Hi I recently bought a new watch and one of the first questions I was asked was it manual,automatic or quartz.
Now I only bought it as I liked the watch, but have now found out it's a quartz, and rather than spending a while looking online I thought to ask here what the differences are between them and why would you go for one over another ?
Thanks
Somebody with a better knowledge will be able to go into greater depth but the beginners guide is
Quartz = battery powered
Manual = hand wound
Automatic = wound via the movement of your wrist + able to be hand wound
Quartz watches are more accurate (+- a few secs a year) instead of a day in manual auto watches.
You ask a heck of a lot of bone questions. Just read the forum, the information is all here. You can't just create a thread and expect to know everything, your knowledge will build over time.
...and Kinetic - a sort of quartz / auto hybrid
Not to forget Solar - quartz powered by photovoltaic sensors normally (now) placed underneath the dial, turning light into electricity.
And Seiko's Spring Drive.
And Hamilton's automatic digital.
This is going to be a long day.
Here's a radical thing in this age of instant everything. If you read into a subject / interest, the more you learn, the more you know and crucially the more you retain.
Generally
Quartz = light
Automatic = heavy
Quartz = tick
Automatic = sweep
Quartz = accurate to .5 sec per day
Automatic = 5-25 sec per day.
Quartz = £10+ battery and seal every 3 years
Automatic = £150+ service every 5-7 years.
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QUARTZ (BATTERY)
Quartz watches are powered by replaceable batteries. They are the most accurate type of watch. Batteries need replacing every few years generally.
Quartz watches work by transmitting an electric current through a specially shaped quartz crystal. This then vibrates at a constant high speed (32,768 times a second), and marks the passage of time using this, which in turn drives the motors for the hour, minute and second hands. This was first introduced into a production wrist watch in 1969, and revolutionised the watch industry. The main benefit is high accuracy, and normal quartz watches will be accurate to within 30 second a month. Also, it needs infrequent battery changes, instead of needing to always be worn, or always be wound.
AUTOMATIC (SELF WINDING)
Automatic watches are powered by the movement of the wrist. They store energy generally for 36 hours to 48 hours and therefore require regular wearing, or the watch must be reset after it stops.
This is identical to the mechanical watch in terms of the method of time keeping, through the balance wheel and escapement, and a main spring to store energy. The main difference is that there is a weighted pendulum, or rotor attached to the movement. This spins as the user wears the watch, and is transmitted through to wind the main spring. This was designed so that the watch shouldn't need to be wound by hand by the wearer. Automatic movements are the most prevalent mechanical watches available, due to the public's demand for a watch that doesn't need to be wound regularly. Automatic watches often feature lower power reserves than hand wound watches, so they should be worn regularly, or a winding box can be used to ensure the watch is kept wound if you do not wear it every day.
MECHANICAL (HAND WOUND)
Mechanical watches are wound by hand, and are often favoured by those who appreciate tradition.
Mechanical watches have existed for centuries, and have the same basic principle. A main spring is wound through the crown to store energy, and this is then unwound, limited to a certain speed by an escapement and balance wheel. This balance wheel oscillates at a constant speed, most commonly 4 times a second (4Hz), and allows the escapement to unwind the main spring a certain amount at a time. The unwinding of the spring drives the hands to show the time through a set of gears. Numerous improvements have been made from the very first watches, so modern mechanical movements are more accurate, and have longer power reserves in the main spring. Despite this, they will need to be wound regularly to keep working, normally once every day or two. Mechanical watches have lower accuracy than their quartz counterparts, and usually will gain or lose up to 30 seconds a day, depending on how they are worn, and how often the watch is wound. These should always be taken into account when buying a mechanical watch. The very best grade mechanical watches, are marked as Chronometers. The movements in these are subjected to vigorous independent testing to ensure their time keeping is of a high enough standard. This is carried out at the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute, COSC (Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres), and means the watch is accurate to within 4 to 6 seconds a day over a course of 15 days, in a number of different temperatures and positions to ensure the movement is suitable bear the mark.
