The Magic of Watches - Revised and Updated: A Smart Introduction to fine Watchmaking

This book is for people that knows nothing about watches. The information, while covering a lot of topics, is ultimately shallow which can be written by the average collector with little research. When you want to look up some watch terms, and you decide to check with this book, you will most likely be disappointed by its lack of depth, and not just search online in the first place.Best case scenario is a watch collector buying this for a friend to introduce him/her into the hobby. But then why not get a catalogue with beautiful coloured images that grabs instant attention.If you're a collector or enthusiast, this is not the book for you, as you would have known 90% of its content. It's good to have something tangible for reference, and this book does the minimum for that.

I received what I am imagining to be the second edition of this book, as it is still a hard cover but the title and information are printed directly not he cover, rather than receiving that cool dust jacket that unfolds to a small poster. The information is valuable to a beginner watch collected and I feel there is some valuable information in here for any kind of watch enthusiast that isn't an expert. The reason I am giving this book 2 stars is that I did not receive the edition that was pictured in the listing, and the edition I did get was sloppily formatted, oddly translated, and within an hour of receiving this book, the ribbon bookmark began to fray so badly, I had to melt the end to keep it from completely falling apart. I cant attest to the original copy of this book, but the book I received was not worth $30.

As a beginner, this is a decent book, but it's not very deep. If you don't want to pay, you can get all this info online pretty easy. I like having the book, though I can see why some don't feel it's worth the cost.

Great book to own if you're into horology. Not a book to read like a novel but if you want to learn about watches this is a great read. You can skip to whatever section in the book for any particular information you need to know.

Interesting book and a cool book cover/poster.

This book is a literal dictionary of watch terms and related terms to help in better understanding some of the higher level reading books I got previously. The quality of the book is nice and the cover you see in the image is a poster of a wood cutting that is quite beautiful on its own. The pages feel nice the pictures are crisp and sharp allowing for great detail. Overall one of the nicer books I've bought on amazon so far and I find it hard to believe that much of a profit is made in printing this as I'd guess from everything I see this is a 15-20 dollar, to produce, book.

A well done book that serves as an excellent primer for those just getting into the world of watches and watchmaking. The seasoned watch enthusiast will be served by knowledge they likely already know, but is now in one place.

Wow

First off, it's not cheap. I paid £30 and it's not a long book, however the quality of the paper, the binding and the printing is exceptional - you can feel instantly that this is a high quality product. Also, whilst not the longest book, you will learn so much and you will be constantly googling watches to see them so you won't finish it that soon.It's been written by an expert who is passionate about watches and watchmaking. If it can be had for £30 or less and you want to learn more then get it as soon as you can as it will not be that price for long.

Great little introduction to watches. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I bought this book thinking it'd be a great addition to the other books I own on horology. The title 'The Magic Of Watches' caught my attention and I bought the book immediately without reading any online reviews of the book or asking any of my other watch collector friends about it.Turns out, the author has just ranted along through the 200-odd pages that comprise this book. Every chapter seems to be a repetition of the previous one with absolutely no insights into watchmaking, the history of horology or any other topic you'd expect from a watch book. This book seems like a rehash of words, sentences and entire paragraphs that you might have read on online forums like HODINKEE, ABlogToWatch, Revolution and others. There's nothing different here that you couldn't read for free on any of the above-mentioned sites.I passed the book along to a couple of other friends who understand horology and nobody has anything good to say about this book. Really disappointing.

El libro es interesante y es muy bonito. Ahora bien, es muy básico, y aunque tiene 223 paginas se me hace un tanto escaso, ya que esta escrito a 2 columnas y da la sensación de haber bastante espacio en blanco por como está maquetado.No me arrepiento de la compra en absoluto, es tan sólo que me esperaba más del libro.

Book is well written and organized but too simple, it gathers info that you can freely and quickly get from specialized websites and forums.