Praise The Sun!(Let's talk about solar/light-powered watches)
Good day my fellow crunchers,
I've been finding sun/light-powered watches absolutely fascinating. From Casio's "Tough Solar" to Citizen's "Eco-Drive" I find it incredible that something as small as a watch can house such an incredible feat of engineering.
I find it interesting that three of the Japanese watchmaking giants: Casio, Citizen and Seiko have heavily invested into solar tech yet I haven't heard much about other companies worldwide - I wonder why that's the case.
The technology hasn't seemed to have penetrated into the "high tiers" of luxury timepieces whereas mechanical movements seem all the craze and we are seeing quartz movements made by Grand Seiko at the top now too.
What are you're thoughts and feelings about solar-powered watches? Do you think they will be here in 50 years? Can further innovation be achieved? - Let me hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading.
Hi, I got bitten by the watch bug late last year and safe to say I am thoroughly addicted to all things related to watches. It's been fun learning all the cool details about watches like movements, ca...
More from DancingWatch
There's also the Cartier SolarBeat.
Likely hasn't penetrated into the high-end market for similar reasons as the spring drive. People just seem to have a bias against quartz type movements or movements that aren't full mechanical.
I like solar watches, the oldest one I have must be about 15 years old now and still going, I’ve got several Casios, Citizen and a single Junghans.
I too like that thought of a tiny mobile power station running on my wrist, tiny things please tiny minds!
I have a single automatic mechanical watch which I do love but it needs TLC and its accuracy is nothing to write home about but it again is a feat of engineering.
What Grand Seiko is doing is really interesting with the spring drive, article here and I’d like to see other companies doing a similar thing so the price can come down.
I'm a huge fan of solar watches, they are the ultimate form of quartz watches.
I have a Timex Expedition Solar that seems really well made, for less than $250 CAD you'd be hard pressed to find a better watch.
The cartier Solar beat is incredibly popular. I love it:
Another luxury winner is the Tag Heuer Solargraph:
I wish every quartz watch would be solar.
But outside of the Japanese brand you have also Junghans with a wide range of cool solar watches. The downside is tough that the most solar cells are no such invisible integrated as like the Japanese ones. On few models you see clearly the cell-lines on the dial.
But anyway they are great. Most of them offer even Radio Controll.
There is also the brand Kronsegler. They are using Seiko systems
And Bering, also using Seiko inside.
I have 2 eco drive and 2 tough solar g shocks, I really dig the fact that I don't have to worry about batteries dying on me. The solar g shocks tend to be my travel watches because I don't have to worry about them at all!
I have a Tough Solar G-Shock GA-2100 but I dig the Dark Souls reference even more!
I collected a number of EcoDrives since the ‘90s. They are all still running well. Great watches for their price point.
I'd love to own one for the peace of mind that the battery won't die on me!
I used to be a snob, but after having 2 G-Shocks for the last couple years, solar quartz is really really convenient
The power of the sun, above?, the palm of your hand. 👍
I had to have the Cartier Solarbeat. I was so excited about the idea of sun power for the first time on Cartier