GQ's watch models guide

By Scarlett Baker

Perpetual calendars? Chronographs? Watchmaking terminology – and understanding the difference between watch models and complications – can feel like learning an entirely new language.

Whether you’re a newbie to the watch world looking to get your hands on your first piece, or someone who's hoping to start a collection of different watch models but often gets put off by the loaded watch words thrown around, we're here to simplify the meaning behind some of horology's key terms and take you from entry-level to expert in no time.

Chronowhat? You ask. Remember the sports days of your schooling years when you relayed across a field under the surveillance of a stopwatch? It’s much the same (minus the running). Think of a Chronograph like a stopwatch, with a start/stop and reset button typically on the side of the crown. It’s the ‘It Girl’ of watch complications, considered one of the most accessible complications on high-end watches, and is often titled as a racing watch. The chronograph has garnered a good rep, adored by the likes of Brad Pitt, basically every F1 driver on the grid and the cult of TAG Heuer Monaco fans including Jacob Elordi, Will Smith, Steve McQueen, Robert Downey (and myself).

But why would you want such a thing on a watch? A chronograph comes with small sub dials, often in contrasting colours to the main dial meaning a divergence in colour on your wrist. That, and it gives a greater purpose to the watch other than telling the time – with a Chronograph you can time how long a driver takes to pit, or even how long you can hold your breath for. The possibilities are endless.

Quelle surprise: you can actually dive with a diver’s watch, and we don’t just mean the board at the local lido. The chief himself, Rolex's Hans Wilsdorf, made a major move in water-resistant watches with the patenting of the Oyster case in 1926. Six years later, Omega created the first commercial dive watch, dubbed the Omega Marine, plunging 73 metres below the surface of Lake Geneva for testing. A dive watch today will bring you even closer to Poseidon, pushing from 600 to 20,000 feet.

By Thor Svaboe

What makes a dive watch daring enough to take on the open seas? A minimum water resistance of 100 metres, legibility (often through luminosity), a rotating bezel to document exactly how long you’ve been under (FINALLY, the watch triumphs over the iPhone’s timekeeping abilities here) and for the pros amongst us who love to scuba dive beyond swimming with the turtles near the shore, a helium valve to conquer even further depths. King of the Diver’s watch – Bond, James Bond himself – Daniel Craig sports Omega’s iconic Seamaster model both on and off screen. That makes it surely justifiable enough to ask for diving lessons this Christmas. And maybe a diver’s watch too, then.

The label ‘Dress Watch’ raises a few eyebrows in the watch industry today. Horological doctrinaires will tell you there’s a watch etiquette for all occasions and a dress watch ought to be reserved for more formal events. What makes a dress watch a dress watch? Typically a slender, elegant and understated design with a sleek case and bezel.

By Lucy Ford

By Iana Murray

By Lucy Ford

But RuPaul didn’t say “Catwalk everywhere you go today,” for nothing. While the identifying features of a dress watch haven’t changed, you can wear it wherever you so wish. Case in point: Dua Lipa giving antiquity the middle finger, eating an ice cream while wearing a Cartier Panthère. And if Tyler, the Creator can wear a Cartier Pebble on a lakeside bike ride, then so can you.

By Finlay Renwick

There are two parts to the mechanical story, as there are two major types of mechanical watch. The first, manual, could be considered the DIY of watch models, requiring you to get hands-on and buddy up with your watch from the outset. Any watch aficionado will tell you a great watch is a lifelong companion, and manual or hand-wound watches, that came long before automatic watches, prove just that. Why? Because it simply can’t function without you, and not just in an emotionally-tethered way, either – manual watches require you to physically wind the crown in order to power the watch. And when you feel resistance, STOP.

Through the magic of physics and insane craftsmanship, the energy created from you turning the crown stimulates an entire network of parts inside the watch, allowing you to tell the time. Partisans of such wizardry include Kevin Hart’s Platinum Patek Philippe Grand Complication to Chris Hemsworth’s Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days.

The second part of the mechanical saga is the automatic watch, considered more fitting for the bustle of the modern day. An automatic has a lot more autonomy than its hand-held counterpart, using a self-winding mechanism powered by the movement of its owner, meaning you don’t need to set an alarm every day to remind yourself to wind it on. A weight attached to the back of the rotor does the dirty work for you: as you go about your day, that rotor winds the watch for you. The good news with automatic watches is that they cover an entire financial spectrum. From Mark Ruffalo’s Frederique Constants, to Jay Z’s entire collection of Richard Milles (and there are many), automatic watches dominate the watch market for their hybridised approach to traditional mechanical engineering and modern technology.

By Lucy Ford

By Iana Murray

By Lucy Ford

ATTENTION! Military watches have been well-documented out in the field throughout history, from Kaiser Wilhelm bestowing the German Imperial Navy with Girard-Perregaux watches, to both World Wars with the likes of Elgin, Bulova and Hamilton supplying front lines. With durability, reliability and practicality essential, what once acted as tools of survival, often in dark and subdued shades, today take shape with a tough spirit and adventure at their core. From Tudor’s Black Bay Pro, obviously on the wrist of David Beckham, to Tom Hardy’s Rolex Explorer II, these watches are built to withstand extremes and accompany the wearer come rain or shine.

