At its most simple level a watch is all about telling time. Of course none of us buy a watch solely for that purpose, there is so much more to it, and if you are reading this then you probably have that tingling feeling that the prospect of strapping a new fine watch on creates. However, regardless of why we decide that we wish to acquire a watch, the one thing that it has to be able to do is to accurately tell the time, so the movement – the part of the watch that operates the watch and controls the timekeeping needs to be up to the job.

Historically watch movements were miniature machines – a series of gears held together between plates and powered by a spring. That all changed in the 1970s with the availability of cheap battery powered, or quartz, watches that could tell the time much more accurately than a mechanical watch and cost a fraction of the price. These quartz watches almost killed the Swiss watch industry and a number of companies failed or merged during the mid to late 1970s. Some Swiss companies tried to move to quartz production (at one point Zenith committed to 100% quartz watches and ordered all of the machinery, designs, templates, etc of its iconic El Primero movement destroyed – but that’s another story), but with the noted exception of a new brand, Swatch, they were largely unsuccessful.

And then a funny thing happened.

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Have you noticed how many ‘limited editions’ there are these days?  It used to be that you would walk into a store and find one or two limited editions in the showcase (you could recognise them as they had the spotlight on them and the staff talked about them in hushed tones), these were special watches!

Today there are a lot more limited editions around and it can be confusing for the customer.  Should they spend more on a limited edition or would they be better off with the ‘standard’ version?  Is the extra cost justified?  Will the limited edition be worth more in the future?

Let’s start by understanding what makes a limited edition a limited edition.

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Every year the Lighthouse Gala Auction raises funds to support the Terrence Higgins Trust.  The historic Christie’s Auction house hosted this year’s auction last week and saw a donation by designer Theo Fennell raising £6,500.  The donated item was a promise to design a unique Portrait Ring for the highest bidder, crafted from sterling silver and with the option of gold detailing. (more…)