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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Indulge/  Everything you wanted to know about quartz watches
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Everything you wanted to know about quartz watches

Millions upon millions of quartz watches are sold each year all over the planet; there is no real reason to ignore them

(From left) Tissot’s T-Race Touch Aluminium, Seiko Prospex, Victorinox Inox and Seiko Astron GPS Solar Chronograph. Premium
(From left) Tissot’s T-Race Touch Aluminium, Seiko Prospex, Victorinox Inox and Seiko Astron GPS Solar Chronograph.

Quartz? But I thought this was supposed to be an Indulge issue about fine, complicated, high-end haute horology. Quartz is so 1980s.

On the contrary, my friend, quartz technology continues to be the driving force behind most of the watches sold in the world. Sure they maybe much cheaper than some of the exquisite mechanical timepieces in this issue. But millions upon millions of quartz watches are sold each year all over the planet. Snobbishness aside, there is no real reason to ignore them. There are some world-class quartz watches out there.

I see. Also aren’t quartz watches supposed to be much more accurate than mechanical watches?

By an entire order of magnitude. The comparison is almost laughably one-sided. In fact, the cheapest plastic quartz watch you pick up in a supermarket is more accurate than the most expensive, Swiss mechanical watch you can buy. To give you a rough estimate, the average mechanical watch loses as much time in one day as a quartz watch will in an entire month. They are tremendously accurate. There are few devices in the world that offer such accurate and precise performance at such a low price.

Wow. How come? How do they manage to be so accurate and so cheap?

Steady now. One thing at a time. First of all, let us look at how a quartz watch works. Now, as we know all timepieces work on the same basic principle: they convert the oscillation of something into the ticking hands of a clock. In the case of grandfather clocks, this oscillation is provided by a pendulum. In the case of mechanical watches, the oscillations are produced by a balance spring. So if the balance spring, say, oscillates 100 times a second, a system of gears is used to reduce this to a slower movement that advances the second hand of the watch once every second. The crucial element here is the regularity of the oscillator, the more regular the oscillations are, the better time the watch, or clock, will keep.

In a quartz watch, the oscillations are produced by a tiny crystal of quartz. Quartz is what is known as a “piezoelectric" material. This means that if you apply any mechanical stress on a quartz crystal, it generates a tiny amount of electrical charge. Similarly, if you apply a small electric charge to a quartz crystal, it bends a little bit.

Cut a quartz crystal into a particular shape, then apply a tiny current, and scientists discovered that the crystal would vibrate, or oscillate, with an extreme regularity, much greater than of a pendulum or a balance spring. Bingo. An excellent regulator for a watch was born.

I see. I think that made sense. So how does all this work in a watch?

If you have ever opened a quartz watch, you may have seen a little cylinder inside that looks like a small coil of fine wire. Inside the cylinder is the tiny, perfectly cut crystal of quartz. The electricity from your watch battery is passed through the crystal. Usually, the crystal in watches vibrate 32,768 times a second. The rest of the electric circuit of a watch is used to halve this oscillation fifteen times, one after the other, till you get an oscillation once every second. Which is then displayed on the screen or using hands.

It all sounds very high-tech indeed. So why are quartz watches so cheap then?

They weren’t always so cheap you know. When Seiko brought out the first quartz watch, the Astron, in 1969, it was very expensive indeed. In fact, in the beginning quartz watches were generally seen as very expensive, premium products.

And then prices began to drop. Unlike mechanical watches, the manufacturing of quartz watches was quickly industrialized and prices plummeted. For the first time in the world, anyone of any social status could afford to buy an extremely reliable timepiece.

This must have been very upsetting to the mechanical watch industry?

Bingo. The Japanese quartz revolution almost wiped out the Swiss watch industry. Thousands of jobs were lost, and dozens of companies shut down. After two decades or so of turmoil, it is only since the 1990s that the industry has begun to revive. Largely by promoting the craftsmanship, exclusivity and heritage of mechanical watchmaking. And, of course, by talking about the glamour and prestige of a Swiss watch.

So do both industries coexist today? Or is there still bad blood?

Good question. They get along just fine. In fact, many brands make both types of watches, and hybrid technology, too. So Seiko not only makes hundreds of varieties of quartz watches, but also the Grand Seiko line of beautiful mechanical watches. Similarly, there are Swiss brands such as Tissot, Longines and Raymond Weil that make both types. Seiko and others also have mixed technology where a mechanical system is used to generate electricity for the quartz module. There is tremendous choice out there for the discerning consumer.

Are there any good quartz pieces that have been launched this year? Any you would recommend?

More than happy to pick some out. First of all, there are the Japanese brands. Seiko’s Astron GPS Solar Chronograph is an outstanding watch. So are the new Prospex models targeted at series sportspeople.

At BaselWorld this year, Citizen, the other Japanese giant, showcased the flagship Eco-Drive Satellite Wave F100 model, a watch the company says can get the latest time from overhead satellites within three seconds.

As for the Swiss brands, some of the highlights included Tissot’s T-Race Touch Aluminium, the rugged Inox from Victorinox, and the elegant Femme Bijoux range from Gc.

Wow. There really is a lot of choice out there.

Absolutely. Quartz offer unbeatable value and, increasingly, it also offers a great variety in design, materials and utility.

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Published: 31 Jul 2014, 08:55 AM IST
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