A Guide to Watch Movements
There are three types of watch movements: Quartz Watches, Manual Wind Watches, and Automatic Watches(Self-Winding ). Here’s a brief guide to the different types
QUARTZ WATCHES:
First developed in the 1960s, these watches are operated with battery and do not need a lot of maintenance. Usually the battery needs to be replaced once a year of every two years. There is also a special kind of quartz that can be called a hybrid, because it is automatic and quartz at the same time. It has an electrical generator that gets charged with the movement of the arm. These type of watches are made by Japanese or Swiss companies such as Seiko, Tissot, and Omega under model names called “Kinetic,” “Autoquartz”or “Omegamatic. The last kind of Quartz watches are charged with the sun’s energy. These solar watches have solar cells located on the dial that charge the watch mechanism. The most popular of these solar watches is without doubt the Citizen “Eco-Drive.” Quartz watches are generally much more accurate than mechanical watches, but also less expensive or exclusive.
MANUAL WIND WATCHES:
These watches need to be wound once a day or once every two days to run. After the watch is wound then it will keep a power reserve so that It will have charge until next winding. The collectors of timepieces think of these watches as highly desirable. It could be because it can be said that it is the old way of reading time, hence they were the first type of movements. Manual Winding Watches are still being made by the Top Swiss Brands such as Jaeger-Lecoultre and Franck Muller and could cost more than $500,000 when they have complications. A few exquisite models can reserve up to 18 days of power and will usually have a power reserve indicator.
AUTOMATIC WATCHES:
These type of watches are automatically or self-wound, there is not need for the wearer to manually wind the crown. Hence, the name automatic watches(self-winding). The watch charges with the movement of the wearer’s arm or wrist. These watches like the manual winding, keep a power reserve of usually more than a day so that the wearer will not lose time. These watches are currently produced by most Swiss and some Japanese companies.
All these type of movements are good in a way. It really will depend on your taste. For example, you may think that replacing the battery of the quartz movement could be annoying, for that reason automatic watches could be a good option. However, it is good to keep in mind that automatic movements need maintenance at least once every two years. In all cases the most important thing is to read the time accurately since time is the most valuable asset in the world.
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