Perfect Watch

The Basics of Time

One of the most often asked questions in our store is, "does a watch that costs thousands of dollars tell time better than a cheap, drug store, throw away watch?" The answer is of course no. A $10 quartz movement will keep near perfect time...at least for a few months. Accuracy alone has little effect on the value or desirability of a watch. The truth is, those of us who love fine timepieces don't share this passion because we like watching the minutes tick by. We love fine watches because we know the time, effort, skill and artistry that goes into the design and production of each masterpiece. Fine watches are so special precisely because they are usually built around older mechanical technology, the basics of which has been around literally for centuries. It’s time tested engineering, modernized and improved, that simply works...usually for decades, without the need of a battery. To this day, the basic mechanical wrist watch is still acknowledged as one of mankind's greatest inventions. In fact, the more mechanical the movement, the more hand built parts it contains, the more it is actually worth. Value is a function of materials, labor, mechanical complication and rarity. Now lets get into the basic differences between timepieces.

Quartz Technology

Basic quartz technology is, believe it or not, an American invention. In the early 1970's, the Hamilton Watch Company in Lancaster, PA developed both LCD and Quartz time keeping technology. Quartz technology is remarkably simple. By passing a constant electric current through a quartz crystal, it vibrates at a constant frequency. The oscillating quartz crystal then drives the step motor to move the watch's hands at a constant rate. The battery, quartz crystal and step motor replaced the mainspring and gears of the venerable mechanical movement. Ironically, Hamilton chose to produce LCD watches and sold basic analog quartz technology to a little company called Seiko in Japan. Ten years later, Seiko was the largest watch company in the world. Today, however, the finest watches, mechanical and quartz, are built back where almost all early watch technology was born and perfected...in Switzerland.

Swiss Quartz

We believe the finest quartz movements are produced in Switzerland. They are the best of old and new. By using traditional mechanical based chassis and real jewels, the Swiss Quartz movements are the most rugged, accurate and reliable movements made. Quartz’s greatest advantage is cost and most watches under $1000 today use quartz movements. When choosing a watch, Swiss quartz is an excellent choice if you want to set it and forget it.

Automatic For the People

The most interesting and desirable watches are called Automatic watches. Automatic watches are mechanical watches that are driven “automatically” by harnessing the kinetic energy produced by simple human movement. Often called “self winding”, automatic watches save energy when a simple oscillating rotor at the base of the movement spins as the arm moves. That rotor winds a simple mainspring, storing up that energy, which is then released at a constant rate, moving the hands of the watch. The classic automatic movement is really quite a remarkable feat of engineering, requiring almost 200 precisely crafted parts, working in perfect harmony to keep proper time. Today's best automatics are so well built that, with proper maintenance, they will last for generations.

Life’s Great Complications

Complications are mechanical watches, usually automatic, that perform multiple timekeeping tasks. The more tasks and their degree of engineering difficulty are what give complications their collectable value. These are the true marvels of horology, some commanding tens of thousands of dollars on the market. Vintage handmade complications routinely sell for more than most automobiles. The most common of all complications is the chronograph. Chronographs are wrist born stop watches that can break down time into hours, minutes, seconds...often to 1/100th of a second. The chronograph's popularity is a function of it’s myriad of applications, from sports, including track, swimming, and racing, to aviation and navigation. Other complications include functions like moon phase, tides, power reserve indicators, and calendars showing day, date, even year. One famous, hand built complication, will actually track the time, day, date and year...accounting for leap years...for over one century! If you'd like to view some our watches online, visit our Fine Timepieces page. Visit our store to view our wide selection of favorite watches and get Free Shipping on Orders Over $100.

TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Calibre 6RS

WAV511A.FC6224

WAV511B.FC6224

WAV511C.FC6230

WAV511B.FC6230

Movement: TAG Heuer Calibre 6 RS C.O.S.C – Automatic – Rotating System at 6 o’clock indicating the small second - Date

Water resistance: 100 m

Crystal: Double anti-reflective curved sapphire crystal

Case: Ø 40.2 mm in fine-brushed steel with curved faceted polished horns - Double sapphire caseback sealed by 6 screws

Bezel: Fine-brushed and polished bezel

Dial:

• Rotating Small Second System at 6 o’clock decorated with Côtes de Genève and diamond polished facets
• Opalin central area and external spiral effect area
• Hand-applied curved faceted index with double finishings
• Hand-applied TAG Heuer logo
• hands with polished facets
• Luminescent markers on hands
• “Grand CARRERA – CALIBRE 6 - AUTOMATIC – CHRONOMETER OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED” written on the dial
• Date window at 3 o’clock

Crown: Oversize screw-in crown

Bracelet:

• 3 rows multi faceted steel bracelet. Finishing: alternated polished and fine-brushed central row and fine-brushed lateral rows with polished edges

OR

• Black alligator strap

OR

• Brown alligator strap

Clasp: Solid steel folding clasp with safety push buttons and applied TAG Heuer logo

Specifications may depend on the model.

