Best collectible clocks & watches books according to redditors
We found 51 Reddit comments discussing the best collectible clocks & watches books. We ranked the 25 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 51 Reddit comments discussing the best collectible clocks & watches books. We ranked the 25 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
There are lots of books on the subject, like Cult Watches, and Vintage Wristwatches.
I read the following websites frequently:
Find watches for sales:
Buy this book on Amazon:
I think it doesn't get better than The Mastery of Time. It's very beefy, and has everything you'd ever want to know about a lot of timepieces and a lot of technical innovations behind watchmaking.
I'm going to upvote and pick on zanonymous a bit here (apologies in advance z) because I think it might help you and others to see how opinions differ and multiple people can give you good advice that is in conflict.
>The longevity of a watch doesn't relate strongly with its cost. I am sure your Casio will last you a few decades if you change the batteries and aren't too rough with it.
Agreed
>A luxury watch, which you seem to be after, will last you for the rest of your life, and the life of your children if properly maintained.
Actually any watch can be made to last a long time, the question is whether it's worth the cost of repair. Lots of cheap mechanical watches can be had for $100 or so used, but they're more than that to service and repairs can run $500+ I've got several display only watches that I won't repair at this time because I could replace them for less than the repair would cost. Oris and Eberhard with ETA movements for example.
If you're interested in new watches you should buy the wristwatch annual. I buy them a year old to save some money and just buy a new one every year as they have good information about who manufactures which movement for which watch, etc. If you want to buy used the Cooksy Shugart book is often used but prices are off--you're better looking at the big auctions for better watches and small auctions for inexpensive watches. Also blogs and forums can be very helpful. Hodinkee as a blog and the vintagerolexforum if you like Rolexes (I do they're great watches).
>If you want to impress the average person, you should probably look for a watch with great name recognition. In this price range, the most well known are probably Omega, Cartier and Rolex. (Although you would most likely need to find a used Rolex.)
Again, the average person won't notice anything but a flashy watch and you've indicated a preference for something understated. For factory built watches, watch aficionados look at three brands: Patek Philip, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin. These are followed closely by Rolex, IWC, Jaeger Lecoultre. Rising but a step below that are brands like Omega, Tissot, Tag, Ulysse, etc. Some will take exception to my putting Omega below Rolex, but Omega has done much to hurt it's brand, mixing cheap watches with very good and allowing their product to be sold at outlets like Costco. There are great Omegas but a lot of junk as well.
>Dressy luxury watches tend to have alligator/leather straps. Look for those. The most recognizable/signature dressy lines from each of these three watchmakers are the Omega DeVille, Cartier Tank and Rolex Datejust.
Agree with the leather straps. The Omega Deville is not a name I'd want in general--older models are $400-$700 and new models like the Deville with the coaxial escapement have a simple ETA movement that makes it not justify its price for me. The Cartier Tank unless you go back more than 50 years is just a jewelry watch with a poor movement and if you go back that old you'll not wear it every day. It's also rectangular, which is generally considered a more formal watch, but to my eye they don't look good on larger men--make sure you really, really want a rectangular watch before you buy one. The datejust is Rolex's most common watch. Spend sometime at the vintagerolexforum before you buy any Rolex.
>Good luck :)
Seconded and enjoy!
Watch making as in buying premade parts and putting them together? If so I can recommend this book. For only $15 it gives pretty good details on how to do this and I will be trying it eventually.
If you mean making all the gears and whatnot by hand than that is a whole other story.
The thing Theory of Horology has over the others is that it is the most straightforward in presenting formulas for the various physics and mechanics at work in a watch. If you are a skilled mechanical engineer then it has what you would need to design a theoretical movement, but it does not really provide practical information about watchmaking and repair. If you're not a skilled engineer, then it's far less valuable and I know I've seen at least some of the equations in it presented elsewhere but not quite as condensed. If you're still interested in it I wish you luck finding it (I think I got the last copy on the internet) as it's a nice looking book, but by no means a necessary textbook.
It's not quite a textbook but I'm currently really enjoying Chronograph: Wristwatches to Stop Time as it has some pretty detailed history of chronographs as well as some great illustrations and photos of a wide array of chronograph movements.
I always recommend The Mastery of Time as an intro to watches, watch making, and horology in general.
Lots of beautiful pictures and easy to read with a huge amount of references.
Have you spoken with her about this idea, or are you intending to surprise her?
Speaking only for myself, I think his & hers watches is a bit tacky, and it's possible she might feel the same. I'd recommend making sure she feels the same way as you do about matching jewelry.
Another thing to consider is that if she is not particularly interested in watches, she might prefer a quartz watch to a mechanical one. Women are notorious for not wanting to tolerate a watch that needs as much attention as a mechanical. If she's never worn a mechanical watch before, maybe it would be good to buy her a Seiko 5 or something just to test if she likes having a mechanical watch before investing that much money on a pair of watches.
