How I picked these: how they work, specs and buyer reviews. I haven't owned every one of them.
What to expect
A mechanical watch is a small machine, not a computer. That brings real advantages and some honest limits.
- It's less accurate than quartz. A cheap quartz watch drifts by seconds a month. Affordable mechanical movements like the ones below are specified to tens of seconds a day, and many do better than their spec. Expect to reset the time every week or two.
- It stops if you don't wind or wear it. These run for about 40 hours once fully wound. Leave one in a drawer over a weekend and it will have stopped by Monday. That's normal.
- It needs a service now and then. The oils inside dry out over years. Plan on a service every 5–10 years. A watchmaker strips it, cleans it and oils it again.
- Magnets upset it. A strong magnet can make it run minutes fast a day. It's easy to fix, but worth knowing.
- It can run for generations. There's no battery to leak and no circuit board to fail. With servicing, a good movement keeps going for decades.
Why mechanical
If you only want the time, a phone does it better. The reason to wear one of these is that it's self-contained: it runs on you, and you can understand every part of it.
A quartz watch needs a new cell every few years, and an old cell can leak and ruin the movement. A mechanical watch gets its energy from your hand or your wrist, so there's nothing to run flat for good.
An automatic has a weighted rotor that swings as your arm moves and winds the spring for you. Wear it daily and you rarely touch the crown. All three automatics below can also be wound by hand, which helps when one has stopped.
A hand-wound watch has no rotor, so it's thinner and you can see more of the movement. You wind it each morning. Some people find that a nice habit. Others forget and it stops.
I've picked one for everyday, one for dress, one for water and one chronograph. They're different tools. You don't need all four. Pick the one that matches how you live.
Seiko and Orient build their own movements and have done for decades. That means spares are easy to get and almost any watchmaker has worked on them.
Chasing seconds a day costs a lot more money. A few seconds' drift is the price of a watch with no battery. If exact time matters for a job, check it against your phone.
How it works
Every mechanical watch has the same five parts in a line. Energy goes in at one end. At the other end a tiny wheel swings back and forth at a steady rate, and that rate is what keeps time.
Wind
Turning the crown, or the rotor swinging on an automatic, coils up the mainspring. It's a long, thin strip of spring metal inside a drum called the barrel.
Store
The wound spring wants to uncoil. It pushes on the barrel, which turns slowly. A full wind holds enough energy for about 40 hours in the watches on this page.
Pass it on
The gear train is a chain of wheels from the barrel to the escapement. One of those wheels turns once an hour and carries the minute hand. A small set of extra gears under the dial (the motion works) drives the hour hand from it.
Let it out in steps
Left alone, the spring would unwind in seconds. The escapement stops that. The pallet fork locks the escape wheel, lets one tooth past, then locks it again. Each release is one tick.
Keep the beat
The balance wheel swings back and forth on a hair-thin spring. It takes the same time for each swing, like a pendulum. Each time it swings through the middle, it unlocks the fork and gets a tiny push to keep it going. Most watches tick 6 or 8 times a second. That's why the seconds hand sweeps in small steps rather than jumping once a second.
The clever part is that the balance wheel's swing time barely depends on how hard the spring is pushing. A fully wound spring and a nearly empty one give almost the same rate. That's what makes a spring-driven watch keep good time across a whole day.
What to buy
Four watches, one for each job. All are from long-established makers with their own movements, so a local watchmaker can service them. Listings change and some come in several colours or versions, so check the details on the listing before you order.
These are affiliate links. If you buy through them I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you. It helps cover the cost of running this site. This is a hobby, not a shop.
Everyday
Dress
Water
Chronograph
If you'd rather buy vintage, older Seiko and Orient automatics turn up on eBay and at local watch fairs. Ask whether it has been serviced and budget for a service if not. A cheap vintage watch that runs badly usually just needs cleaning and oil.
Set it up
New watches usually arrive stopped. Five steps to get one running and set right.
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Unscrew the crown if it screws down
On the diver, turn the crown anticlockwise until it pops out to its first position. The others just pull out.
Why: a screw-down crown is locked to the case to keep water out. Pulling it without unscrewing can damage the threads.
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Wind it by hand
With the crown pushed in (unscrewed on the diver), turn it clockwise. On an automatic, about 20–30 turns is the usual advice to get it going. The rotor will keep it topped up once you wear it. On the hand-wound Sea-Gull, wind until you feel it come to a firm stop, then stop. Don't force it.
