What will I be using the watch for?
Before starting the search and taking the first steps towards buying a watch that is new you must make sure you know what you need it for. Ask yourself a few questions to establish a specification of features or materials you are looking for. For example “Does it need to be waterproof?”, “Is the watch for daytime of evening wear? or both?”or even “Do I want a lightweight or heavy watch?”. This will help you and the retailer narrow down the huge selection of watches that most retailers display in-store.
A retailer will never want to miss sell you a watch and we would hate for you to walk away with the watch of your dreams only to come back disappointed as it didn’t quite do what you needed it too or it didn’t go with that outfit for work. We will ask you questions too to get more of an understanding of what exactly it is that you’re looking for from your watch. This helps us to help you.
Do I have a set budget or price range in mind?
Price ranges are good to look at next as they link in quite well with what you will be using the watch for. If you are looking for a watch to take to the beach you might be talking of a price around £90-£400 where as if you are looking for it to be able to dive with you into the depths of the sea you need to be expecting a price tag of anything from £600-£4,000 now this might come as a shock but requirements are everything. All you have to do is think about how much work needs to go into a watch to make it work under immense pressure with no loss of time or failure of functionality.
As a tip when buying a watch make sure that you are aware of the prices of different functions, not necessary the exact price but whether it is expensive or cheap that way you will be able to work out from your specification you made earlier whether you need to have a high budget or a low one. Ideally we all want the best watch we can for the cheapest possible price but I’ve never heard of cheap and reliable being used in the same sentence especially not when describing a watch. But fear not bargain hunters there are some good deals out there, one of the best gems of our website at the moment is this feature packed watch for only £145.00 We are selling out fast so if you like the look of it get it before its gone.
Do I want to look at vintage or pre-owned timepieces?
When buying a watch looking at high price watches in the ‘Luxury’ bracket it definitely a wise idea to at least consider vintage or pre-owned timepiece. It is not uncommon for watches to fluctuate in value dependant on age, condition and movement. One thing to bear in mind is if the watch you are looking at (especially if it is a high price) could lose its value so sometimes it might be a better option to buy a pre-owned watch at a lower price that wont depreciate any lower and will hold its current value. It’s a little similar to buying a car in that the depreciation is fast at the beginning and slowly grinds to a halt.
If you are looking at lower price points, I’d say anything under £500 you don’t really need to look at pre-owned models as they are usually really good at holding their value from brand new.
What type of power is best?
This is a little tricky and we would recommend referring back to your specification, if you do not have one check out this article which explains about creating a specification before starting your watch finding adventure.
Solar Power – Citizen Watches are a perfect example of solar power watches. They use their Eco-Drive technology to power their watches, this comprises of a lithium capacitor that stores energy that is collected by solar cells on the watches face. The video below explains a little bit more about how their Eco-Drive technology work.
In summary solar power is great for people that don’t want all the hassle of changing their watch battery, especially if it water resistant as it would have to go back to Citizen so as not to void the warranty. If you spend a lot of time outdoors with good bright light from any source then Citizen could be for you.
Kinetic – Seiko Watches are at the forefront of kinetic movements after creating the first kinetic powered watch all that time ago. It works from a weight in the back of the watch that when you move spins round. Each Seiko timepiece has a small capacitor storing an electrical current, which is released when the watch needs to be powered.
Mechanical/Automatic- This technology works from a weight in the back of the watch that when you move spins round, this winds up the watches mainspring which powers for the watch. This powers up every time you move the watch so if it attached to your wrist just walking can keep your watch in full working condition. You can also get watch winders to charge your watch whilst you sleep making sure it is fully charged by morning.
Should I buy my watch online or in store?
There are pro’s and con’s for both of these which makes it a little hard to make a concrete choice. I think it is all down to personal choice however we are happy to give you the facts and let you decide. If you are looking at buying online you definitely have a lot more choice, the power of the internet has allowed people to now browse thousands of watches at the click of a button. Gone are the days where you have to go in to a jewellers and look through a catalogue. It is also a lot easier to compare prices now instead of phoning around you can browse and compare offers so efficiently. Finally you can get your watch delivered direct to your door with next day delivery meaning you don’t need to find a jewellers who has the watch you are after in stock then make he long drive over to view it, pay for it and drive all the way home.
Sadly a lot of jewellers are feeling the hard times due to a lot of watch and jewellery businesses going online. Now that the online e-commerce market is bigger than ever its a case of joining them or falling behind. It is terribly hard to make a profit purely just through a physical street store. Some do it well though and these seem to be in very dense areas in regards to both population and wealth.
This being said there are still a lot of pro’s to jewellers, they offer a more friendly customer facing service that you don’t really get online. Websites can sometimes feel cold and unfriendly with a maze of products and checkouts. If you are looking for a high value watch you’re more likely to want to go into a store and talk to someone who is knowledgeable about the watches they sell rather than discuss it with an overseas live chat company who only have the same info as you. If you go to a jewellers who have the watch in stock you can take it away there and then on your wrist however websites you need to wait for it to arrive. This can be inconvenient plus you always run the minimal risk of something happening to your package in the mail whether that be damage or loss. Please note that damage and loss are extremely rare and only in the smallest amount of cases does this happen.
We have replaced catalogues with Ipads which allow customers to browse our website quickly and conveniently. Once a customer finds a few watches that they would like to view in person we collect them from our stock room upstairs and bring them down for presentation.
