Why I am giving up on automatic watches: my first posting

You lost me at "Automatic watches are far from being automatic."

They were originally called "self winding" because they had the abiliity to maintain a power reserve while being worn without the need for daily manual winding.

I get what you are saying, but some of your statements are a bit "off the path".

Chacon a son gout.

As 'foghorn' very well said: they use to be called Self-Winding watches. They do just what they are intended to do, self wind as long as you wear them.

Back then, circa 1926, when John Harwood in collaboration with Fortis and AS Shild marketed the first commercially available automatic watch (or self "charging" watch) people were looking to buy or own nothing but one watch⌚. Wich means that that one watch would always be ready to wear day after day...with a back then very healthy 24 hour power reserve at least for the ones that Blancpain cased and produced.

We now "collect" watches, if what we do actually makes any sense 😅. By now you see where I am going with this...next to nobody would take their watch of and forget it for days on a night table 🛏️.

I prefer mechanical or Manual-Wind Watches. I love interacting with my piece and winding it, to me, it feels like "talking" to My Watch 😃.

Quartz and Solar powered are great also 💪👍💯.

I'm a watch noob and cant speak to all the details, but I'll share this. Long before i got into collecting watches, i bought a cheap automatic, open face/skeleton pocket watch. I hung it on my desk because Ioved the look and feel of the gears working with me at my workstation. I appreciated the engineering behind it, the aesthetics of it. And often it became a great conversation starter or ice breaker.  There's something special about automatic watches that even non-hobbyists/collectors are drawn to. I know why i like them, cant speak for others. But i gotta say, there's something special about 'em. 

My two cents.

Thankfully there are enough options for you to build out a nice collection for quartz timekeepers!

While I have no issues with quartz watches, one of the things I find incredibly therapeutic when I am stressed out or anxious is to walk over to my watch box and to begin winding my watches. To say they’ve been a lifeline for my mental well-being during the pandemic would be an understatement. In a world that I can’t control or where I feel like I am not accomplishing anything… I can set the time and the occasional date on my watches. 

This is all to say, it’s your relationship to the hobby and what brings you the most joy - the good thing is you know what you want 🙂 Good luck on chasing that joy! 🤙

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how many people will wear watches in the future, even smartwatch usage seem to peak in a slightly older demographic, whereas young people wear no watch, or maybe a fitness tracker. 

So yes, watch collecting is about being sentimental to a large degree. It's like working on an old car in many ways, or collecting art from a period long past. 

If you simply want to know the time you can look at the right lower corner of the computer screen or glance at the smartphone on your desk.

While I do appreciate all manner of movements, and have examples of quartz, solar, hand-winding, automatic, and even kinetic, there is one reason why I will always want mechanical watches in my collection; a sweeping second hand. I know there are watches with the mecha-quartz movement that simulates the sweep of a mechanical watch second hand, but the ones I have seen and own only tick at 14,400bph. Not as soothing to watch as a second hand ticking away at 28,800bph. I like open-heart and skeleton watches for the same reason; it is relaxing to watch the movement whirring away. But even without being able to see the movement, a sweeping second hand relaxes me. 😀

But, as @foghorn said, to each his own.👍

I love my automatics partly for their aesthetic qualities, and partly because it still blows my mind that something like a self-winding mechanical watch could even exist back when people were still using slide rules. That kind of engineering on such a small scale without the use of computers is impressive to a degree that I can’t articulate, and I like being reminded of that whenever I look down at my wrist. But yeah, to each their own. I don’t have anything against quartz (I own a couple), but to me they just don’t have the same artistry in their guts. 
 

I don’t need a wristwatch. I choose to wear one, and if I’m going to do that, I’m going to wear the one fills me with wonder while it’s telling me the time. 

Quartz watches offer great convenience for sure. If you've determined that's more important to you than keeping mechanical watches up and running, that's fine. There are more than enough great watches of all types for us all to enjoy. 

Like you I keep my watches cheap, currently all are under £300. I could see myself spending more than £1000 for a very special piece one day, as a bit of an indulgence.

