The first thing you must do is decide what you need to do, that will in turn help you decide what type of lathe to go for. A watchmakers lathe is essential if you are going to be cutting your own balance staffs and as far as I am aware it would be very difficult to attempt this on a taig type lathe. If however you are looking at tool making then a watchmakers lathe might not be quite big enough. A lot of watchmakers have a watchmakers lathe and a bigger “hobby” lathe. Just something else for you to think about 
Paul.
