Topic
Complications
A complication is anything the watch does beyond hours, minutes and seconds. Each one buys you a function and charges you in thickness, fragility and service cost. These pages explain what each family actually does, how to use one properly, and which are worth the trade.
30 pages on this subject.
Answers
Guides
Annual and perpetual calendars
How calendar watches handle months of 28 to 31 days, the four tiers from simple date to perpetual, the setting danger zone, and what they cost to own.
Chronographs: how they work and how to use one
What a chronograph is, how column wheel and cam switching differ, why clutch type matters, and how to read a tachymeter, telemetre or pulsometer scale.
GMT and world time watches
How a second time zone hand works, the difference between a true GMT and a caller GMT, how to set each one, and what a world timer can and cannot tell you.
How a mechanical watch works
A mechanical watch turns a wound spring into a steady beat. Here is the whole chain, from mainspring to escapement to hands, and what each part actually does.
Watch complications explained
A complication is anything a watch does beyond hours, minutes and seconds. Here is every major family, what each one is for, and what each one costs you.
Models
Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph
How the Navitimer's circular slide rule is actually used, what the in-house B01 caliber gives you, how the big case wears, and what servicing one costs.
Omega Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch
The 42 mm hand-wound Moonwatch with caliber 3861: what METAS certification changed, what the 1965 NASA test program actually covered, and the 50 m limit.
Rolex GMT-Master II, 40 mm
The 40 mm Rolex GMT-Master II explained: published specifications, how the dual time works, caliber 3285, service costs and what the allocation premium buys.
TAG Heuer Carrera: the chronographs and the three-hand models
The Carrera splits into in-house Heuer 02 chronographs and Sellita-built three-hand models. What Glassbox changed, and how steeply the watches depreciate.
Movements
Valjoux 7750
The ETA 7750 is 30.00 mm wide and 7.90 mm high with a cam-switched chronograph. Why it makes thick watches, why the rotor wobbles, and what a service costs.
Compare
GMT vs world timer watches
A GMT tracks two or three zones with a 24-hour hand. A world timer shows all 24 at once. Which suits your travel, and why caller and traveler GMTs differ.
Omega Speedmaster vs TAG Heuer Carrera
A hand-wound Master Chronometer against an automatic in-house chronograph and its Sellita-based siblings: winding, size, service cost and depreciation.
Super-LumiNova vs tritium tubes vs LumiBrite
Two lume mechanisms, three trade names. Which glows brightest at midnight, which still glows at 4am, and which one is quietly running out.
Problems
The date changes at noon, or not at all
A date that flips at midday means the hour hand is twelve hours out. How to fix it in a minute, and what to do if the date is simply slow or stuck.
Tools
Tachymeter calculator
Use a chronograph tachymeter without the guesswork: enter elapsed seconds and distance to get speed, or units produced per hour.