Tell me I’m wrong: Mechanical movements are unbeatable at the entry level
I’m a strong believer in technical progress and mechanical watches seemed at one time like fragile, imprecise relics of a bygone age. This belief led to the first two watches in my collection being quartz. It seemed like a no brainer to me. After all, quartz watches offer better timekeeping and durability than even the best mechanicals... Or so I thought.
The love affair with quartz is over. Cheap quartz watches have seconds hands that never hit their marker, the minute hands oftentimes have a load of play in them for not being under the constant tension of a mainspring (negating any supposed accuracy benefits) and one day (probably in less than 5 years) they’ll just stop on you. All this before we even get into the aesthetic benefits of a sweeping second hand.
This feeds into there being a sense of quality present in entry level mechanical watches (nh35 etc) that just doesn’t seem to be matched by quartz watches at the same price point- tell me I’m wrong. 😈
Edit: bonus points if you can argue the quartz case without mentioning Casio. As far as I’m concerned Casio is the exception that proves the rule.
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Solar power is my answer to you. I love watches with solar powered quartz movements, and my watches all seem to have second hands that hit the indices. There are great entry-level solar powered watches in a number of brands beyond Casio: Citizen with their Eco-Drive, Seiko, Timex, Junghans, Vaer, Jack Mason, Bertucci, etc., and my experience with these brands has been good.
Cheap quartz watches will always offer better timekeeping than pretty much any mechanical watch movement. I think with the really cheap quartz watches you are referring to, maybe they have a cheap all plastic gear train with excessive play in it leading to the minute & hour hands being inprecise.
Most of my watches are mechanical but I will mention a Quartz watch I bought at Argos on Friday for £30, the Lorus (not Casio) RJ655AX9F, it's a great watch for the money & it's second hand hits all the markers*
* More or less!
Exhibit A: Indiglo, or any form of full backlight.
Solar power is my answer to you. I love watches with solar powered quartz movements, and my watches all seem to have second hands that hit the indices. There are great entry-level solar powered watches in a number of brands beyond Casio: Citizen with their Eco-Drive, Seiko, Timex, Junghans, Vaer, Jack Mason, Bertucci, etc., and my experience with these brands has been good.
Can’t argue with solar. My second watch was a Seiko solar diver (profile pic), but it was nearly £500.
Cheap quartz watches will always offer better timekeeping than pretty much any mechanical watch movement. I think with the really cheap quartz watches you are referring to, maybe they have a cheap all plastic gear train with excessive play in it leading to the minute & hour hands being inprecise.
Most of my watches are mechanical but I will mention a Quartz watch I bought at Argos on Friday for £30, the Lorus (not Casio) RJ655AX9F, it's a great watch for the money & it's second hand hits all the markers*
* More or less!
Great shout.
I feel like of you want something really reliable at a good price that Hits the markers hibeat quartz watches with the VH31 movement, they beat like mechanical watches but have the same accuracy.
I feel like of you want something really reliable at a good price that Hits the markers hibeat quartz watches with the VH31 movement, they beat like mechanical watches but have the same accuracy.
Always been interested in these. They do sacrifice some battery life to feed their more energetic seconds hand though.
Always been interested in these. They do sacrifice some battery life to feed their more energetic seconds hand though.
Yeah they last like 1 year+ but I find that this isn't that Bad tbh
A Seiko is over 100€, brand new. You can get pretty nice quartz watches for that sort of money, no? But I haven't seen a mechanical watch for less than 20€ that I'd trust in any capacity, plenty of quartz that work just fine.
In 30+ years I've never broken an automatic (I don't count Vostok's, they're shite) but have killed many cheap quartz .
In fact i gifted two Hamilton Khaki King's, one quartz that lasted a year before it broke, and an automatic that still runs fine despite surviving a big motorbike crash & getting scuffed up.
Odd!!
My exception, as always, was going to be 'what is "entry-level"?' But that's always my bug bear and nobody else seems as hung up on it as I am.