I have both quartzes and self-winding watches. I find the idea of solar-powered watches very appealing too, haven't got one now, but will have one in the future.

My self-winding watches I keep on a watch-winder, so they are ready to go when I want them. Works a treat.

My quartzes just sit there. One day the battery will run out, and then what? So, I keep some of my quartzes still with the plastic thingy in place that stops enganging the battery - they have never been worn.

What turned me off quartzes was this. I owned many many years ago a very nice Lorus titanium fieldwatch (the one with the glowing reviews on youtube), bought for about £70 in an actual retail shop (prices went down to about £40 later). When the battery ran out I went back to the shop, payed £10 to have the battery replaced there and then, fine. When the watch was due its third battery replacement, I went back again, and... They did not do battery replacement any more, but I could have the watch "send away" to have that service done. I said ok, this costed me now a bit over £20, and I was without that watch for a fortnight when I picked it up from the shop again.

The watch was not worth that, neither in money nor in inconvenience, and I was not ready yet (not sure I ever will be, I am clumsy AF) to do battery replacement myself. So, I bought henceforth only cheap throwaway quartzes. The cheapest was £0.79 on amazon. They are OK, even the super-cheap one, but I don't love them. I wouldn't even want to love them since they are bin-bound in the future.

The Lorus experience was a sobering one. There is another shop in town that does battery replacement, I might use that, but I fear that that was a sign of things to come, and local watch-battery-replacement services are on their way out.

Man you've got everyone twisted LOL!  Well said and explained.  Good luck and stay blessed with your watch journey.  

Wow, some great i fo in that cautionary tale. Thanks for sharing

I prefer automatic but I own more than my share quartz, which DOES have its place in the watch world. 

I say to each their own ... just don't rain on anyone else's parade. 

I think he's a troll? He must know that horology will be definition include automatics, digital, manual winds etc... 

I did have somebody ask why have I got a watch on when my phone tells the time..... I could not be bothered to explore 

I hear you. One thing about my automatics that I really like, however, is the sweeping second hand. Having had a few mechanical watches, I now greatly prefer seeing the second hand moving six to eight times per second as opposed to one tick per second. I really wish that mecaquarts movements would becomes more widespread as a result. 

I agree with you regarding the self winding and quartz watch.

i like manual/mechanical watch though. I like interacting with my watch. i find winding the watch very soothing, and i want to know that my watch is fully wound, which we cant tell on a self winding watch

i also like quartz, as it is grab and go.

and i am also thinking to strictly buy either quartz or manual wind in the future

thanks for sharing

Every watch collection should have at least one quartz in it! As far as the prices go, there are many quartz examples that are on the luxury price point

I know what you mean. It really slows my morning down when I have to wind / shake my automatic watch. That's why auto/mechanical timepieces are reserved for enjoyment. For a daily watch that requires me mindless rushing from home to work I would just put on a quartz watch! 

To me, sounds like confusing an automatic movement with expectations of a perpetuum mobile. When is an automatic an automatic, then? When it reads your mind that you want coffee and serves you one?

And it sounds like stirring the hornets' nest on purpose. I reserve the right to be wrong on that and any and every other matter. 

Nothing is intervention-free. Every mechanism requires maintenance. A watch, an engine, an...automatic gearbox. Which, by the way, does its thing when the car's running, and when the car's off - like a watch not worn - it's still. Is it therefore not automatic?

In watches, solar-powered get close...but no cigar. Temperature extremes will shorten the rechargeable cell's life, as they'd do with any quartz. As they do with car batteries, for that matter. 

It is not that common for quartz to have adequate protection against magnetic fields. I saw quartz movements permanently killed by iPad magnetic covers. Unless the case features a Faraday cage, and most don't, they're even more vulnerable. Most modern autos and hand-crankers of decent make are relatively safe in terms of that.

Sure, quartz will always be more accurate. Then again, if one doesn't have a Japanese bullet train to catch, that level of accuracy isn't even needed.

