§ Methodology
How this library is built.
Chronological eras
Watches are grouped into four chronological eras, plus a cross-era collection and a holding area for undated records:
- through 1945 — Early / Pre-war
- 1946–1984 — Post-war & Vintage
- 1985–2010 — Neo-Vintage
- 2011+ — Modern
- Era unresolved — records without a supported production date
Haute Horlogerie is a cross-era collection: a single watch may appear there and in its chronological era.
Era assignment, honestly
An era is never invented. A watch receives a chronological era when:
- It has an editorial primary-sector assignment (curator-set), or
- An unambiguous, structured production year or range falls wholly within one period — shown transparently as provisional.
Anything ambiguous or unknown goes to Era unresolved until evidence supports a period. Instagram post dates are never used as production dates, and review-only proposals are never auto-applied.
Illustrations
Illustrations are AI-generated, based on available reference imagery. They are clearly disclosed beneath each image and may differ from the actual watch. Where no watch-specific illustration exists, an honest placeholder is shown. The project logo is overlaid in the upper-left margin and never baked into the artwork.
Sources & provenance
Each record links to its original sources with attribution and a permalink. Detailed specifications, provenance and search are available to signed-in members. Raw research material — OCR captures, archive files, import batches and storage references — remains private to the curator.
Member contributions
Members may propose a new watch, a correction, a comment, or an additional photograph. All contributions are private and pending until a curator approves them; a rights declaration is required for photos and new watches. Nothing is published automatically.
Publication
Publishing a watch to the public library is a deliberate, admin-only action — separate from illustration approval. Drafts and private material stay private until released.