You might’ve wondered why there’s sometimes a silhouette of the moon on a watch dial. Horoscope fans, unite: this one’s for you. What we watch folk call a complication (a function beyond telling the time), as opposed to a type of watch, moon phase tracks the position of the moon in the lunar cycle, be it new, full, half or quarter. It's yet another thing to show the philistines that say watches have no use: who doesn’t want to know the phasing of the white mass towering above us from the comfort of your wrist? We salute you, Tom Holland, for your epic Drive de Cartier Moonphase, and Ed Sheeran for your customised Patek Philippe Nautilus 5726A for taking your watch collections to infinity and beyond.

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

You don’t have to be a pilot to wear a Pilot’s watch, but that’s sure enough where it started, courtesy of the famous Louis Cartier who conceived the first pilot’s watch in 1906 as a gift to his friend, Alberto Santos-Dumont. A couple of lightbulbs might be going off in your head now: “Wow, I need to give better gifts to my friends,” or “Santos, like the Cartier Santos?” Both correct. The Cartier Santos paved the way for aviation watches, even though you wouldn’t typically call it that today.

By Lucy Ford

By Iana Murray

By Lucy Ford

Instead, what makes a pilot’s watch instantly identifiable nowadays includes signifiers like orientation triangles, much like the kind you see on Lewis Hamilton’s IWC watches – or three triangles at once if he’s doing his timekeeping triage – or Flyback chronographs, allowing pilots to save time when recording several elapsed times consecutively. There’s also a slide rule bezel, mastered by Breitling allowing pilots to make calculations inflight, and enamoured by David Chapelle to calculate if his jokes might land. And lest we forget the GMT complications, originally crafted for pilots to navigate the passage across different time zones. Fun fact should you ever need it for a pub quiz: the Rolex GMT Master was designed with Pan American Airways to equip their pilots for flight. So next time British Airways offer you the chance to check out the cockpit, totally ignore the magnitude of the dashboard and clock the pilot’s wrist instead.

Considered the crème de la crème of calendar watches, the perpetual calendar will tell you all you need to know. Time, day, date, month, and – drum roll please – how many days are in each month (we see you February), even including leap years, all the way up until 2100, when the next leap year will be skipped. Magic. What’s the catch? That you keep on winding. A small ask, quite frankly, in order to take us into the next century.

By Lucy Ford

By Iana Murray

By Lucy Ford

LeBron James will be able to tell you the date – should you happen to ask him courtside – with his epic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in Blue Ceramic. As could Inter Miami’s newest member and all around GOAT, Lionel Messi, with any of his Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendars, like the Grand Complications Ref. 5270P. A complication of greatness, paired with greatness.

When Kim Kardashian wore Pharrell’s BAPE x G-Shock DW-6900 watch customised by Jacob & Co. for carpool karaoke, did you ever think exactly how that watch was functioning? Or when Bill Murray channelled the double-watch trend with a Cartier on one arm and a Timex on the other, did it bemuse you to wonder how they were keeping time for him? Well, if you did (and even if you didn’t) here’s the answer.

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

By Thor Svaboe

Quartz watches are powered by a battery or solar cell that records the time by vibrations at a certain frequency occurring through the crystal. This hi-tech method, which almost tore apart the Swiss watchmaking industry through the downfall of mechanical watches and mass unemployment, forced major structural change in the watch world. Today, many collectors find quartz the antithesis of what makes a watch interesting considering the many tiny parts that make the clock tick in a mechanical watch. But quartz watches are typically more accurate, self-sustaining and more affordable. While their history is a complicated one and still rubs people up the wrong way today, their story is essential in the history of watchmaking. With no quartz, there would be no Casio Baby G’s in the world, and what a sad place that would be.

By Finlay Renwick

It takes at least five attempts to pronounce tourbillon correctly when you first learn the word. If you managed “Tor-bee-yon,” first time, then apply for a Swiss passport already. What is this mythical-sounding creature and why do some of them supposedly fly? It’s one of the most exciting complications out there. Bag yourself a tourbillon watch and start calling yourself a collector, for this small entity has the power to counter the drag effect that gravity plays on the components in the escapement (the brain of a watch), in order to record a more accurate time as possible. Thanks to Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1795, Cristiano Ronaldo’s wrist never looked so good – be it with an Hublot Masterpiece MP-09 Tourbillon Bi-Axis or a Jacob & Co. Flying Tourbillon watch for the small sum of $700,000. The price for the gift of flight: with the removal of the bridge, the tourbillon (French for ‘whirlwind’) gives off the illusion that it is hovering without support. Should you manage to get your hands on one of these pricier complications, we warn you that their spiral motion is entirely hypnotic – the hours will aptly fly by.