Are Quartz Watches Good? 5 Reasons To Choose Quartz Watches
I love mechanical watches. The movements look awesome and there’s something undeniably special about wearing them.
Nevertheless, I also think quartz watches are great and, in this post, I’m going to go through 5 reasons why you might consider choosing one.
If you’re pretty new to wristwatches, then quartz watches are essentially battery powered watches that utilise a quartz crystal and an electronic circuit to enable the watch to function. Whereas mechanical watches rely on physical mechanisms, including springs, wheels and gears, to tell the time.
Quartz watches do inherently have some good advantages that may make them the better choice for you.
Quartz Watches Price
Firstly, you have the fact that quartz watches are generally significantly cheaper to purchase. Reason being is that mechanical watches require a costlier manufacturing process, compared to their quartz counterparts. They have loads of different parts that have to be created to strict specifications. On the other hand, there really isn’t much that goes into a quartz movement, outside of a battery and a circuit. As such, they can be pumped out of factories for a much lower price; resulting in a lower retail cost for most quartz watches. This is the reason all of the cheap watches you see in convenience stores are quartz ones. It’s also the reason you’ll see a price discrepancy between the quartz and mechanical versions of the very same watch.
Not only are they cheaper to buy, but they’re also significantly cheaper to maintain. Servicing mechanical watches really adds up over time and can end up being pretty expensive. With quartz watches, you can just buy a fresh battery every few years. Either that or, if it’s something like a cheap Casio, you could just buy a whole new watch because they’re so cheap.
How Accurate Are Quartz Watches?
A great benefit of quartz is also the accuracy. Even the cheapest quartz movements are incredibly accurate and often only lose a few seconds over the course of a year, compared to mechanical watches, which can lose that in a day. This makes them fantastic timekeepers and I guess more accuracy is just better however you think about it.
Practicality
To go along with that, you’ve also got the pure practicality of quartz. These watches have a power reserve that literally lasts years; so, once you’ve set the watch to the appropriate date and time, you rarely ever have to touch it again. You can leave this in a drawer, pick it up months later and it will still be instantly useable.
This is a great feature if you have multiple wristwatches, as you can chop and change with no hassle; whereas with mechanical watches, you may have to repeatedly set the time if you’re not wearing them every day. To some, that can just be a pain. It’s one of the reasons I have a fair few quartz pieces, because I like switching it up at short notice.
Dimensions
There’s also a factor, that I’ve really heard nobody talking about online; which can make a big difference. Size. Due to the smaller movement size, quartz watches can be much slimmer than automatics; which may be of importance if you have a skinnier wrist. They tend to sit flatter, which also means they slip under sleeves more easily.
Quartz Watch Durability
If you’re in a manual job, or just like to give your watches a bashing, then it’s worth noting that quartz movements are often more durable than mechanical watches. Due to the lack of complexity, they can take impacts without much hassle; there’s nothing that’s going to get ‘thrown off’ within the watch. This is why the hardiest watches like g-shocks are fitted with a quartz movement inside.