All that being said, if everything's a go, I'd suggest taking a look at:
I also think that selecting a watch for a woman requires more careful consideration than it is for a man. I wrote a few words once about this problem if you want to know more.
Another way to look at this problem is to shop for her first, and then try and find a watch for you to match that. You could pick up a copy of Wristwatch Annual and you can flip through it together to see what she likes. She might learn to appreciate some of the lesser known brands, which will increase your selection.
Spare parts availability is a biggie for sure.
I started with a manual wind Sellita because it was a nice balance of quality and price... but more importantly brand new parts were readily available from Otto Frei.
I could have started out cheaper or on potentially worn out movements but being able to use easy to find brand new replacement parts was a nice convenience.
For example, a lot of older Seiko 5s have a worn out bushing and suitable replacements are not available. The best you could do is scrap one from another movement. The problem with that is donor movements have most likely worn out the same part also. To fix it you need to get creative with some specialized tools which really complicates things when you are first learning.
It looks like you are already underway so if you haven't already you should pick up a copy of these books. If you only get one then, anecdotally speaking anyway, I reference Fried's book the most. However, they are both worth it if you can afford it.
https://www.amazon.com/Watch-Repairers-Manual-Henry-Fried/dp/1626549982
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Watch-Repairing-Donald-Carle/dp/1602393575
Not cheap, but you can look at Moonwatch Only: The Ultimate Omega Speedmaster Guide
Edit: Book Review by aBlogToWatch
Much more likely to have success by starting on a pocket watch movement over a wristwatch movement.
Elgin 12size to 16size, 17jewel, or similar would be much easier to work with, & with plenty to be found for $50 & under.
Youtube is a good resource, if you like learning via video, or "The Watch Repairer's Manual" by Fried;
https://www.amazon.com/Watch-Repairers-Manual-Henry-Fried/dp/1626549982/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=freid+watchmaking&qid=1574838444&sr=8-1-spell
That is precisely the attitude you should have when you want to begin learning. My pick for the best book to use as a basic primer is The Watch Repairer's Manual. After reading and understanding the first few chapters, you'll want to start building up your toolkit. I suggest a decent but relatively cheap set of French screwdrivers, a general purpose AM style brass tweezer for handling bridges and larger wheels/parts, and an anti-magnetic #3 tweezer for smaller parts. Loupes, a couple of other tweezers, and other tools will follow in due course. I'm only too happy to throw my two cents in, if you're interested. Finally, I highly suggest not starting by working on working watches. The watchmaker that taught me used to say "Entropy only flows in one direction" when asked why we started by working on old junky corroded watches. Broken or junky watches can generally be bought for very little money singly, and sometimes even in small lots of ten or more. You should look at as many different movements as you can in order to familiarize yourself with how the parts are laid out. Don't be afraid of the tiny ladies watches either. If you can work on them, you can definitely work on the normal sized men's watches. They're not more difficult, just smaller.
Moebius 9010 is perfect for all the pivot points, but the pros use heavier weight oils like 8200 for the mainspring or other really heavy force stuff like keyless works (sometimes even a grease is used). You could use the lighter stuff, but it won't spread around the mainspring and it might be too lightweight. Worst case is you'll need to clean and oil the watch in 2 years instead of 10.
Oiling is an art. Is the watch clean first? Have you used pith wood to clean all the pivots and such? No point oiling a dirty movement.
And when it comes time to oiling, you use the tip of a tiniest black oiler (like a flattened pin point) to pick up just a little oil, and put it on every pivot. It'll just wet the inside of the jewel hole and the pivot point, NO MORE. Ditto for the non-jeweled pivot holes. For the end-capped mainstaff jewel, take off the cap jewel and oil the jewel under it, then put the cap back on.
There should be a tiny circle of oil AND NO MORE. For escape jewels, just the face of the jewel that slides on the escape wheel.
If you put too much oil, it'll gum up the works, and attract dust. General rule is too little is better than too much.
Edit: For real. Buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Watch-Repairers-Manual-Henry-Fried/dp/1626549982
Or find it in the library and check it out right now. Reading it will be a real education. Of course, you can also find youtube videos too. But this is a great reference. For example, it has a whole section on proper oiling techniques.
1001 watches from 1925 to today
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1405494638
The mechanical Omega's & Tissot's all have value to them. Especially the mechanical multi function watches. I would recommend picking up The Complete Price Guide To Watches. There is a great section on wristwatches in there that should give you an idea of the value. bear in mind, Case wear/scratches, Parts missing (like the crown/stem), corrosion and not running mechanism all decrease the value. Also, the pocket watch section is great as well. According to the book, the year your Pocket watch was made in 1906 based on the 14,306,805 serial number. Good luck!
I'd go with the Complete price guide to watches. http://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Price-Guide-Watches-2014/dp/0982948735 it covers american and European watches, gives you information and prices for most watches, even lists serial numbers to help you date your watches.
