Is there a perfect watch? Is there a watch to end all watches? A short answer to this question is, in the language of our Spanish-speaking friends, no. Having any other answer would be as impossible as a parent picking his favorite his favorite child. No one is that diehard, even a rabid New York Yankees fan would admit to a National League favorite, however that team would never be the Mets. So, is there no such thing as the best?
The best is only for people who don’t really know what they are talking about or have limited periphery knowledge of something. The more you start to know about watches the easier it becomes to realize that there is no one perfect watch and just the thought of picking one is way to limiting. We are also talking about something that is imperfect and should be more appreciated for its beauty and elegance as well as its engineering marvels. Like works of art it is easy to spot the masters but hard quantify what makes them so more worthy of that status than the finger paintings we all made in kindergarten. So what is important when it comes to making a top tier watch?
Aesthetic appeal is important. Look at a Patek Philippe Calatrava with its clean dial free of lines of writing with only the Patek name and city of origin with stick hours and small dot minute markers. The clean white dial set in a rose gold case and brown leather strap make for a pleasing clean, and well-put together appearance. This is a handsome look but you can’t dive with it, nonetheless I wouldn’t toss it from my collection.
Functionality is important. Take the Rolex submariner, which is functional for ninety nine point nine percent of technical dives being that it is waterproof and functional at a depth up to 300 meters and the deepest dive, with a self contained under water breathing apparatus, recognized is 318 meters. But is the Rolex Submariner the only watch that can preform this feat of engineering? Again the answer is no. In fact as I write this I am wearing an equally impressive Omega Seamaster Professional, the James Bond model, which can also function at a high level up to a depth of 300 meters. So which is best? Hmmm, if the depth rating were increased would it be better? Sure it might add to the cool factor if numbers are your thing both Rolex and Omega have a 600 meter models that would function at the deepest dive recorded that was made by a US Navy diver. Well using this the watch’s function as a measuring stick doesn’t definitively give us a best watch and we didn’t even talk about chronographs like the Omega Speedmaster that has been on the moon and back.
So maybe it is the movement that makes the watch? The Swiss standard for a top regulated and made movement is a Chronometer rating, which is usually proudly printed on the dial of high-end watches, sometimes it is noted on the case back instead. But what is a Chronometer rating anyway and who awards it? The rating signifies that the movement in the watch while being tested maintained a precision of not losing more than 4 seconds in a 24 hour period nor gain more than 6 seconds in that same time frame. The chronometer rating is given by COSC a Swiss government agency. But does having a chronometer rating make it the best? Once again the answer is no. A million watches a year are awarded the chronometer rating, and at the same time many watches that are capable of the rating never are even sent in for testing. Rolex makes it’s no-date Submariner that is not chronometer rated with just as much care as it does the chronometer rated ones.
So even trying to find the perfect watch we can see that is an exercise in futility. So keep an open mind and don’t limit yourself to the watch your buddy says is the best. Do the research and buy quality watches that will be the best for whatever your may be doing that day and remember that is going to change daily, so live a little and buy the ones you like.