Quartz or mechanical,take you pic....an interesting read

[onzenuub 309]

Found this article @ RG from Nembo and i tought it can be a very interesting read for all of you.

So here it is,enjoy it.

 

 

Quartz or mechanical, take your pick

Christophe Roulet 10 october 2008

 

It's a story often told in watch circles. An irate customer storms into a shop to complain, in no uncertain terms, that the watch they bought there has stopped working. The punchline? "Have you tried changing the battery?" But is this really just an in joke? An urban legend? A glance at some of the discussions on watch forums suggests otherwise, as over and over the uninitiated ask that same crunch question: "I'm planning to buy a watch and can't decide between quartz and mechanical. What would you advise?" Enter the experts who try and guide these neophytes through the movement jungle.

 

 

Two types of technology

 

 

IWC Da Vinci Automatic (1969) equipped with the first mass-produced quartz movement, the Bêta 21, and its 2008 version, fitted with the self-winding calibre 80111 © IWC Watches do indeed fall into two categories: those with a quartz movement and those with an exclusively mechanical movement. At the heart of a quartz watch lies a circuit board whose electronic components are assembled on a miniature matrix. Energy is supplied by a tiny battery that causes the quartz to vibrate and produce the oscillations needed to divide time. An electric step motor then transforms these electrical pulses, which are controlled by the circuit board, into a mechanical force. The precision with which quartz watches measure time comes from the high frequency - usually 32,768 Hz for a watch - at which the quartz crystal vibrates. Time display can be analogue, that is using the traditional hands, or digital using an LED display, in which case the electrical pulses are transferred directly from the circuit board. Some quartz watches combine both types of display to include additional functions such as a chronometer, alarm or second time zone.

 

 

 

Breitling Airwolf Instruments for Professionals with a Breitling SuperQuartz™ movement © Breitling A mechanical watch is one whose movement is made entirely from parts that interlock to display the time and whose only source of power is that supplied by the barrel or barrels, which are springs that are coiled around themselves. These springs are tightened either by the wearer who winds the crown (in which case they are known as hand-wound or manual movements) or by an oscillating weight that is caused to rotate around a usually central axis by the movement of the wearer's wrist (self-winding or automatic movements). A simple traditional mechanical movement comprises some 130 parts which are assembled as three main functions: the accumulation of energy, the regulating organs (the escapement with the balance and spring) and time display. The mechanical watch has long incorporated other important functions or complications thanks to which it can measure short intervals of time (chronograph), keep track of the date and day, or provide other information such as moon phases, sunrise and sunset times, and the equation of time (the difference between true solar time and mean time). All of these reflect the constant desire for precision that inspired other complications such as the tourbillon and the karussel, invented to compensate the effects of gravity on the movement. Note that certain watchmakers, such as Tag Heuer and Seiko, have used both quartz and mechanical technologies to propose original timepieces that build on the advantages of each. But what exactly are these advantages?

 

 

Ancient and modern disagree

 

 

Breitling Airwolf Instruments for Professionals with a Breitling SuperQuartz™ movement © Breitling First quartz movements. As we have seen, the biggest breakthrough here is their precision. A quartz movement gains or loses around one second a month whereas its mechanical cousin, which oscillates at a frequency of 2 to 4 Hz, can often be several seconds fast or slow a day. Knowing that precision has always been one of watchmaking's holy grails, one can easily understand why, since the 1970s, quartz watches have generated so much interest. Girard-Perregaux was the first Swiss firm to produce quartz watches on an industrial scale, as from 1969. Another advantage of quartz watches is that they can run for two to three years with little or no servicing, as power is supplied by a battery and the small proportion of mechanical components keeps friction to a minimum. Mechanical watches will work for an average of 40 hours without winding; at best several days for certain movements with a high power reserve. Their owners are also advised to have them serviced every two to three years to remove dust, check that gaskets are tight and lubricate the gears.

 

 

Why then, if mechanical watches are more fragile, significantly more expensive and less accurate, do so many people prefer them? If our only consideration were the number of watches sold, the question would be irrelevant, as quartz accounts for more than 80% of Swiss watches sold to export. And yet the phenomenal success that has swept the sector for five years, and counting, has nothing to do with a smattering of electronics but micro-mechanical exploits. Mechanical watches have an irresistible appeal for anyone for whom tradition, complexity, often hand-crafted finishes and ingenious mechanisms are synonymous with a certain prestige and Weltanschauung that goes beyond the measurement of time per se. Not to mention the potential these watches have, in the eyes of some, as a long-term investment, a fact illustrated by the record prices they command at auction. It's no coincidence that a brand such as Patek Philippe has made this the central theme of its ad campaigns with the tagline, "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation."

 

 

So quartz or mechanical? Ultimately, it comes down to individual choice, bearing in mind that a mechanical watch will make more of a demand on the purse strings. A question of personal preference, price and above all a vision of watches as a practical object or as the expression of age-old expertise and human genius.

 

 

 

The Tag Heuer Monaco Sixty Nine has a mechanical analogue dial on one side and a quartz digital dial on the other © Tag Heuer

[JohnG 41]

Why you put suglasses smilies on ALL your threads you little fuckface?

[onzenuub 309]

Why you put suglasses smilies on ALL your threads you little fuckface?

Sunglasses

[onzenuub 309]

And how comes you notice all my postings, dipshit

[JohnG 41]

And how comes you notice all my postings, dipshit

I MUST BREAK YOU

 

[onzenuub 309]

And how comes you notice all my postings, dipshit

I MUST BREAK YOU

 

Bloody fuckface

[JohnG 41]

[onzenuub 309]

[JohnG 41]

[onzenuub 309]

Threadjacker

[JohnG 41]

Quartz or Mechanical, take your pic...

[onzenuub 309]

Quartz or Mechanical, take your pic...

IR

[Luthier 1]

Great post, great info.

Thanks, Onze!!!

[onzenuub 309]

And again, all the memories,and the friendship.

[Novesh 0]

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[Luthier 1]

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[Novesh 0]

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[dingle 57]

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Novesh, are you russian?

 

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[Novesh 0]

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Novesh, are you russian?

 

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[trailboss99 996]

In mother russia, thread jacks you!

 

Novesh, are you russian?

 

 

....yea?

 

what of it?

 

 

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Col.

[Novesh 0]

In mother russia, thread jacks you!

 

Novesh, are you russian?

 

 

....yea?

 

what of it?

 

 

Oh lordy, here we go, the damn Ruskies have found each other

 

 

Col.

 

Ohh yea? Well then, your fucked then arnt you?

 

hahaha