When looking at a watch there are many aspects to consider. Most of the biggest considerations boil down to the dial, case size, style and oftentimes (sadly) the name on the dial. These qualities are important, no doubt and I will not claim they are not, but a watch has many facets to it that either don’t get considered or are overlooked. Which then leads the new and happy owner to quickly sour to the joy of wearing that new watch. This may or may not have happened to you, but there are some things to check before committing to the buy which could help avoid that happening all together. 

It also seems that collectors will get hung up on a few aspects of the watch and focus too heavily on them while ignoring other parts which are equally as important. In lieu of my previous article about why brands using the same movements is not a bad thing, I want to slightly shift focus and look at what collectors might also be missing when considering a watch. 

The Case Comfortability

A case seems like one of the easiest things to consider when getting a watch. I mean it’s visually the heaviest aspect of a watch and you will be looking at it constantly as it sits on your wrist. But it seems that most collectors will focus on case sizes more than the actual comfort of the case and how its stance is on the wrist. Case size is very important, the width, the height, the materials used, the lug to lug (if you’re lucky to find that info), but most collectors just focus on case size.

The way a watch will plant itself on your wrist is very important as a tall or heavy-cased watch will tend to fight you more and, on average, being heavier only exacerbates the problem of it moving around on your wrist. A similar thing can be said for wider watches, such as rectangular or square shapes, as they tend to wear much differently than more traditional shapes.

This can lead to you wearing the watch tighter as to not have it flop around but in doing so you might find it to be constraining. Also consider case materials, not just from a price point but from a weight perspective and be sure to ask yourself beforehand, “do I want a heavier watch or lighter watch?” This is important because the materials used may affect your perception of the watch and can lead to different opinions on it. On top of all of that, the next thing we will segway into that you should consider is the bracelet.

A case with more dramatically downturned lugs can aide in comfort like this Kuoe

The Bracelet

Not every watch will have a bracelet to which there are positives and negatives. Each bracelet will wear differently and you cannot know how it’s going to feel prior to getting it in hand. Unlike a strap that you can eventually break in (unless it’s a hornback alligator strap, then good luck) the bracelet will wear the way it wears until the pins holding the links get worn. So trying it on the bracelet is so important and this is especially true for integrated bracelet designs as there is not much wiggle room to change those up.

But for the ones that do come on a bracelet, if possible, it is best to thoroughly try it before committing. If you are lucky enough to try on the watch, be sure to wear it for a few minutes to gauge the level of comfort. If it’s too loose and is sliding up and down on your wrist, slide it back and forth a few times to see if it catches any of your hairs. 

The Clasp

With the advent of newer machining processes and the fact that the watch world is more competitive than its been for decades, there is an ongoing arms race, pun intended, for companies to make their watch more comfortable than the next brands’. For watches with a bracelet, a lot of that focus has been pointed to the comfort and usability of the clasp. This may manifest as a diver’s extension, micro adjust, hidden links, or rail-type system that runs a portion of the clasp.

All of these are incredibly great systems that allow you to fine-tune the watch to fit your best comfort but, I’ll admit, some of these clasp designs are doing too much resulting in a clasp that might be as tall as the case of the watch itself. This shouldn’t be the dealbreaker if you love the watch, but take into consideration the clasp comfort when it’s being worn. As mentioned, some clasps are really trick with intuitive ways to give you room to expand or contrast but some clasps will not have those at all. Which could leave you in a tight spot if you decide to work out or eat salty foods and make the watch uncomfortable to wear.

So, if the watch has one, consider the clasp on it and see if it has any kind of adjustment to give you some breathing room when you need it. If it doesn’t, don’t let that be the dealbreaker if you love the rest of the watch and especially if it has a traditional set of lugs as you can then change it out for a strap. But if it’s an integrated design then have that decision weigh heavier.

Now they're putting adjustability in the tang buckles too, thanks Fitwell

The Lug Holes

You may be scratching your head wondering what I mean by this and that’s okay. This is mainly for collectors who like to constantly change the strap on their watch, even if it comes on a bracelet every now and then you get an urge to swap it out for a strap. You may have heard some watches be called a “strap monster” and that is because the watch can support a litany of strap styles.

But some of you may encounter watches that cannot handle strap changes well and it often boils down to where the lug holes are placed for the spring bar/pin to seed into. Sometimes the holes are drilled too close to the case, not allowing for straight cut straps to fit properly and designed more for curved straps. Another occurrence can be the lugs being too short or hooded making for most straps that aren’t thinly padded to be nearly impossible to fit on. This factor is hard to account for, especially when the lugs are not pierced which would allow you to see how much room you have to work with.

A good rule of thumb is to see where the spring bar/pin connects to the case, if it comes on a straight cut strap, look to see if there is a gap between the case and strap end. If there is, you run a better chance of the watch being more of a strap monster than not.

Buy and large, a skin diver is a good platform to support a wide array of straps

Cost Of Ownership

A very large oversight many people have when looking at a new watch is something that the owner will have to contend with at some point, whether we all like it or not, and that is the cost of servicing the watch. Sure, the ‘service cost’ isn’t a physical part of the watch but it does concern the movement and gaskets which will need attending to a few years down the road.

I have encountered owners of certain higher-end watches where the servicing costs were almost as much as the watch pre-owned, I mean look at vintage Seikos where some services cost more than the watch itself. Some people won’t care as they will catch and release the watch before its service time is up. But at some point, someone will have to consider either getting the watch fixed or stored away in a drawer for someone else to deal with. Option three would be to make it a really cool paperweight but that’s beside the point. When getting a new, or used, watch be sure to do your due diligence, consider the cost of service down the road and factor that in to see if getting that watch still makes sense. 

Parting Words

Getting a new watch is fun, if it isn’t you might want to take a step back from watches for a while, and oftentimes people get blinded by a new shiny object without taking a moment to consider the whole thing. When looking at a new watch it’s easy to focus on a few small, but key, details and not view the larger picture.

If you are lucky enough to find the watch which has caught your eye and try it on, go do it. When you do, have a mental checklist of the things that matter most to you and hopefully one or two takeaways from here. That way you can feel better about the watch immediately and know whether it’s a perfect fit or something you have to make some concessions on. If all else fails then throw caution to the wind, pull the trigger, get the watch and hope the place you bought it from has a decent return policy if you find you can’t live with it.