Forty-two years is a long time. It’s long enough to go from enjoying a carefree childhood to having a serious need to make a will, and for those who’ve spent that time hoping Patek Philippe would fit a grand complication into the quirky Nautilus, the wait was a long one. But now the wait is over.

The hand wound chronograph is perhaps the foundation of a high-end watch company’s ability to demonstrate its prowess, a complex, intricate assembly unencumbered by a rotor weight hiding the mechanical wizardry going on inside. There’s no better palette upon which to exhibit the art of fine watchmaking—but can you tell the difference between one that’s more affordable and one that’s very expensive?

If you’re looking to buy a serious dive watch, then the Rolex Sea-Dweller 126600 is likely to be right at the top of your wish list. It’s got the history, it’s got the heritage—but it’s also got a problem: the Tudor Pelagos.

It’s had its ups and downs, TAG Heuer—and perhaps more recently, the ups have been outnumbered by the downs. There’s a positive future on the horizon thanks to the efforts of brand fixer-upper Jean-Claude Biver, but a look to the future isn’t always enough to give us hope—we need to look to the past as well.

There’s a lot of talk about the brand Grand Seiko. Some people will tell you it’s better than Rolex, others that the quality is unmatched, and others still that the value is astonishing. There’s a lot of reasons given why we should buy a Grand Seiko—here are three things you should know before you do.

If you’re just getting into watches, it won’t be long before you come across the El Primero. Meaning, ‘the first’, it was the name given by its creator, Zenith, to mark the creation of the world’s first integrated automatic chronograph movement. That was 50 years ago—there’s been a lot of progress since.

Think of a number, any number. Take that number, stick a pound sign in front of it, and chances are, no matter how big or small it is, there’s a watch you can buy for that price. But just because you can spend the money, does that mean what you’re getting is worth it? To answer that question, we’ve got three watches: one for £2,000, one for £10,000 and one for £20,000. The question is, can you tell the difference?

While £1,000 won’t get you the best watch—not by a long shot—it can still get you a good watch, and even a great one. Choose carefully, do the research, and you’ll find something worth hanging on to—or you can cheat and let us suggest something instead.

It’s the watch that saved Audemars Piguet, that came to define it. The eight, hard angles framing the dial and bracelet blending seamlessly into the case can be recognised from across the street—and that’s the point. The Royal Oak was meant to redefine an ailing industry, create exclusivity with a technology that was fast becoming antiquated. And it worked—but could it be better?

Stop the average person on the street and ask them if Rolex is better than Omega, and there’s a high chance they’ll agree. Rolex is a bigger brand, sells more watches, has a stronger following—yet here’s something that proves that Omega is, in fact, the champion.

High end watches come with high end prices—that's no secret. But what if there were some loophole, some trick to getting watches made by top names like IWC, Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin for the kind of prices you'd pay for Rolexes, Omegas and TAG Heuers? Perhaps there is.

We’ve covered many of the varied and interesting complications watchmaking has to offer, from the humble self-changing date to the mighty perpetual calendar, but despite the vast iterations of features we have seen, there are always a few more that we haven’t—and some of them are quite unusual. Here are three of them—the question is, are they useless or not?

This is it. This is the big one. In one corner, you’ve got Patek Philippe, king of the watchmaking trifecta, and in the other, you’ve got A. Lange & Söhne, the crisp, clinical perfectionist. It’s Switzerland versus Germany, classic watchmaking versus polished efficiency, and what better way to fight this fight than with some flagship watches from each brand. This is going to be good.

If the digital age has taught us anything, it’s that there’s something unquestionably appealing about analogue. Whether its hi-fi, photography, cars or watches, being in control of a machine with moving parts that we can manipulate and understand is inherently satisfying. But as technology moves forward, knowledge of the old ways wanes, some of it to be lost forever. It is our responsibility to pass that knowledge on to new generations of aficionados, our duty—so with that in mind, here are five things you must never do with your mechanical watch.

For many of us, we can only dream of owning a Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC or Rolex, and that’s a shame. But there’s another way, sort of—buy a more affordable alternative. With that said, here are three more affordable alternatives to expensive watches.

Whether you like Richard Mille or not—and it’s a hotly contested topic—you have to at least acknowledge that the avant-garde brand does things a little differently. Since the release of the 2001 RM001, Richard Mille has chosen to define the watches it makes by going down a different route to traditional Swiss watchmaking—and here are five things that particularly stand out.