I review here a few books that I own trying to highlight the pros and cons from the point of view of a watch collector. Most, if not all, and many others, can be found on Watchprint (they have the best availability of books and prices are fair, but not always the cheapest).
- The Wristwatch Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Mechanical Wristwatches, Ryan Schmidt
- The Theory of Horology, Charles-Andre Reymondin et al.
- Watchmaking, George Daniels
- High End horological finishing and decoration, Caroline Sermier and Giulio Papi
- Wristwatches: history of a century’s development, Kahlert et al.
The Wristwatch Handbook
This is a great introduction to horology for those with an interest in the mechanics of the watches. It gives some historical background, explains the basic functioning of a wristwatch.
The theory of horology
This is a book intended for watchmakers in training. It was written by teachers and explanations and illustrations are very clear. It covers the main types of movements, including dates, calendars (incl. perpetual), chronographs, striking mechanisms, etc. Although it goes beyond what a collector needs to understand, for example calculating gear ratios and pallet stone angles, I highly recommend it. It’s main drawback is that it does not cover the co-axial escapement and that it does not generally give examples of movements that introduced the technologies it presents.
Watchmaking
Although this book was written by a legendary watchmaker, I would not recommend it to collectors as it is geared towards watchmakers and covers issues such as making one’s own tools and the use of specific machinery. Moreover, I find it more difficult to follow than the Theory of Horology.
High End horological finishing and decoration
This book is the only one I found that covers in any detail the issue of movement finishing. However, it seems to have watchmakers rather than collectors in mind and spends more time explaining the process than the end product. Still an interesting read, but only for people who really want to understand the details of finishing.
Wristwatches: history of a century’s development
The part of the book explaining the technical evolution of watch movements is extremely interesting and it gives examples of historically significant movements. The evolution of particular brands and design trends were less interesting for me, but would be extremely valuable to a vintage watch collector.