SOLAR POWERED/ECO-DRIVE/TOUGH SOLAR
Solar powered watches are as accurate as quartz watches and require no battery replacement. They charge by light (even artificial light) and they continue to work even in complete darkness for many months.
This is a quartz watch, using the same system quartz crystal maintaining the timekeeping. The main difference is the inclusion of a solar panel under the dial or on the face of the watch, which collects light from the environment, in many cases artificial as well as natural, and converts it into electrical charge, which is used to recharge a battery or capacitor to run the watch. This helps negate the need to change the battery, and in turn helps the environment as there is no harmful chemicals that need disposal with each battery change. The energy stored in the cell then stops the watch from stopping or losing time when it is not exposed to light.
Tough Solar is Casio's system of time keeping, using a normal quartz crystal as a base. The watch also has a solar feature, similar to the Eco-Drive and other Solar watches. Many of the watches from Casio feature Wave Ceptor technology, which receives the radio time signal from transmitters located worldwide, to set the time to the most accurate possible time. The Tough aspect of the Tough Solar is a unique system that uses a light beam under the dial, deep within the movement, that checks the alignment of the hands. In case of a serious shock, the hands can be instantly reset to the correct time.
KINETIC/AUTOQUARTZ/KINETIC PERPETUAL
This is a quartz watch, with the addition of a rotor that in turns spins to generate electric current to recharge a capacitor or battery. Kinetic has been made famous by Seiko as their brand name for the system, and is the most widely known using this movement type.
PRECISIONIST
Bulova launched this concept, designed with the highest possible precision in mind. The movement is a quartz watch, but features a specially designed quartz crystal, that resonates at 8 times the speed of a normal quartz watch, at 262144Hz. The second hand moves 16 times a second, for a near perfect sweep, as opposed to the 4 times a second sweep of a normal mechanical watch or once every second with a standard quartz watch. The accuracy increase from the higher frequency quartz crystal is noticeably higher than a standard quartz watch, rated at a variance of less than 10 seconds a year. This is the very highest accuracy available for a watch available today with the exception of radio controlled watches.
SPRING DRIVE
A hybrid of quartz and mechanical movements. Power storage is a mainspring just as in a mechanical watch (and mainspring is wound by a rotor like an automatic watch or by hand winding), but regulation of the release of the energy from the spring is completely different. Main spring causes something called the glide wheel to turn. The glide wheel rotation acts as an electric generator which powers a quartz oscillator integrated circuit. Said circuit applies pulses to electromagnetic brake to slow down the glide wheel in such a fashion as to regulate the glide wheel rotation to be a nearly constant speed. Rotating glide wheel is also coupled via gears to the hands of the watch.
Thanks nunya for the explanations! really interesting :) Those Japs are a pretty clever bunch!
Ok will try not to post a question again just read as told toOriginally Posted by Papa Hotel
You can either take it on board or develop a chip on your shoulder, it's up to you. If you think any of your questions are brand new discussions you're wrong.
I think the point is that as with most things there is no fast and easy road to gaining a level of comprehension of anything.
You have to read, research and reference for yourself first to broaden your knowledge in any hobby or interest. It's all out there.
In all seriousness, asking the difference between a quartz and an automatic watch was always going to get you a bit of ribbing. You got off light.
Don't forget electric - electric powered, mechanical balance or maybe electric tuning fork but not quartz.
And atomic of course, for the eccentric billionaires among us.
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Atomic - cesium 133
^^^^^
Accurate for sure, but boy is that ugly
Disgusting.
A black case and a blue strap. How could they?
To be honest, when I read the thread title I thought that this could be a lot worse.
Hahaha. V good.
What are these accurate to? 1 sec every million years?
To be fair it's like joining a car enthusiasts forum and asking the difference between automatic and manual transmissions, or between petrol and diesel.
Atomic wristwatches come in all shapes and sizes.
http://www.leapsecond.com
Last edited by Mr Curta; 28th April 2017 at 12:39. Reason: URL of excellent website added
Questions are very welcome by most here, it's just appreciated if newer members have done a bit of research of their own first (I speak as quite a new member).
