Women's Watches

What ticks inside a women’s watch, from quartz to automatic:

three ways of keeping time, and each changes what you are buying. Quartz runs on a button battery, its seconds hand jumps once a second, and it is the cheapest to make, which is why nearly every fashion and dress watch uses it, from a Swatch to a Tissot. Solar quartz, which Citizen sells as Eco-Drive and Seiko as Solar, adds a cell under the dial that charges from any light, so the battery never needs changing. An automatic is mechanical and winds itself from the movement of your wrist, and its seconds hand sweeps instead of ticking. Small automatic movements are harder to make, so women’s automatics are fewer and dearer than a quartz watch from the same brand.

A dress watch for the office, a steel one for the beach:

a small dress watch on a leather strap, or a stone-set bangle watch, is made for work and evenings out, and sits naturally beside bracelets from women’s jewelry. A steel watch on a link bracelet takes knocks and shrugs off sunscreen and sweat. Read the water rating before you swim in it: “water resistant” on its own, or 3 ATM, means rain and washing your hands, not the pool at Tamarindo, and for swimming you want 10 ATM or more. For runs and the gym, a sport watch on a silicone strap belongs with women’s sportswear.

Paying for the movement, and the present that never left its box:

a steel solar watch from Citizen or Seiko starts around ₡115,000 new and the dressier ones climb to about ₡240,000, well above a fashion watch that looks much the same on the wrist. The money buys a movement made to last and to be serviced, which is why a clean used one keeps more of its value than a fashion watch whose plating has started to go. Some of the best second-hand buys are Mother’s Day presents that did not suit: still boxed, with the booklet and receipt, from someone who would rather have the money.

Reading a used watch by its seconds hand, clasp and bezel:

a quartz watch that has stopped usually needs only a battery, but one left dead in a drawer for years can leak and corrode the movement, so ask when the battery was last changed and see it run before you pay. On a solar watch, a hand jumping two seconds at a time means low charge, not a fault: leave it in daylight for a few days, never on a car dashboard, and if it still jumps it needs a watchmaker. A stopped automatic usually just needs winding, but one that gains or loses minutes a day needs a service, which can cost a real share of the price. A watch sold as automatic whose seconds hand ticks once a second is quartz, whatever the dial says. On gold-tone and rose-gold finishes, look under the clasp and at the back of the case, where the wrist rubs: grey steel showing through cannot be touched up cheaply. On a stone-set bezel, look for empty settings or traces of glue.

Getting a watch ticking before the photos, and the wrist size a gift buyer needs:

say whether it is quartz, solar or automatic, and have it running when you photograph it: a quartz one with a fresh battery, a solar one after a few days on a sunny windowsill, an automatic wound and set. Shoot the dial straight on, then the clasp and caseback at an angle so plating wear shows. If it was a present that was never worn, say so, include the box and receipt, and list it in July rather than the week before 15 August. Then measure the bracelet closed, or the inside of a bangle, in centimetres. A son driving in from San Ramón for his mother’s present rarely knows her wrist size, and with that number he can measure one of her bracelets at home before he sets off.