity to join us for a friendly introduction to how they work. We'll also be giving some informative talks to introduce the brands, what they stand for, and what to expect from their timepieces. It's on April 12th in Central London, and you can find more details here.

Introduction to Tool Watches, Explaining the different types of Tool Watch

Why are some time-only watches so expensive?

June Meetup Highlights and Club Plans

The Story of the Speedmaster "Ed White"

Was Abraham-Louis Breguet the most innovative Watchmaker of all?

What is a Watch Club?

What makes a Watch Collector?

How to Buy a Dress Watch

Willy Breitling and Inventing the Modern Chronograph

The Rolex Explorer Everest Controversy

What is a Tool Watch?

What happens at a Watch Meetup?

Introducing The Rolex Daytona

How to Research a Vintage Watch

My Watch Collecting Journey - a hobby that's become a business

January In-Person Meetup Highlights

Club plans for 2022

The Patek Philippe Nautilus - the most surprising icon in the Watch World

Patek Philippe and Tiffany - the oldest Authorised Dealership in the world

The IWC Big Pilot Pop-Up - an easy way to learn about watches

Introducing Showcases and Meetups