And no, I don’t have an answer, I am honestly asking. But if you are not familiar, there are 3 ways these days to make a watch (more or less).

Number one, a mechanical movement, powered by a spiral spring that is slowly unwound and making the balance wheel swing, providing you with a more or less stable frequency, which over many complicated steps and gears makes the entire thing move along one second at a time.

Number two, a quartz movement, powered by a battery they use electronics to make a quartz crystal oscillate at usually 32kHz, that frequency is then adapted and a step motor used to move the hands of the clock.

Number three, a smart watch. Here dark magic is used to suck your personal data and soul out of your wrist and forward it to the gods that made it. Also it’s a tiny computer that syncs to the internet, get’s the current time from a server and displays it, which, technically, is cheating. So we won’t be looking at them any further.

Let’s get back to number one and two. Amongst collectors and enthusiasts mechanical movements hold a special place, you will find them in the likes of Rolex, Patek Philippe, IWC, Omega and so forth as well as in less expensive options such as my favourite brand, Tissot. And given we are talking about watches here, the most important spec for a movement is accuracy.

Mechanical movements in the price range of a Tissot are accurate to about -15/+20 seconds a day, better ones, like a Rolex or IWC, are accurate to -4/+6 seconds a day. Patek Philippe produces even more accurate ones that are in a range of -2/+2 seconds a day.

A mechanical Tissot is around 700 to 2500€, a Rolex starts at around 6000€ and a basic Patek Philippe that won’t be accurate to -2/+2 seconds a day starts around 24000€, the -2/+2 seconds a day variants are upwards of 75000€.

As you can see, accuracy comes at a price. Or does it?

A quartz movement is usually found in cheaper watches, such as Casio, Seiko, Timex and Swatch. For me Seiko is the premier manufacturer when it comes to quartzes, they are well made and they have the technology developed perfectly and James Bond once was seen wearing one.

So how accurate is a Seiko quartz?

Lets look at the Caliber 8J41 which can be found in something like the Seiko Dolce, a watch that one can own for a little over 300€. It is accurate to -10/+10 seconds. Now one could say, yeah a little better than a mechanical Tissot and a little cheaper, so what? Well the thing is, Seiko doesn’t tell you how much their watches deviate per day, the -10/+10 seconds are per year. So it is accurate to -0,027/+0,027 seconds a day. That is rather good if you compare it to the top level mechanical watches beyond the 75000€ price point.

An then there is a sub brand of Citizen, called Bulova, they developed a movement that oscillates at 262kHz and is accurate to -2/+2 seconds a year (-0,00547945/+0,00547945 a day) and can be found in watches like their Lunar Pilot. If you are lucky like me and you find a good deal on one, you can have it for less then 500€.

So why do we hate on quartz movements, except for the need of a battery and the second hand not moving as smoothly as on a mechanical watch, they are better in every way that matters. And if you go Grand Seiko, they have a spring to power the watch and you don’t need a battery, eliminating one of the downsides. Basically a hybrid, but what else could it be, it’s a Japanese brand, they love their hybrids. They do come at a price, couldn’t find one for less then 5000€, but still, more accurate than a Patek and way less expensive.

So yeah, I don’t get it, what is wrong with a quartz?

Is it that they cost less? Is it that they last longer without needing a service?

Or is it simply that almost everyone can afford one and we simply don’t feel special, wearing a quartz?