You may have noticed that Tempus Fugit, with few exceptions, is focused on mechanical watches: those magical contraptions we strap to our wrists with dials that often belie the complicated mechanics in action beneath them. We don’t spend a lot of time on quartz watches because the enthusiast community (which makes up the bulk of our readers) is more focused on mechanical—we try to give the people what they want.
Watches as a hobby and an industry are not an either/or proposition, but a both/and one, wherein quartz and mechanical are complementary parts of the same whole. Yet when talking to new or entrenched hobbyists, and sometimes to those inside the industry, quartz continues to be treated with undue disdain. Most arguments ignore the history of watchmaking, the reality of current watch production, and the wide spectrum of quartz watches produced today, and all are ignorant of three truths: quartz watch movements are the culmination of all watchmaking heretofore, quartz technology is a modern marvel, and quartz watches are eminently practical.
Quartz Watches Are the Culmination of All Watchmaking to Date
Horological advancements have always been in furtherance of accuracy and precision, that is, the ability of a watch to tell the correct time, all the time. Even functional innovations are secondary to the accuracy of a watch. In the case of complications (such as a chronograph, alarm, or sidereal time display), they rely upon the mechanism’s accuracy and precision. In the case of non-movement components (such as the use of sapphire crystals, waterproofing, and anti-magnetic protection), these implementations served to protect the movement and ensure continued accurate timekeeping. It all comes back to accuracy and precision.1
When Christiaan Huygens developed the pendulum clock in 1656, it’s 15-second deviation per day was incredible, but it wasn’t possible or practical to carry a pendulum clock in one’s pocket (though I’m sure there’s a great joke there). Even if one could have, it would have been subject to all the external effects that make wristwatch accuracy and precision a challenge: temperature, gravity, positional variation, and shocks. Perhaps the most important invention that allowed watch accuracy to be reined in from hours to minutes was Huygens and Robert Hooke’s separate but concurrent development of the balance spring around1650; prior to its introduction, watchmakers didn’t even bother putting minute hands on the dial.
For centuries thereafter, watchmakers developed staggeringly brilliant methods to improve and maintain accuracy and precision: Harrison created the spring remontoire while developing his H2 marine chronometer, Mudge invented the lever escapement, Breguet the tourbillon, Daniels the co-axial escapement. Away from the watchmaker’s bench, advances in materials sciences (like bimetallic alloys, synthetic jewels, and silicon) and in manufacturing (like, more recently, LIGA and CNC) allowed movements to become more durable and reliable than ever.
In 1960, when Bulova released its Accutron 214 tuning fork movement, advertised to be accurate to one minute per month, the average mechanical movement operated at -/+ 30 seconds per day, with the very best chronometer movements certified to -1/+10 seconds. The Accutron 214, and the electro-mechanical movements that preceded it, used a battery for power and laid the groundwork for what became known outside of Switzerland as The Quartz Revolution—and inside as The Quartz Crisis. In 1969, after 10 years of development, Seiko release the Astron, a quartz watch with an accuracy of -/+ 5 seconds per month and a battery life of one year. In one week, all 100 units had sold, despite being the same price as a mid-sized car.
At present, the only thing on the horizon that could unseat the quartz watch is the atomic clock, the best (and largest) of which can keep time to one second every 300 million years. While some very small examples have been produced and even commercialized, none yet have been integrated into watches. As such, quartz embodies the apotheosis of horology’s fundamental quest for accuracy and precision: most generic modern quartz movements deviate no more than -/+ 15 seconds per month, a rate of which Huygens could only dream.
Quartz Watches are Technological Marvels
If my 4-year-old son were to ask me how a quartz watch works (he hasn’t, but he has asked me how a mechanical watch works and seemed to understand my explanation), I’d simply tell him it’s magic—and I don’t think I’d be stretching the truth.
Just like when you tase someone, when a charge is introduced to a quartz crystal, it shakes. It oscillates not just rapidly, but at a constant rate. The crystal’s frequency depends on its shape, size, and how it’s cut. Most quartz crystals used in watch movements today are cut in the shape of a tuning fork and vibrate at 32,768 Hz (this is beyond the range of human hearing, but the Accutron 214 vibrated at 360 Hz and the Seiko Astron at 8,162 Hz, which is why they sounded like they were humming).
In a quartz watch, a battery sends a charge through an integrated circuit to the quartz oscillator, the integrated circuit counts the vibrations, translates a fixed number of vibrations into an electrical pulse and sends it to a step-motor, which translates the electrical pulse into mechanical energy, driving the gear train, which drive the hands. Thinking about how this differs from a mechanical movement, the winding mechanism, mainspring, escapement, and balance are being replaced by the battery, circuit board, quartz oscillator, and motor. Essentially, the most temperamental components are being replaced, creating a far more accurate and reliable timepiece.