If you really want to understand more about watches, mechanical ones at least, how they work and what is out there, in an entertaining way, I'd recommend this book:
The Wristwatch Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Mechanical Wristwatches https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/18514982..._iFYazbF6RXBSN
It's huge but got a good balance of basic information, technical explanations, lots of pretty pictures and anecdotes, so easy to read and dip into.
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A single atomic clock isn't accurate enough* so an average is taken across a load of them and that time is what's used.
*relatively.
Nobody has brought this one up yet
http://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/collect...ollect041.html
What a cool site. I didn't realise that the Spring Drive was optimised for space walks.
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No mention of the movement in my 3741.........theres one
Pitch
They are not too bad (depending on your point of view of course). The Hoptroff Atomics are priced between £12,000 and £25,000 and I think that those fugly Bathys prototypes were about US$6000. I'd like one, ideally with a Nixie Tube display. Eccentric? I don't know what you mean.
I suggested a Nixie tube clock kit as a Christmas present idea after the thread on here. Guess that was a bit too 'eccentric' for my family. The watch on that thread was brilliant - was that you?
Indeed it was.
You forgot about the models regulated by a quartz oscillator but driven by a tuning fork.
Hmm...cunning stuff :).
I wonder what the OP makes of all this.
This is a joke thread right? In a watch forum where people who visit are expected to have a basic knowledge of the subject before venturing in.
"PRECISIONIST
Bulova launched this concept, designed with the highest possible precision in mind. The movement is a quartz watch, but features a specially designed quartz crystal, that resonates at 8 times the speed of a normal quartz watch, at 262144Hz. The second hand moves 16 times a second, for a near perfect sweep, as opposed to the 4 times a second sweep of a normal mechanical watch or once every second with a standard quartz watch. The accuracy increase from the higher frequency quartz crystal is noticeably higher than a standard quartz watch, rated at a variance of less than 10 seconds a year. This is the very highest accuracy available for a watch available today with the exception of radio controlled watches."
Just to highlight that the Precisionist movement is not thermo-compensated so is not really considered as an HEQ movement (High-End Quartz), although it can be very accurate. I don't believe they still claim "10 seconds per year" for this movement which was retuned to give better battery life.
From my own personal experience I have two recent Accutron ll movements which are good for a few seconds a month, but a couple of older Precisionist movements in my collection were actually less accurate than the Ronda in my Precista 18Q. The Precisionist movement WAS rated at around 10 seconds per year but is probably more like 10 seconds a month and never had a chance of meeting the original specification in the watches I had.
6 months ago I wouldn't have even considered a mechanical watch, I've only ever bought quartz and loved the idea of the accuracy. My last one a few years ago being a radio controlled Citizen.
I then started reading watch forums and came to appreciate what mechanical watches were all about, then bought an SMPc, and I love it.
Sorry you mistakenly took what I said the wrong way, I tried a forum search and after a few pages gave up and posted my question on here, so then I get a reply to read some more and stop asking questions from a member with a lot more experience than me, so I reply that's fine I will stop posting questions and read some more.
So no sign of any chips I'm afraid.
Thanks for all the helpful answers
Google image search "datograph movement".. it will blow your mind and increase your understanding of watches and enthusiasts 10 fold! Perhaps google image quartz miyota. Consider the quartz tells more accurate time by 50x but is 1000x less expensive!
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Last edited by ac11111; 29th April 2017 at 10:44.
Thanks will do, trying to soak all this up, so I know when buying
Hahahahah! class.
Not for some of us,
I think the topic could become a dissertation than a discussion.
I think my interest started approx 10 years or so ago when a friend gave a watch magazine. I remember reading about the Rolex Submariner in one article and an Omega Speedmaster in another. I was really intrigued and my interest grew further.
Go to Watches of Switzerland or Goldsmiths and pick up one their magazines as it will provide information on various brands and watches. The articles will give a good introduction I think.
When I joined here (prior to lurking), discussions of watches mentioned 16610 this or 5167 that. I didn't have a clue and thought the people here were geeks. But I stuck at it as I wanted to be a geek. I mean WIS.
I have learnt a great deal here but still very much the newbie knowledge wise I think. It is a great community here and it is great for asking questions but after some homework has been done.
Superb.
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