A Seiko is over 100€, brand new. You can get pretty nice quartz watches for that sort of money, no? But I haven't seen a mechanical watch for less than 20€ that I'd trust in any capacity, plenty of quartz that work just fine.
This is true. You have to have 100 plus on the table, but at that price my experience is you can get some interesting mechanical watches that will last (anything with an NH35), but the quartz watches are a bit more disposable. To the point that I suspect many people chuck sub 100€ watches when the battery goes rather than paying their value to have them serviced. The NH35 will probably tick away for 20 years before you see any issues.
Here's my humble perspective. You moving along the traditional track of watch collecting. Most people do get started with quartz; and then, they discover the warm romance of mechanical movements. After a while, you'll likely grow to appreciate quartz more and more. Older collectors have told me they go back to quartz after many years of collecting.
Here's my humble perspective. You moving along the traditional track of watch collecting. Most people do get started with quartz; and then, they discover the warm romance of mechanical movements. After a while, you'll likely grow to appreciate quartz more and more. Older collectors have told me they go back to quartz after many years of collecting.
Actually, I think I’ll retire at spring drive.
Cheap quartz watches will always offer better timekeeping than pretty much any mechanical watch movement. I think with the really cheap quartz watches you are referring to, maybe they have a cheap all plastic gear train with excessive play in it leading to the minute & hour hands being inprecise.
Most of my watches are mechanical but I will mention a Quartz watch I bought at Argos on Friday for £30, the Lorus (not Casio) RJ655AX9F, it's a great watch for the money & it's second hand hits all the markers*
* More or less!
Wearing that watch right now. Got it from Argos too. The value it offers and construction is much more than it costs!
I definitely think solar works well on tool watches. I do wonder if the same range of dial finishes are available to the watchmaker when using solar. There must be some limitation to letting light through. My Seiko solar SNE569’s isn’t a patch on my SNXS79 for example, despite the solar Seiko costing 5x the amount.
Yeah, there are limitations on dials owing to the solar cell. Jack Mason had an interesting approach.
The dial has a perforated pattern.
I love both quartz and mechanicals and own several of each. One thing to know is just like mechanicals, not all quartz movements are alike and there's interesting movements in quartz just like in mechs. You have high accuracy quartz, even quartz with smooth (very smooth) sweeping hands like the bulova precisionist/ Accutron. All offer something unique. Take my Seiko dolce for example. It's a high accuracy quartz that is accurate to +/- 10 secs a year. You'll never find that in any mechanical movement at any price range.
Totally. Nothing against good quartz movements! Would love a Bulova Jet Star! And I still think the spring drive unbeaten for accuracy, perpetuity and second hand smoothness. But for what I paid for my SNXS79, I don’t think you’ll find a watch that ticks as many boxes, and a large part of that is down to the mechanical movement. It helps that mine seems to be running mysteriously well, but still.
Yeah, there are limitations on dials owing to the solar cell. Jack Mason had an interesting approach.
The dial has a perforated pattern.
Yeah I quite like that!
I wonder if the problem is less to do with the movement and more to do with market forces. Those buying more affordable quartz watches are less often enthusiasts and so the seller can get away with a shoddy movement.
One word...profit
Love me a quatz but yea cheap ones are not much fun for all the reasons mentioned. But the higher end ones are very good indeed
No casio here
Also, there's the whole issue of quartz 'fashion' watches which skews garbage quartz prices up.
Love me a quatz but yea cheap ones are not much fun for all the reasons mentioned. But the higher end ones are very good indeed
No casio here
A great selection of posh quartz there. Love it.
