It is easier than ever to buy great watches for men. There’s more information about watches in the form of thriving communities on the internet and Instagram. New, covetable pieces launch with alarming regularity. There is near-universal acceptance of the idea that buying a vintage men’s watch is as smart a choice—stylistically, financially, and spiritually—as buying one fresh off the assembly line. And there are simply more doors and stores and webshops and IG accounts where you can buy your next grail.

But it’s also for precisely those reasons that buying a watch can feel harder than it’s ever been. How am I supposed to choose between a Datejust and a Speedmaster? What counts as a good investment? Do I really need to know the difference between quartz and mechanical watches? For the beginner, it can often seem like there’s just too much information about years and references and movements to make a smart call.

We’re happy to say: that’s not really the case. Yes, buying a killer watch should be a little daunting—but only because you’re spending a not insignificant amount of your hard-earned money, not because it’s hard to figure out what you like, or why you like it, or whether you’re being scammed on your way to securing it.

From a 30,000 foot view, watches can be broken down into two broad categories: dress and sports watches. Or, as a brand like Rolex calls them: classic versus professional pieces. There are exceptions to each category, but dress watches are typically slim in profile, made with fine materials, and usually outfitted with a leather strap. A sports watch, meanwhile, usually comes in steel with a matching steel bracelet, rubber band, or a fabric strap.

The greatest variation comes within the sport watch category. There’s a reason these watches are known as “professional” in Rolex parlance: they are designed to aid specific vocations. Within sports watches, there are dive, pilots, and field watches as well as those made for racing and navigating the open sea. Richard Mille makes luxury sports watches that look like cool gadgets, cost ten times as much as their predecessors, and are light enough to be worn by Rafeal Nadal during the French Open.

The idea of what constitutes a sports or dress watch is constantly changing, though. The Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso was originally designed for polo players, but is now a red carpet fixture for folks like Jay-Z. So don’t take these distinctions as rule of law—just go with the watch that appeals most to you.

There is no greater dividing line in the world of watches than the one separating quartz and mechanical movements. Mechanical watches are the apple of watch collectors’ eyes. The intricately made pieces rely on a series of wheels, gears, springs, and other doodads to keep accurate time. Quartz pieces substitute almost all of that with a small crystal made of—you guessed it—quartz, which manages to do the work of many different mechanical bits entirely on its own.

In fact, the quartz crystal is a more natural timekeeper, keeping much more accurate track of hours and seconds than its mechanical counterparts. Consider that the balance wheel—the primary component of timekeeping in a mechanical watch—typically works at a rate of somewhere between 18,000 and 36,000 beats per hour. A quartz crystal vibrates 235,929,600 times per hour.

There’s also an important distinction with mechanical watches: Whether they’re automatic or manual (and/or self-winding). Self-winding watches are what they sound like: the watch’s crown must be cranked, which in turn coils the main spring that serves as the movement’s power source. An automatic watch includes a rotor—often a thin weight that naturally spins around the movement when a watch is worn—that tightens the main spring. Which you prefer is a matter of taste: some collectors find manually winding to be meditative while automatic is considered much more convenient.

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