About
What Shibiao Watches is for, who writes it, how claims are checked, and where to write when we get something wrong.
What you are looking at is a working blog. Old pieces stay up in the archive rather than quietly disappearing, including the ones that have aged badly.
We started publishing after realising that the useful information about A plain guide to watches, from buying your first to how they work existed, but only in the heads of people who had no reason to write it down. Shibiao Watches writes it down.
Each article answers one question about A plain guide to watches, from buying your first to how they work and then stops. Padding a page to look thorough is the easiest way to waste a reader's afternoon.
We buy what we write about. It is slower, it is more expensive, and it is the only arrangement that lets us say a thing was not worth it.
The full process, including corrections and commercial links, is set out on the editorial policy page.
We are not the right place for advice tailored to your exact situation. Shibiao Watches publishes general guidance, and the difference matters more than it sounds.
Each piece sits under exactly one heading. Readers arriving from search mostly land in buying a watch, types of watches and watch care, so those sections get looked after first.
People ask about the name. There is rarely a good story behind a domain, and there is not one here either. Shibiao Watches was available, it was short enough to say out loud, and it has been the name long enough now that changing it would be more confusing than keeping it.
Every article carries the name of the person who wrote it, and every name links to a page listing everything else they have written.
Bennett Shaw, Buying and style writer. Bennett writes about choosing and wearing watches for people new to them, focused on value and good sense over hype.
Cosima Vance, Movements and mechanics writer. Cosima explains how watches work and what separates the movement types, making the mechanics approachable.
Idris Bello, Care and collecting writer. Idris covers watch care and what genuinely gives a timepiece lasting value, cutting through collector myths.
Hosting and research come out of the same pocket that buys the things we write about. That keeps the running costs honest and the pace slow.
Point at the sentence. Write to [email protected] or use the contact page. Factual errors are fixed quickly, and when a correction changes the conclusion of a piece we say so at the foot of the page rather than editing quietly.
