You can’t help but notice the endless shops selling jewellery, watches and other high priced items when walking in almost any mall. I have to admit that until recently most of the watches in the windows looked the same to me – who were all these expensive watches made by? Obviously I’d heard of companies such as Rolex (and automatically knew that they were out of my price range), but names like Cartier, Sinn, Panerai and Longines were unknown to me.

Being someone who likes to know a bit about everything, I decided to try and research the companies to find out more about them. This was partly just due to me wanting to know more – I find it strange to see expensive brands and not have a clue who they are – but also because I want to know which watch to buy in the future.

Naturally, the first place I started to look was online. I was pleased to discover a lot of high quality websites for learning about vintage watches. Sites like Professional Watches and Vintage Watch Brands are two good places to start, as they provide an overview of many brands and watch models.

A company that particularly interested me was Hamilton. Nearly every company I came across was founded in Switzerland, but this was one of the few that comes from the US. They produce a few watches that I’d vaguely heard of, such as the Hamilton Seaview, but it was interesting to learn more about them. A great site for learning about Hamilton that I found is Antique Vintage Watches.

If you’re like me, and don’t know much about watches but want to learn more, then hopefully these resources have given you a good place to start. There’s a lot to learn – many of the companies have long and fascinating histories.