How we choose watches and jewellery

Every pick has to pass three checks

1. You can buy it new from a UK authorised retailer. That means the brand's full UK warranty, and no grey-market or second-hand risk. At the moment every watch and piece of jewellery we feature is sold by Goldsmiths.
2. It's in stock when we publish. We don't recommend anything you can't buy.
3. Every fact is sourced. Prices, sizes, movements, metals and diamond grades come from the retailer's product page or the brand's own website. If we can't confirm something, we leave it out.

What we look for in a watch

There's no single "best watch", so each guide starts from what its reader needs: a budget, an occasion, a wrist size or a style. Then we compare the watches that fit and weigh up:

• What you get for the money. The movement (quartz, automatic, or a certified one such as COSC or METAS chronometers), the case and crystal materials, and the finishing, compared with other watches at the same price.
• Whether it suits the job. Water resistance for swimming and diving, legibility for a pilot's or field watch, slimness for a dress watch that sits under a cuff.
• Size and comfort. Case width and thickness, and how they suit smaller and larger wrists. Where a model comes in more than one size, we say so.
• The brand behind it. Warranty length, service network, and how the brand's watches tend to hold up and hold their value.
• Choice within the pick. Where a watch comes in other dials, sizes or straps at the same price, we point them out.

What we look for in jewellery

• What it's made of. Solid gold (9ct, 14ct or 18ct), platinum, sterling silver or plated metal, so you know what you're paying for. Our gold and platinum guide explains the difference.
• The diamond grades. Where Goldsmiths lists the carat weight, colour and clarity, we compare them, and explain them using the scales created by GIA, the Gemological Institute of America. We say when a diamond is GIA certified, and when it isn't.
• A complete piece. We read each description before picking it. Some pieces are sold as a part (a pendant without its chain, or a bracelet buckle without its cord) or as a single earring, and we only recommend those if we say so plainly.
• Sizes in stock. For rings, we favour pieces that come in plenty of sizes, and our pages show the sizes Goldsmiths has in stock, updated daily.
• Natural diamonds. We don't list lab-grown diamond jewellery.

We look at what people search for when they're choosing a watch or a piece of jewellery, so each guide answers real questions, and its FAQ answers the ones asked most often.

Brands we don't feature

We earn our money through affiliate links (see our affiliate disclosure), and some brands pay us nothing. Rolex, Tudor, Grand Seiko, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, smartwatches and lab-grown diamond jewellery earn us no commission, so we don't feature them as picks. Where one of them is a fair comparison, a guide still mentions it, and we say plainly why it isn't one of our picks.

Among the brands we do feature, the commission is a share of the price whichever watch or piece of jewellery you choose. It doesn't make one of them a pick over another.

Keeping picks up to date

• Prices and stock are checked every morning. The prices in our guides and on watch and jewellery pages come from that daily check.
• When a pick sells out, we replace it with the closest equivalent that's in stock, and update the guide.
• Guides are reviewed and updated when new models arrive, prices move enough to change the picture, or readers tell us something has changed. The date at the top of each guide is when it was last updated.

Hands-on experience

We haven't handled every watch or piece of jewellery we write about, and we won't pretend to. Our picks come from comparing specifications, prices and the brands' own information. When a guide includes our own hands-on impressions, it says so.

Tell us what we've missed

Think a watch or piece of jewellery deserves a place in one of our guides, or that one of our picks has been overtaken? Email contact@sterlingguild.co.uk.