Men's Watches

Prior to World War I, men long preferred a discrete pocket watch to a wristwatch. As soldiers discovered the value of quickly being able to check the time on their wrist, wristwatches quickly dominated the market.

Most early wristwatches were made in Switzerland and the United States, followed to a lesser extent by the United Kingdom and Germany. After World War II, Switzerland and the United States dominated the watch making market until Japan introduced the first commercial quartz wristwatch in 1969.

Japanese manufacturers were able to build quartz movements of high quality in large amounts at low prices. They took over the global market for wristwatches entirely, shutting down mechanical watch manufacturing in the United States almost completely as the Swiss hung on by a thread. But renewed appreciation for mechanical wristwatches in the late 1980s and early '90s saved the Swiss watch industry and certain American and German watch brands.

Over the past 10 years, men's watch collecting has exploded, and continues to grow in both contemporary and secondhand markets. In high-end watch collecting in general, vintage styles from the 1940s through the '60s continue to command record-breaking prices at auction.