(MONEY Magazine) – Until recently I almost never wore a watch. I didn't like the way one felt strapped to my wrist, so I simply learned to do without, relying on those big clocks outside banks or craning my neck to see other peoples' timepieces. In extreme situations, I'd even enter a store and buy some minor item just to get the time-stamped receipt. Eccentric behavior, perhaps, but it usually worked.

Then a few months ago, while waiting for a flight out of town for the weekend, I donned a set of headphones and somehow lost track of the hour. When I finally caught a glimpse of a clock, my plane had already boarded. As I frantically bolted for the gate, I realized it was time to buy myself a watch.

But not just any watch: If I'm going to do this, I figured, I'm going to do it right. I was able to accept the fact that a stylish, quality watch would probably be expensive--that's one thing the thousands of high-end timepieces now available have in common--but of course I wanted to keep the cost as low as possible. I figured that for someone like me, who can't stomach face-to-face negotiations, the Internet offered the best chance to get a good price. And in the end it did, leading me to a deal on a watch that cost 35% less than I would have paid retail. But it wasn't easy.

Dozens of sites offer name-brand watches, many for substantially less than retail prices. Both the number of sites and the sites themselves can be downright intimidating, with literally thousands of different models listed, often without accompanying pictures. Even those sites that do have pictures often don't enable you to see more than one watch at a time, making comparison shopping either incredibly time consuming or simply impossible. Even if you manage to wade through the morass, none of the sites I found enabled one to adequately differentiate among the subtle features offered even on very similar models--between, say, a brush-polish and a high-polish finish, or between an electric-blue and a metallic-blue dial.

Thus my first lesson: Before turning to the Web, narrow your choice of watches in an ordinary store, making sure to record the exact model number designating the particular features you want. In my case, a single trip to a local watch emporium allowed me to zero in on my two preferred models: the Movado ladies' Esperanza with Museum dial and two-toned bracelet, which retails for $995, and the tag Heuer ladies' Kirium with an electric-blue dial, which sells for $1,495 retail.

Pretty steep, I know. Even so, model numbers in hand, I went back to the Web to see if I could get a better deal.

Real time

I also returned to the Web with a degree of caution. "Counterfeit watches are a serious problem in our industry," Lynn Ramsey, president of the Jewelry Information Center, had told me. "And it's much easier for a consumer to be taken advantage of on the Internet." Buying from an authorized dealer is the best way to ensure that you're getting a genuine article. Unfortunately, I learned, that option isn't always available. No site I found is officially authorized to sell more than a couple of brands-- and not a single one is an official TAG dealer.

Watchmart, the only site that dealt exclusively with authorized dealers, appeared to be the one exception, but it has since decided to shut down its online operation. In any case, it wasn't useful to my own search. It didn't carry Movado watches at all; and despite offering a good deal, the one TAG dealer that Watchmart referred me to didn't have the extremely popular Kirium in stock and wouldn't be able to get me one for at least three weeks. I'd waited long enough to get a watch--all my life, in fact--so I just wasn't willing to wait that much longer.

And anyway I already had Movado leads at two other sites. At World of Watches (www.worldofwatches.com), the model I wanted went for $656--or roughly 35% off retail. The site for K.C. Jewelry (www.1watches.com/kcjewelry) had a nearly identical price of $655. Both also had my model in stock; those prices were for two-day delivery. Best of all were postings on WatchNet (www.watchnet.com) and TimeZone (www.timezone.com) that led me to the same Florida retailer, All About Time, offering the Movado for $597. That seemed like an exceptional deal.

Clockwork

But there was a catch. None of these offers came from authorized dealers. So I decided that rather than go with the lowest price, I would select the dealer whose integrity I could best verify. Both World of Watches and K.C. Jewelry had clean files at their Better Business Bureau offices, so I decided I would go with one of them. (The local Better Business Bureau had never heard of All About Time, which doesn't mean much either way.) World of Watches is a member of WebWatchdog, an organization that monitors Internet companies; K.C. Jewelry is a member of BBBOnline, which has more stringent criteria than WebWatchdog. (For specifics on the standards of Web commerce "seals of approval," see the story on page 195.) But I finally went with World of Watches, because it offered a two-year warranty rather than the standard one year.

I got my watch within two days, as promised. And I soon satisfied myself that it was the real thing: Unlike most counterfeits, it has a serial number engraved on the back.

The only thing left was to get used to wearing a watch every day. Turns out it was easier than I expected--and I have to admit, it's about time.