I believe that everyone should be able to own a watch that will last more than a year. I'm a mechanical watch enthusiast that ended up turning my passion into a business. I became a repairman and a parts supplier to help other enthusiasts and would like to share some of my knowledge when it come to quality in watches.

Buying a quality swiss mechanical watch should not cost you thousands of dollars. There are some tips and information to use when buying watches whether it's a mechanical or quartz watch. I believe in mechanical over quartz so this guide will be a little one sided. I'll include tips and info for both though. This is a very simple guide to help anyone. 

When you purchase a watch you want to ask the seller what the caliber of the movement is and who manufactured the movement as well as what the case and band are made of. If the buyer does not know or has no idea that is a problem. The seller should know his products. Brand names really don't matter it's quality of the components.

A good quartz movement will be jeweled just as a quality mechanical movement. 7-13 jewels is a very good quartz movement. 17-21 jewels is very good for mechanical movements without complication, but jewel counts need to be higher for more complications of a mechanical movement. Jewels in movements are used as pivot points for the gears the jewels are harder than metal or plastic and thus cause the movement to last longer. A high quality swiss manufacturer that you want to look for in a modern watch is ETA. As far as modern mechanical and quartz in my opinion ETA is the best of the best. They manufacturer chronograph, manual winding, automatic winding, calendar movements, and quartz. They, like the other swiss, japanese, and chinese manufacturers make the watch movements for the all the brands out there. I'll say again that you will want to question the seller any time you buy a watch as to the mfg and caliber as well a jewel count and case materials. Whether you buy a top brand or a lesser you want quality in materials. You want to ask before buying. There are many smaller brand sout there that make a watch just as good as the big R but sell for much less. Many sell for less than 200.00 for a watch that would go for $1000.00+ if the big brand name was on the dial. Though both watches will last a lifetime. A little hint here: the big brands just machine off the swiss mfg markings and put their own on to hide the fact that someone else made the movement. They also do this to have a market on "genuine" parts much like the auto mfgs. This is the way it has been done for a very long time. I deviated here to give some background so that you know how this works. ETA as well as others mfgs sell their movements and parts to any supplier or brand that wants to buy them in quantity. This means that just about anyone can produce quality watches that can be made and sold cheaper than the name brands. I have produced several of my own this way and supplied many with the components to do the same.

The main difference between any of these watches is the case, band, and crystal. The materials used to make the cases dictates how long a watch will be used. The better quality the longer it will last. I have found that an all stainless steel case is the best for the cost if you can get a quality movement inside. Typically if you can get a high quality movement the case will be high quality as well. I hope this helps anyone interested in buying or collecting watches. Any questions just ask.