For what it's worth, in terms of warch evolution over the decades, my collection ranges from a 1926 Omega pocket watch to a function-packed Citizen Promaster Sky. I accept each and every piece in the collection with its pros and cons alike, acknowledging that there is no such thing as a perpetuum mobile or perfection, and not trying to throw basic matters kind of ipecac in people's tea for my amusement. This is the Way.

Automatic watches are part of my morning routine. There's something about knowing that the watch was made for me. I like setting the time, date and sometimes the day. Hacking to set it perfectly with my phone. Sometimes I do say F it and grab my g shock. To me hand winding a watch is more of a pain. I have a Vostok and an one hand Luch that I hardly use because of that reason. There are pros and cons of every movement I guess. Rock what you own.

The only part of your post I would really question is the battery change bit. You can get the tool to open a screw case back on the Lorus for £5-10 and a battery for £1 and do it yourself. If you have more than one quartz watch this process helps in the long run. I think retiring the watch and gunning through 79p watches is quite a severe response.

the Lorus was at the time my only watch - I was not  a collector then; there was also the issue of losing the water resistance of 100m.

However, simply put: I am clumsy. I do own a watch repair kit. The last thing I did with it was to try to remove a link from a bracelet. Result: no link removed, and the link-remove-tool was kaputt.  Before then I used it to replace a mesh bracelet with a leather strap. After a long struggle (about an hour) I succeeded, albeit slightly damaging the strap in the process. So, I am looking forward to my first DIY battery replacement with a level of apprehension.

A solar powered mecha-quartz would eliminate the two big complaints about quartz watches - the battery change and the one-tick-per-second. Yet none exist. Physically impossible?

I'm not the most dextrous guy in the world either. I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous. But I have about 20 quartz watches, so I figured I should change some of these $1 batteries myself when they wear out every three years. I can now change them on 'most' of my watches. There are a couple where the backs were really tightly screwed on, and two that have no notch or tab that I can see. These have to go to the actual watchmaker, about 20 miles from my house, who still charges only $5.

Sometimes you just have to cut your losses. I have a couple I still let the watchmaker do, it’s just better that way.

This is a bit extreme, but you could move from the UK to Bellevue, KY where the watchmaker there will change your watch batteries for $5.

Yeah. Mine can change batteries in two watches in less than five minutes While-U-Wait.

You and I have a lot in common. I like quartz! I like mechanical too. I have 30 watches and 20 are quartz, the rest autos and solars. My most expensive watch is $180. Although I do have a "grail". But it's a watch that doesn't exist yet. It would be a slightly smaller Seiko Arnie type without the digital display, a friction bezel for timing things, good specs, and - wait for it - a solar mecha-quartz movement which would eliminate battery changes and the one-tick second hand, which are the two big complaints against quartz. It would cost $199 or less. But as far as I know, solar mecha-quartz movements do not exist

Yes, that is extreme. Since I wrote that comment, more than a year ago, a few things have changed for me.

1. I have used that watchmaker in town that does battery replacement - and it costs £6 there.

2. I have learned how to do battery replacement myself, if needed.

3. I have acquired way too many self-winders now to keep them wound via the watch-winder, that now serves only as a display box. I need more display boxes.

4. I also own solars, well 3 of them, though one is semi-retired in the drawer of shame.

My friend, that's great. You've got every single thing worked out. I can change the batteries on most of my quartz watches, but I still get nervous doing it. Everything is so TINY (he says, using big letters). And changing a battery on a watch with a pop-off caseback is not just one difficult operation, it's four. You have to pry the back off without scratching it all up. Then you have to work the old battery out without bending something or touching the coil. Then sometimes the new battery doesn't want to go in. And sometimes the caseback doesn't want to go back on or the gasket won't stay in place. Screw-down casebacks should be the law.

Err, I haven't worked out things quite that far, though I can see how you got that impression from my comment🙄. I did manage successfully a battery replacement. I did also manage to destroy another watch in the process. Subsequently, I will divide the battery replacement between me and my watchmaker depending on how much I care for the watch.