Try the Complete Price Guide to Watches 2014 (even last years will be fine), this has a lot of great educational info in the front of the book as well.
The movement is the whole unit inside the watch case that actually keeps time. If its a swiss movement it was made in switzerland. Maybe a few parts (gears) could have been made elsewhere but assembled and primarily built there.
Complications can be different on each watch and you may have to start to get more specific in your research to learn specific complications for specific watches if thats what youre asking.
Not complete re: the really high end models and private labels. But the first 100 pages of general info are valuable to even a novice collector or watchmaker.
[here](Complete Price Guide to Watches 2013 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982948727/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awd_2JMOrb1A265AX)
It was a Christmas gift from my mom. You can find it on Amazon Wristwatch Annual 2017: The Catalog of Producers, Prices, Models, and Specifications https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789212625/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wpkzybEWJAD2Z
It's well worth it IMHO
> Supply and demand is the biggest factor but as you said some things are limited and some aren't.
Something just as important as supply and demand is the elasticity of demand—how willing are people who demand X to settle for Y instead at a lower price.
People often talk about the "rarity" of a collectible as if it was an objective fact, but in reality all items are unique, and "rarity" really is a function of how for some items, collectors demand one that is exactly one particular way, while for many other items they don't care, and will consider two copies "the same" even though they are objectively different.
The examples I know best are from vintage American pocket watches. Most collectors desire watches with high jewel counts, 19 or more, and treat most 7-jewel watches from the same company as equivalent to each other. But objectively speaking, many 7-jewel watches are much rarer than some of the favorite, most collectible high-jeweled watches. There were more than a million made of collectors' favorites Hamilton 992 and 992B 21-jewel railroad pocket watches, whereas no more than 610 were made of the obscure Elgin grade 68 7-jewel watch. The 2012 Complete Price Guide to Watches has 10 entries for minor variants of the Hamilton 992 and 992B, with prices between $275 and $2,000 depending on variant, but no entry that matches the Elgin #68 in the linked photo—the closest entry is for a different 7-jewel Elgin with the same "Mat. Laflin" name (made in larger numbers), at $175.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
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Thanks brotha! I hope others get into the hobby. It would be AWESOME to see other redditors posting what they MADE and not just BOUGHT! I grew up in a lower middle class family, and my father always instilled in me to build things rather than buy them to save money, or fix things myself rather than pay someone to do the work I could do if I took a little bit of time to educate myself and learn. Also, buy this damn book: https://www.amazon.com/Beginner-Watchmaking-Build-First-Watch-ebook/dp/B004GNFJ4E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1493833543&sr=8-2&keywords=watchmaking
This book is an amazing read. It is simple. It explains things incredibly well. I have read it so many times and every little time my eyes open up to something I was confused on with a watch I was working on or something. It's dope.
As everyone has said, 2 timepieces are your best bet. What people aren't saying is timepieces are a personal choice, much like a pocket square or tie. We can give you tons of recommendations (Patek this, Rolex that) but ultimately you need to find what you like. A good starting point would be a few books, like About Time, The Watch or Wristwatch Annual 16.
That said, there are TONS of smaller brands and independent manufacturers that would easy fit within your budget but only someone that is interested in timepieces would know or care about.
If you don't have time, I'm sure someone on here would be happy to get together, learn your personal taste, and arrange a try on session to help you find the right timepiece for you. I know of a shop in my area that would be perfect, but it depends on where you live.
Good luck with the search! Make sure to come back and let us know what you settled on, with pictures of course.
Warning: it's not cheap. Example: https://www.amazon.com/Moonwatch-Only-Ultimate-Omega-Speedmaster/dp/2940506035 (look around, this price is higher than the high price that I paid)
Main website here: http://www.moonwatchonly.com
Book review here: http://www.ablogtowatch.com/moonwatch-only-ultimate-omega-speedmaster-guide-book-review/
Photo from Rolex: History, Icons and Record-Breaking Models by Cappelletti & Patrizzi.
I just recently learned that this type of dial is called a "Pleiade dial." Very 1980's.
Hey OP, unfortunately your watch wasn't in the book. BUT, here's some other cool Vulcain watches that were in the book: http://imgur.com/a/YOXrB
If you're interested in the book, it's this: https://smile.amazon.com/1001-Wristwatches-Present-Martin-Haussermann/dp/1405494638
I paid like $12 for a used version in basically mint condition. Well worth the price. Good book to have on a coffee table and a nice conversation piece. Lots of cool watches and photographs along with some history and information about various watch types.
Edit: Wanted to point out, this is not a great reference book if you're thinking about using it as one. It's missing some bits and pieces. For example, for dive watches, there's NO mention of the rather venerable and interesting Vostok Amphibia which imo is a milestone diver's watch due to it's unique design.
Yeah, almost $300!
Again, just link to one, it shouldn't be that hard if they're all over the place, but I couldn't find any from a simple "Expensive watches book" google or search on amazon