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When it comes to high-end watches, there is one thing that the most revered watches always have in common: in-house calibers, or manufacture movements. The art of watch making, for the purists, is in the movement. It represents a set of skills that take decades to culminate and even longer to perfect. Movements are designed to be elegant, complicated, efficient, innovative, brilliant, and host of other exalting words. They are miniature mechanical works of art that hearken to a long and rich history of craft and technology. The dials and cases of a watch reflect the mastery within.
It’s no secret that these watches can cost tremendous amounts of money. From several thousand for a more mass-produced movement, such as an Omega, to tens of thousands for a Jaeger-LeCoultre, to hundreds of thousands for a small-run hand assembled grande complication, such as a Breguet Double Tourbillon. As such, they don’t often grace the pages of worn&wound, except in our “watch lust” category. Most of the watches we discuss are built around third party movements, or ébauches, mostly made by ETA, Selitta, Miyota and Seiko. Brands design their watch with the specs of the movements in mind, the cases and dials are manufactured, and the movement is installed. For affordable mechanical watches, this is really the only option*, and the watches are no less valid for it. I’m going to skip the philosophical rant I could go on here about worn&wound’s passion for these watches, as our reviews do the talking for me, and get to the heart of this article…
