Watch purchasing guides

A little history of watches and some advices for buying the perfect watch. Heritage 1973 Chronograph 43mm satin-polished stainless steel case, black calf leather strap. The Swiss brand first engaged with motor racing during the Fifties, finding its greatest success in the Seventies sponsoring entrants at the Le Mans 24-hour endurance races and claiming a podium first place with French car builder Alpine at the Monte Carlo Rally World Championship in 1973. This year’s Heritage release revisits Tissot’s original mechanical racing watch, the Navigator, fairly faithfully while adding new tweaks. Inside the polished steel 43mm case, the three-dial panda layout is highlighted with green Super-LumiNova indices and sporty little neon-orange counters, the date window is repositioned between 4 and 5 o’clock, and it’s all mounted on a period-perfect black perforated leather racing strap. Limited to an appropriate 1,973 pieces, the race is on to catch up with one.

Let’s move on to the under 1000 USD category. The latest iteration of Orient’s beloved, mid-century-style dress watch. The domed dial now comes in an excellent slate-gray colorway and features rose gold accents. The watch also gets an updated suede strap. Ticking underneath is an automatic movement from Orient featuring hand-winding and hacking seconds. If you want excellent modern design in a watch, you don’t need to pay much, fortunately. Braun’s BN0211 has won both an iF and a Red Dot award for its minimal, stealthy aesthetic. A yellow seconds hand pops against a stealthy black dial and sleek black case, and the watch comes mounted on a comfortable stainless steel mesh bracelet. With few exceptions, Timex abandoned mechanical movements in favor of digital and quartz movements years ago. That’s exactly why Timex’s reissue of the famed Marlin is so exciting. It’s now available with an automatic movement underneath, and if that weren’t enough, it comes with a sleek case, dial, and strap design that truly look like they were plucked from the 1960s.

Chunky, luxury watches don’t suit everyone’s style, but this sleek-looking beauty carries the elegance and swagger needed to stand out from the crowd. The steel blue-like dial with its mix of distinctive leaf hands and Roman numerals exudes an air of class appropriate to a watch brand founded in Geneva in 1830. At 40mm it’s on the upper end of the medium size scale. Strap it on your wrist and see why celebs like David Duchovny and Kiefer Sutherland are huge fans. Chotovelli, a brand founded in the 1920s in Turin, derived and inspired by Italian aviators, is a name you probably haven’t heard before. Which just means it qualifies as a ‘find’. For the price, this handsome oversized chrono is by far the biggest bargain on the list, and the opportunity it affords to give each admirer a mini history lesson is just icing on the cake. The saddle leather strap will only get better with age, but caveat emptor: at 47mm, this is one big watch.

WatchNerd is your go-to virtual “watch guy.” He has all the latest information about the best luxury watches and will give you his honest opinion without any gimmicks. He has nothing to win or lose from you buying any particular watch, and is only interested in helping you find a watch that you love. He’s always been a super smart guy, and only makes a decision or offers advice when he’s confident he has 110% of the necessary information. However, he also genuinely cares about the advice he gives and wants to make sure he’s helpful — never overbearing or pushy. He gets his information from a wide range of sources, staying on top of the latest trends but also relying on hard numbers. He knows there’s a lot of crappy advice out there, and always triple checks his informative before giving his opinion. See extra details on Watch Blog.