Yeah you're wrong, at least partially. Quartz is far more reliable and tough. Sure, many brands (especially those who focus on mechanical) use quartz as an excuse to throw in a $2 movement
But if you get a good quality movement, in a good quality watch, it's the most practical imo. And heck if the 1 tick per second bothers you, there are watches for as little as $40 using seikos vk movements which have the smooth tick
I instantly fell out of love with quartz when I got into watches, now I love them just as much as mechanical
Yeah you're wrong, at least partially. Quartz is far more reliable and tough. Sure, many brands (especially those who focus on mechanical) use quartz as an excuse to throw in a $2 movement
But if you get a good quality movement, in a good quality watch, it's the most practical imo. And heck if the 1 tick per second bothers you, there are watches for as little as $40 using seikos vk movements which have the smooth tick
I instantly fell out of love with quartz when I got into watches, now I love them just as much as mechanical
Yes, I’m definitely victim to the watch hobbyist’s trajectory. Though I still very much appreciate quartz, my observation is that on the whole (a few exceptions aside) it seems you have to spend a little more to get a good quartz movement than you do a decent mechanical one. I fell into this pitfall when I bought my first watch one year ago, picking up the Baltany Dirty Dozen 36mm quartz. I believe it’s a Seiko quartz movement, but it still suffers from about 15s of play in the minute hand and, in the not so distant future, it’s going to stop on me. My other option that I discounted at the time was the Seiko SRPG field watch. I have mixed feelings about whether I made the right call. If I’d seen the Timex Expedition Solar, I would have bought that! Yes one of those quartz exceptions I mentioned 😂
Yeah! I have them both and they are great. The alpinistbin particular is the one that keeps better time than any other in my collection.
Yeah! I have them both and they are great. The alpinistbin particular is the one that keeps better time than any other in my collection.
It’s funny. My Alpinist is terrible (-30spd and back at the AD). The SNXS79 will go days at a time without gaining or losing any time, then occasionally gain about 15s overnight
It’s funny. My Alpinist is terrible (-30spd and back at the AD). The SNXS79 will go days at a time without gaining or losing any time, then occasionally gain about 15s overnight
These mechanical things are curious! I bought a Oris Artelier at the same time as my Alpinist and that one loses 1 min every/day.
I have a Swatch quartz that is still alive and quite precise after 17 years, but can't stand looking at ithat wobbly second hand missing every mark. It's a horror show. It always was.
That's my bad quart example, here's a good one.
My dad's Hamilton is 31 years old. I took it out of a drawer after 7 years, replaced the battery and it just worked. Good alignment, good precision. That made me think that I should explore vintage quartz, as it appears to be simpler and with lower maintenance burdens.
I have a Swatch quartz that is still alive and quite precise after 17 years, but can't stand looking at ithat wobbly second hand missing every mark. It's a horror show. It always was.
That's my bad quart example, here's a good one.
My dad's Hamilton is 31 years old. I took it out of a drawer after 7 years, replaced the battery and it just worked. Good alignment, good precision. That made me think that I should explore vintage quartz, as it appears to be simpler and with lower maintenance burdens.
That Hamilton is 😍. Good quality quartz is lovely. If it has an EOL indicator, then you don’t even have to worry about it stopping on you.
I know someone with an Omega Constellation Quartz of a similar age to that Hamilton. Has an EOL, but the second hand doesn’t hit a single marker. Would infuriate me. And that from Omega.
Yes, I’m definitely victim to the watch hobbyist’s trajectory. Though I still very much appreciate quartz, my observation is that on the whole (a few exceptions aside) it seems you have to spend a little more to get a good quartz movement than you do a decent mechanical one. I fell into this pitfall when I bought my first watch one year ago, picking up the Baltany Dirty Dozen 36mm quartz. I believe it’s a Seiko quartz movement, but it still suffers from about 15s of play in the minute hand and, in the not so distant future, it’s going to stop on me. My other option that I discounted at the time was the Seiko SRPG field watch. I have mixed feelings about whether I made the right call. If I’d seen the Timex Expedition Solar, I would have bought that! Yes one of those quartz exceptions I mentioned 😂
Yeah with affordable (and honestly even expensive) Quartz watches you have to know where to look and what to look for
If we are discounting casio from quartz, then imagine if we discounted seiko movements from affordable mechanicals. 99% of affordable autos would have to use some cheap dodgy Chinese movement, and at that point I'd rather a miyota quartz all the way