What a quartz watch is and how it works: a beginner's guide
If you're new to watches, it can be difficult to understand how a quartz watch works. Today we want to take a deep dive into the history of quartz watches. Let's start right away. To better understand how a quartz watch works, we must first understand how a watch works in a standard way.
There are three main types of movements or power types used in today's market:
- Mechanical
- Automatic
- Quartz
What is a mechanical watch?
Mechanical watches were the first to be commercialized. A mechanical watch is a hand-wound watch that uses a complex movement made up of hundreds of small parts that work together to keep the watch movement running. Before we delve into how automatic watches work, let's go back in time and learn more about hand-wound mechanical watches. Years ago, people didn't have batteries to run their watches, so how did they make them work? They often had to manually wind their watches to keep time.
How do automatic watches actually work?
Although technically the technology of automatic movements is older than quartz movements, they exude a different level of craftsmanship and complexity. Instead of batteries, operation is ensured by so-called wound springs.
This mainspring stores and distributes energy through interlocking gears and other mainsprings that control the power of the watch. so complicated! This is also one of the main reasons why premium automatic watches command high prices in today's watch market. Unfortunately, watches are still very sensitive to damage from bumps and drops.
While most automatic watches have greater mechanical complexity and cost significantly more than most quartz watches, they are less accurate at telling time. This is due to the nature of the design. This is also the main reason why quartz watches are becoming increasingly popular in today's society. You can charge your automatic watch by wearing it and performing everyday activities such as walking, writing or exercising.
Getting to know the quartz watch
Now that we've learned about the different types of watches besides quartz watches, it's time to see what quartz watches are for. Before the development of quartz watches, Swiss watchmakers dominated the industry, creating a market for complex manual and automatic movements.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, these initiatives required great skill and much-needed dexterity from highly skilled individuals. Over the years, this started to become more and more of a problem, so people started to look for possible solutions. Quartz simplifies watchmaking by replacing complex mechanisms and movements, making watches not only more affordable, but also more accurate.
Most watches have quartz movements. Designation "Quartz"; refers to the quartz crystal that drives the movement. The invention of quartz technology revolutionized the watch industry, destroying many mechanical watchmakers who could not keep up with the competition in extreme accuracy and affordability.
The first watch to run on a quartz movement was invented in 1927 by American engineer Warren Marrison. Ten years later, Issac Koga, a Japanese scientist and inventor, created the first Japanese quartz watch. The Japanese have a lot of experience with quartz watches and produce high quality quartz movements.
Advantages of a quartz watch
Extreme precision: the Miyota quartz movement of the Frosted Shiny watch only drifts a maximum of 15 seconds per month. Other watches can drift up to a few minutes per month, which you may notice over time.
Less maintenance: a quartz watch contains fewer parts than mechanical or automatic movements, so maintenance is not a requirement. Sometimes the battery needs to be replaced, but this is only once every few years.
Narrower cases: the quartz movement also owes this to the small number of parts. Thinner cases have become increasingly popular in both quartz and automatic watches.
Is a quartz watch better than an automatic mechanical watch?
This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions and the answer is not a simple "yes" or "no". In the end it all comes down to preference. If you like fine, classic watches whose mechanism is not visible, we recommend you go for a quartz watch.
If you prefer to see the gears and parts that make up your watch, opt for an automatic watch. If you want a watch that shows the time without too many inaccuracies, opt for a quartz one. The choice is ultimately yours! Macklein will soon also be adding automatic watches to the range in the next collection.