Which do the masses prefer? Autos, Handwind, or Quartz?

Quartz is best. 

Handwinders are the next best thing. They are simple, quick and easy to power and you know where you stand once wound. They can be thin, and if one is a fruitcake that wants to ogle movements, there's no spinner covering half the thing.

Automatics are okay if you have just one watch, I guess. They just seem like a gimmick, really. They are the smallest portion of my watches. 

I perfer an auto but still like quartz which is a more accurate way of measuring time. Just my 2 cents.

For a dress watch i would want the automatic/selfwind but for an every day/a grab your watch and go i would want quartz.

I think the difference for me is the thinness. That's why automatics are not my favorite. I have a few watches that seem to be all acrylic crystal.

(1960's Hamilton, manual wind)

manual watches, you really bond with the watch when you have to wind it manually every morning

I mostly own automatic watches but my secret is that I prefer quartz for being hassle free, reliable, robust and precise. The only reason I don't own more quartz watches is because the quartz movement that I prefer and consider superior to all other is the one used in the Bulova Precisionists and Accutron II that have a smooth sweeping second's hands, and which have the problem of being too large to fit smaller watches and are restricted to Bulova.

Auto with hand winding is probably the bulk of my serious watch collection but I do like a good quartz, I would love a GS SBGN003 or it's new variant the SGBN027. Oh and I am absolutely going to get a Bethpage Amerigraph with bits exhibition case back to show off it's lovely quartz movement.

I prefer auto-windning over manual. The only manual winder I have is an Elgin pocket watch from the 20s (probably). I am expecting to buy 2 Hamilton Railroad pocket watches from a friend who has not interest in collecting; he inherited them from his granddad who worked for 20-30 years in the RR.

I do have 3 quartz watches, but a rarely wear them. 2 are G-Shocks; I think every collector should own one.

Oh yeah, Luna pilot needs to be incoming at some point next year. Thanks for reminding me 🤣

Quartz please! Accuracy, slim, ease.

It's horses for courses, no? General preference would be auto for anything sports adjacent, hand wind for anything dressy and (cheap) quartz for anything that I seriously think might take a kicking (I wouldn't run, decorate, move house etc.) in anything other than a <£25 Casio, for example. Exception that proves the rule would be GS quartz that can do it all and deserves more love from the community.

If it is something I want to bore my godson with (he doesn't seem to mind and likes gears)  I prefer the autowinding.  Also people I hang out with, also seem to want to have a coversation longer than two mintues on the history of automatics than quartz or handwinders.  I only hypothesis at this point is the quartz doesn't have as many parts and changes to them over the years to talk about.  Secondly the people I know are like me and to lazy to wind a watch.  Most of the movement I have are automatic and quartz.  

On accuracy, my google tells me when and where to do things....

Probably automatic but if you ask me tomorrow it would be quartz. I do like a handwinder too!

So I like them all.

My growing collection of twenty five odd watches is half quartz, the rest automatics and two hand winders which probably actually reflects how I feel?

I like the idea of the quartz automatic hybrids but I haven't been there yet. 

After a couple of decades in this hobby, I’m still in awe whenever I look at an automatic/hand wound movement. 

My favorite is auto. But I have nothing against quartz at all. I’m not such a huge fan of hand winding, but for the right design I can like it just fine. 

On an enthusiast platform it will always be automatic, all day long. I wasn't surprised, in the slightest, when I voted and saw where the numbers were at.

I'm very new to this, but for me it depends on the type of watch. For a simple three hander, autos are great and they maintain that romantic connection to keeping time with a machine. If there are complications, like a chronograph, then I favor quartz. That is based on my perceived maintenance costs.

But like I stated at the beginning, I've only been on this journey for a little over a year and am super excited to be part of this community.

I vote all of the above. They each have their place, and I love different watches with all of the above in them.

The thread title asks which the "masses" prefer so,assuming by masses you me normal everyday people and not freaks like us, I say quartz.

As for myself,I have no hard,fast preference.

I like watches.

All of the above. For chronographs I prefer quartz because I do not want the hassle or cost of service on a precision mechanical chronograph movement.

I like automatics more than quartz. Problem is, I'm cheap. So, most of my collection are quartz. But I don't mind. Thing is, I switch watches nearly every day and I have to reset whatever auto I wear. Quartz are great. I grab and go. But, the auto beats out quartz. I only had 1 manual wind in the past. Did not like it for the same reason as @JBird7986.

I would choose Springdrive or 9 series Quartz from Seiko if there was a fourth choice :) 

For me it's horses for courses and really depends on the watch.

If I'm wearing a Flieger, I prefer a handwind so I have that more authentic experience. 

If I'm wearing a sports watch, maybe something to play golf in, then I will go quartz.

Dress watches, divers or something I plan to travel in I will generally go with an automatic.

Not a hard a fast rule by any stretch as I have variations of all these.

Spring Drive/HAQ/quartz for the daily

High powered Auto for the weekends and dinners

Mechanical? Never.

Love the passion and thought that this poll brings out. Quartz is a good answer as long as it's solar or hybrid. Quartz battery is fine for now but down the road you don't want to be opening casebacks if it's avoidable.

I'm getting the feeling that hand wind gets little love simply because they have been fairly scarce in the last half century or so. If someone wants to beat me to starting a poll to find out how many have even had a hand wound watch, go for it.

I would wager that it's more than you think, given the popularity of the Seagull 1963s.

I mean why limit yourself? My vintage pieces tend to be handwind, a good half of my collection is automatic and the rest are quartz / digital. I wear what I want, when I want depending on what I'm doing. Plus you find as you go on that your interests change from moment to moment. I went on a quartz field watch kick about eight months ago for... reasons.  Realistically I don't want to miss out on a watch because of a movement, though to be fair Miyota 8000 series movement are almost always a miss for me. 

I voted quartz as the masses to me constitute the great mall watch purchasers . Not watch people :) otherwise I would tick Automatic movements 

Wasn't surprised by the poll results. But for me, it's Quartz.

If the advantage of quartz was just around the superfluous stuff like multiple alarms and barometers and step counters and whatnot, then I'd understand the appeal of autos and handwinders.

But it's not. Quartz is better at the most fundamental function of a watch: keeping time. So quartz is just better.