**More Information About TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Calibre 6RS

BREGUET Type XXII 3880 ST

For the 50th anniversary of the Type XX, Breguet is introducing a contemporary, technically updated reinterpretation of that legendary chronograph.





For the 50th anniversary of the first deliveries of its famed Type XX watches designed for the French naval air arm, Breguet is introducing a contemporary, technically updated reinterpretation of that legendary chronograph, the Type XXII design. Its stainless steel case, 44 mm across, houses a Breguet chronograph movement with silicon escapement and flat balance spring whose frequency has been raised to 10 Hertz (i.e. 72,000 vibrations per hour), endowing the movement with exceptional regulating power, its chronograph seconds hand effecting a complete rotation in 30 seconds. The timepiece’s start function and readout are thus twice as precise.

CONCORD C1 Vintage

A faded appearance combined with cutting-edge technology. A vintage look matched by avant-garde energy.

Press Release

The C1 Vintage chronograph plays with paradoxes through a bold stylistic exercise reflecting Concord's unique approach to mechanical engineering.

  Chronograph C1 Vintage, sporty and retro, deliberately aged and decidedly muscular.

Concord C1 MecaTech Chronograph

The Concord C1 MecaTech chronograph presents a study in multi-level dial complexity. Every square millimeter offers a line, a texture, a non-traditional display, or a new elevation. The two-tone black PVD and rose gold case measuring 44mm x 16.7mm creates the impression of bank-vault security. A matte-black grid in the center of the dial provides the base for the arrow pointers that rest above the turning disks of the 30 minute and 12 hour counters.

Concord-C1 Eternal Gravity

Concord might have dubbed this unique piece the Time Warp. Just looking at it transports me back a few years to those giddy days of carefree spending. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the $1.2 million C1 Eternal Gravity was not created with the U.S. market in mind. As we all know, the watch words here (pun intended) are sensible, rational, and reasonably priced.

TAG Heuer-Aquaracer Quartz Chronograph Grande Date

Aquaracer

Quartz Chronograph Grande Date

CAF101B.BA0821

Movement: Quartz Chronograph

Glace: Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal

Dimension: 43 mm

Dial: Black, silver, blue or yellow dial with spiral effect and 3 counters, small second at 3 o’clock, minute at 9 o’clock and a “twin-hand” semi-circular counter at 6 o’clock.

During 30 minutes, this semi-circular counter will work as a 1/10th of a second chronograph counter and then will turn into an hour chronograph counter. The red side of the hand indicates 1/10th of a second from 00 to 05 on the inner scale and the polished finished side of the hand indicates 1/10th of a second from 05 to 10 on the outer scale.

Large date window at 12 o’clock
Polished-finished hands and luminescent markers on hands and indexes for improved legibility in darkness
Hand applied indexes and TAG Heuer logo

Case in fine-brushed steel with polished edges

Screw-in case back with stamped diver decoration

Unique dual bezel composed of fixed aluminium ring (black, blue and yellow dial) / fixed polished steel ring (silver dial) and unidirectional turning bezel in fine-brushed steel with fine-brushed studs and minutes scale:
• Engraved numerals with black varnish on the turning base
• Luminescent dot at 12 o’clock

Bracelet: 3-row fine-brushed steel bracelet with solid steel clasp, diving extension system and safety push buttons
Black rubber strap with protruded TAG Heuer logo & inscriptions and steel pin buckle

Water resistance: 300m.

TAG Heuer-New Aquaracer Leonardo DiCaprio Ltd Edition (43mm)

Movement : TAG Heuer Calibre 5 – Automatic – Date

WAJ2116.FT6022

CHOPARD - Grand Prix de Monaco Historique Chronograph 2010

Aesthetic audacity and timekeeping performances.






Press Release

Grand Prix de Monaco Historique Chronograph 2010, 18-carat rose gold.

Like the classic cars that compete in this fascinating race, the 2010 edition of the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique Chronograph is a blend of bold aesthetics and mechanical performance. Featuring a black aluminium bezel that makes a striking contrast with its silver-coloured dial and fitted with a perforated leather strap, this chronograph is equipped with a mechanical self-winding movement chronometer-certified by the COSC. It pays tribute to the sporting spirit of this event uniting the finest classic racing cars and partnered by Chopard since 2002.

TAG HEUER - Tesla Odyssey of Pioneers in Moscow

First 100% electric GT car on the Red Square.






Press Release

For the first time ever, the Russian capital welcomed a 100% electric GT car, as TAG Heuer’s Odyssey of Pioneers stopped on the historical Red Square and exposed its TAG Heuer Tesla Roadster in the AVTOVILLE retro-cars museum.