It wouldn’t be hard to put forward a good case for the A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph being the best chronograph ever made. Looks, heritage, workmanship, intricacy, it’s got it all—but it’s also got a hefty price tag, too, some £50,000. For almost everyone, that’s out of reach, but maybe there’s something that will fit the bill for less—much less.

Let’s say you’ve got £1,000 to spend, and you want to blow it on a watch that’s going to turn some heads from fifty paces. Endless budget, no problem; you’d grab yourself a Jacob & Co., or a Richard Mille perhaps—with £1,000, however, the task is a bit more difficult. Not impossible, though …

The dress watch is perhaps the hardest watch to master. It has to be simple, it has to be manual wind, it has to have no complications—small seconds at a push—and it has to be small, both in diameter, but more importantly, thickness. This leaves very little for a watchmaker to hide behind, only the quality of the watchmaking itself left to do the talking. How do the very best brands in the world do it?

Being the best known and most popular luxury watch brand in the world, Rolex watches have little trouble selling themselves. Many, many people are quite happy to buy one just because it says ‘Rolex’ on it, paying little mind to what that name really stands for. Well, before you buy a Rolex, here are three things you should know.