![]() The vast majority of movements are assembled by robots inside giant factories what you see on guided tours of some factories in Switzerland is pure staging (someday I will write an article about how most watches called “Swiss made” are really made…) Quartz or mechanical? Now quartz movements are extremely reliable, hardly ever break, and when it happens we don't fix quartz movements anymore we just change them.īut don't be fooled into thinking that most modern watches – even a “prestige timepiece” costing thousands of dollars - are assembled by experienced watchmakers with white lab coats and grey hair most expensive watches haven’t been assembled this way in decades. This is the main reason why most old quartz watches are not valuable: the movements are often damaged, and because there are no more spare parts, they cannot be fixed. Watchmakers trained to fix mechanical watches had no idea how the new technology worked ironically, the vast majority of this first quartz watches were destroyed by those trying to fix them. With the mainspring replaced by a battery, quartz movements never stopped or needed winding.īut the problems began when quartz watches started to break. In the beginning, the news about quartz movements was all good: quartz watches showed the time more precisely than mechanical watches. And because the cost of a quality automatic movement is higher than quartz, by necessity the price will be higher than the chronos I offer today. I'm designing a new Chronograph that will use the Seiko NH88 the case will be much bigger. I use a quartz movement in these watches because an automatic chronograph movement would make one of those watches look like a Big Mac. My designs are vintage, and most of my current chronos have a 38mm case. An automatic movement is also much more expensive than a quartz movement. Because both of these movements are automatic chronographs, they are thick and need to be installed in big cases. Reliable, high-quality, affordable automatic chronograph movements are relatively modern designs the most-used is the Valjoux 7750 designed in the 1970s, and the best is the more recent Seiko NE88. For more about this, Google “far east ETA”.Īutomatic chronographs (stopwatch functions in addition to time) are more complex movements. All of these automatic movements are good, but the "Swiss" movements are always more expensive because they carry the Swiss-made label (many people buy ETA and Sellita thinking they are Swiss, while the most of them are made in Asia). The market is full of options for automatic movements: the best known are the ETA and Sellita, and their Japanese competitors manufactured by Miyota and Seiko. There are two ways to manufacture movements: the classic hand-mounted method, or robot-mounted.Īutomatic movements with three hands (hours, minutes, and seconds only), like the Seiko NH35 we use for the Dan Henry 1970 Diver, are simple mechanisms: with high-tech robotic production, great automatic three-hands movements can be manufactured inexpensively and reliably. When I visited some of the factories where Chinese chronograph movements are made, I got a deeper understanding of the problem. Quality manufacturers assemble their watches with Japanese or Swiss movements, no one trusts the Chinese movements. ![]() ![]() ![]() My watches will always be beautiful, reliable, and accessible. ![]() When I created my brand, I started with a commitment: to create watches for everyday wear by the vintage collector. If worn daily, an automatic watch does not need manual winding. In a mechanical watch, the balance and anchor serve the same function as the oscillator in a quartz watch, and a mainspring functions as the battery.Īn automatic watch is also mechanical, but the mainspring is wound when the wearer’s movement spins a mechanism that winds the mainspring. I've been collecting watches for more than 35 years, and a watch manufacturer for five years, so I thought it was time I told you my views on this subject.įirst, some background: a quartz watch uses an electronic oscillator that is regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time, with a battery to provide the power. This is a subject that always generates passionate reactions, especially from some self-described “purists collectors.” I get a lot of questions about movements in collectible watches, especially about the differences between quartz and mechanical watches. ![]()
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