The Perfect Starter

Collecting watches for 7 years and counting, I have been asked this question many times, what would be the perfect watch to start a collection? My quick response was always, hmm, well, it should be the watch you like, the one that ticks you or speaks to you! While this is true in most part, that it all comes down to what you’d like best because you will be the one wearing it most of the time, I do think you might want to consider spending few minutes to read this. If a time machine gets me back to when this horology madness journey’s started, what would be my first pick?

Seiko SKX013 would be my perfect starter and I will tell you why.

This ‘dive’ watch suits most occasions in my view. Yes it’s perfect for casual, daily-beater watch in rubber/nylon straps, worn with jeans and shirt, but I do think this 37mm diameter watch still also fits in more formal occasions when you change the rubber straps into metal bracelet.

The watch has automatic movement cal. 7S26, a reliable workhorse that’s similar to its more famous big brother in 42mm diameter, SKX007/009/011. What is automatic movement and how it is different with manual wind or quartz movement? In short, automatic means it’s self-winding (the watch will keep on running as the rotor moves from the mechanical movement of your wrist and fills its power reserve), manual wind means you will need to wind your watch (crown) every day or two (manually fills its power reserve), and quartz means it’s powered by a battery that will need to be changed every year or two.

I pick an automatic watch as my first, simply because of these 2 reasons. First, since it’s my first watch, I will wear it almost everyday so perhaps to manually wind it everyday or two may be a hassle for me (yeah I’m that lazy!). Second, I prefer a smooth sweeping second instead of dead second (quartz).

Yes, I know there are some quartz-powered watches out there that can also do a smooth sweeping second and vice versa, there are some manual wind/automatic movement watches with dead second, but those are both uncommon, perhaps another topic for another day.

With less than $300 to spend, I believe this is one of the very few watches out there that offers best value for money ~ given the detail and full specs of the watch. Beside, I don’t think I want to burn a big hole in my pocket already for my perfect starter! (just because there’ll be endless main courses to follow!)

Cheers! Mr. Ed from @watchunting.