this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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All things time: clocks, watches, their workings, collecting, repair.

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Horology in its broadest sense: watch repair, clock repair, collecting timepieces, history and technology of horology, etc.

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On buying watches (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 month ago by cdegroot@lemmy.ca to c/Horology@lemmy.ca
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A colleague is visiting Switzerland and of course the talk is about watches. Here's my advice on buying a watch:

  • If you want to know what time it is by looking at your wrist, buy a quartz watch. I'm a fan of Casio, but anything will do.
  • If really want a mechanical watch, care about precision and quality, and want to have the best bang for your buck, buy a Japanese watch. You can't go wrong with a Seiko.
  • If you want a reasonable watch and spend as little as possible, Chinese company Seagull got you covered. I own one, it's fine.
  • If you want to buy some jewelry that also tells the time, buy Swiss.
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[โ€“] mech@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Seiko was never especially known for the precision of their mechanical movements. They were known for making decent watches for very little money. But they've now cast off the low end of their offerings entirely in the past few years.
Instead, they now sell their basic movements to other manufacturers.
So I'd argue if you want the best bang for your buck, buy a microbrand watch.
They often offer unique designs, great finish and build quality, with a reliable basic movement for less than a current entry level Seiko.
And if you want to go really cheap, the bigger Aliexpress watch brands have honestly become really good as well. I just dislike them because most of them don't have their own designs, but just copy that of a popular Swiss watch.

[โ€“] cdegroot@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Swiss watches pretty much are all just variations on the same theme as, say, Seagull's movements, so "meh". I have a skeleton Seagull and it's nicely built, but I did have to disassemble it and property clean and lube it on arrival, that's the biggest issue with anything cheaper than a basic Seiko IMO. Not everybody is setup to do that, and parts aren't available so if it breaks or stops working, you have to toss it. Not my preference, you'll likely get more life out of a $20 Casio watch :-)