Why: a stopped automatic needs a bit of energy in the spring before it runs well. Automatics have a slipping clutch inside so they can't be overwound. A hand-wound watch has no clutch, so forcing past the stop can break the spring.
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Set the time to the second
Pull the crown out to the last position. On these watches the seconds hand stops. Turn the hands forward to a minute ahead of the real time, wait for that minute to come round, and push the crown in on the tick.
Why: setting forward takes up any slack in the gears, so the minute hand lines up with its marker. Stopping the seconds hand is called hacking. It lets you start the watch exactly on time.
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Set the date safely
Before you touch the date, move the hands to around 6 o'clock. Then use the date position of the crown to set yesterday's date. Pull out to the time position and wind the hands forward past midnight. The date flips to today, and you know you're in the morning. Carry on to the right time.
Fig 2 · On a 12-hour dial the danger zone sits over the top half. The same hand positions in daytime are fine, which is why you check AM or PM by watching the date flip. Why: on many date watches the date gears start engaging a few hours before midnight and finish after. Forcing the quick-set while they're engaged can bend or break a tooth. The exact window varies by movement, so the safe habit is to always park the hands near 6 first.
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Push the crown home
Push it fully in. On the diver, press in gently and turn clockwise until it's snug. Don't overtighten.
Why: a crown left out lets in dust and water, and on most watches it also stops the watch from running or winding normally.
Looking after it
Day to day
- Wear it or wind it. An automatic worn all day usually stays wound. If you sit at a desk all day, give the crown a few turns in the morning. Wind a hand-wound watch at the same time each day, before it runs down.
- Check its rate. Set it against your phone, then check a day later. Write down how many seconds it gained or lost. Once you know its habit, you know when to reset it.
- Use how you lay it down. A watch runs at slightly different rates depending on its position. If yours runs fast, try leaving it overnight crown up or dial up and see which slows it. It's a free way to fine-tune it.
- Never use the crown or pushers underwater. Water gets in through an open crown or a pressed pusher, even on a dive watch.
Magnets
The hairspring under the balance wheel is steel on most affordable watches. If it gets magnetised, its coils stick together slightly and the watch can suddenly run minutes fast a day. Keep it away from phone and laptop speakers, magnetic bag clasps, tablet covers and induction hobs. If it does happen, a watchmaker can demagnetise it in a few seconds with a small machine.
Servicing
Plan on a service every 5–10 years, or sooner if the rate gets much worse or the power reserve drops. A service means a full strip-down, clean, re-oil and new seals. Water resistance should be re-tested at the same time, especially on the diver. A cheap watch can cost more to service than it did to buy. For those, a local independent watchmaker is often better value than sending it to the brand.
Knocks
Modern movements have shock protection on the balance, but a hard drop onto a tiled floor can still knock one out. Take it off for hammering, heavy gym work or golf.
Common problems
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Stopped overnight | Not worn long enough to wind it fully | Wind 20–30 turns by hand in the morning. Wear it longer, or wind it before bed. |
| Suddenly gaining minutes a day | Magnetised | Ask a watchmaker to demagnetise it. Quick and cheap. |
| Date changes at midday | Time set 12 hours out | Wind the hands forward 12 hours, then reset the time. |
| Date half-changed around midnight | Normal on many movements: it changes slowly over an hour or two | Nothing. It should be fully changed by the early hours. |
| Crown won't pull out | It screws down | Unscrew anticlockwise first. |
| Mist under the glass | Water has got in | Take it to a watchmaker straight away, before the parts rust. |
| Rate slowly getting worse over years, or runs down early | Oils drying out | Time for a service. |
Notes
The balance wheel with a spring dates back to the 1670s. It's what made pocket watches accurate enough to need a minute hand. The basic layout in Fig 1 has barely changed since, which is why watchmakers can still service watches a hundred years old.
The tick rates above come from common movement speeds: 21,600 beats an hour is 6 ticks a second, 28,800 is 8. The service interval and power reserve figures are typical, not guaranteed. Your watch's manual has the real numbers for its movement.
Related guides: the wind-up gramophone runs on the same kind of spring, and Stirling engines are another machine you can watch working. All guides are on the battery-free page.