But not all quartz movements are created equal. The best quartz calibers are jeweled, feature all-metal (often gold) construction, have only the highest quality of crystals, and achieve accuracies measured per year, not per month. Some, like Citizen’s Eco-Drive use light to power a capacitor in place of a battery and can go 10 years or more without needing any service. Ultra-high frequency oscillators and thermocompensation allow brands like Bulova and Omega to achieve increased accuracy and smoother hand movement. The pinnacle of quartz to date is the Citizen Caliber A001,2 a light-powered movement that is accurate to one second per year and can run eight months on a single charge.
To review: you put electricity through a tiny rock, count how much it shakes, use that count to tell a motor when to move the watch’s gears, and it remains almost perfectly accurate until the electricity goes away. Like something out of a storybook, time is told with a vibrating crystal. While the mere concept of quartz and its accuracy may have stunned historic watchmakers like Abraham-Louis Breguet, modern quartz movements are marvels in their own time.
Quartz Watches Are Practical
This is the most straightforward and least controversial point I’ll make: Quartz watches are the most practical watch option, for anyone, in any situation.3 Quartz doesn’t just offer the best accuracy, but also unbelievable affordability, exceptional durability and convenience, and easy maintenance.
The cheapest quartz watches may cost under $10, but even I won’t try to convince you to get one of them. When we start talking about quality quartz watches, you are often getting decent all-around quality with exceptional accuracy; think of Timex and run-of-the-mill Citizen. Quartz watches also often offer some of the lowest points of entry for major brands, like a $2,750 Omega Aqua Terra or the $1,400 TAG Heuer Formula 1. Plus, there’s the opportunity to enjoy complications, such as a perpetual calendar or a flyback chronograph, for a reasonable price. So, not only are they affordable as watches, but they also afford the opportunity to enjoy brands and functions that are out of reach for most people (which opens up doors for more people to join the hobby).
Once you’ve got one, there’s no worrying: quartz watches are exceptionally durable. They are naturally resistant to changes in temperature, their rate never changes, and having fewer components means fewer things to break or get knocked out of place from a shock. And because brands know that people are going to be rougher with watches that cost less (watches bought intentionally for this type of use are often referred to as “beaters”), they make some even more durable, like the Citizen Promaster Tough and the Victorinox I.N.O.X. If being able to do whatever you want without thinking twice about what’s on your wrist weren’t enough, remember that only quartz can offer the convenience of being ready at the drop of a hat, since the time is always correct.
Finally, quartz watches are basically free to keep running for decades. Much like buying new underwear, you only need a battery every few years and it can be as cheap as $15 (depending on the watch and where you have it done). Even if an entire movement fails, whether after 5 or 25 years, there’s a decent chance you’d just be able to have it replaced for less than the price of the watch. When it comes to the highest-end movements, of course, they can be serviced just like mechanical calibers! There’s no getting around it, then: quartz watches offer unrivaled practicality with their affordability, toughness, and easy “repairs.”
I’m going to be bold here and say that watches are great and everyone should be able to enjoy them, in whatever way they want. When I told my wife I was writing this piece, she said, “There are some people who don’t want to deal with watch winders, us common folk.” It’s true. Most people just want a watch that can tell the time without them having to worry about it (my wife doesn’t even set the date on her watches). That’s ok. What frustrates me is the rejection of quartz that often accompanies the entrance into the watch community and certain segments of the industry.
Any appreciation of watches must include an appreciation of quartz watches because they form an integral part of the market, the industry, and the hobby. Our old friends Breguet, Harrison, Mudge, and Huygens, in their tireless efforts to tame the mechanics of time, sought first and foremost to engineer precise and accurate devices. These men and their contemporaries would be in awe of quartz, not just as the endgame of their cumulative efforts, but as a piece of astonishing technology available to all. To be sure, they would be confounded by modern horology’s aversion to such a grand accomplishment. Perhaps it’s time we reconcile that disparity and give quartz its due.
Notes:
1 The only prominent exception that comes to mind is the invention of the keyless works by Charles Antoine LeCoultre in 1847, which allowed watches to be wound by a crown instead of a separate key. That invention was about convenience and portability.
2 Seiko’s Spring Drive, while undoubtedly impressive, uses a quartz oscillator to check and adjust otherwise mechanical timekeeping. As it does not rely solely on the quartz oscillator to keep the time, I have not included it in the main discussion.
3 I understand the multifunctional utility offered by the Apple Watch and other devices. While that functionality cannot be beat, they are more accurately considered devices that happen to have a watch function, rather than watches per se.
A very special thanks to the following for their assistance with this piece: Jared of Buying on Time, Lauren C. of The Time Bum, and Nick Harris of Orion Watches.