All articles
Background, guides and explainers from all three sections.
Lab-grown or natural diamond: what sets them apart and what doesn’t
Chemically, both are diamond, and to the naked eye they cannot be told apart. There are still differences: in how they are made and labelled, in price and on resale.
Automatic, manual-wind or quartz: which movement suits whom
Three drives, three temperaments. How the mainspring barrel, balance wheel and quartz oscillator work, and which type suits your daily life and your expectations.
Cost per wear: how to do the maths on luxury with a clear head
A watch for every day, a bag for a handful of evenings: what a piece really costs only becomes clear when you calculate it across its entire use. Even that calculation has its limits.
333, 585, 750: what the stamp in your gold tells you
Three digits inside a ring determine its colour, durability, skin compatibility and material value. How to read the marks, and what they don’t reveal.
Chronometer, COSC and METAS: what the tests really measure
There is one word on the dial, and behind it lie days in a testing laboratory. What a chronometer certificate tells you, and what it does not.
The luxury market in figures: who is buying, what is growing
Bain & Altagamma, the Swiss watch industry federation FH and the World Gold Council provide the most robust figures in the sector. What they reveal about buyers, markets, tariffs and gold.
Platinum, white gold, palladium: which metal is made for everyday life
Three white metals that look almost identical in the shop window but age very differently after years on the finger. Weight, wear, patina, care and the right ring size.
Buying pre-owned: how to check authenticity and condition properly
A used watch with papers, a diamond ring with a grading report, a bag ‘as new’: what matters when you buy on the secondary market, and what rights you have under German law.
Servicing a mechanical watch: when it is due and what it involves
How to tell that your watch needs care, what happens in the workshop and how to protect it between two services.
Leather goods: how to recognise quality
Two bags, the same shape, a similar sheen. Yet one ages gracefully while the other soon starts to crack. What grain, tanning, edges and seams reveal.