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Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

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Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by cortman »

Chronographs seem to me to be a bit of an exception to the usual quartz vs. mechanical watch schools of thought, mostly because of the differences of reliability and price are tipped far heavier to quartz than in simple three or four hand watches.
That said, what's your personal bent? Do you insist on mechanical still, or prefer all quartz? Also your experiences with both would be interesting to hear.


Last edited by cortman on Fri Jul 10, 2020 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by MoT »

"Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?"

Short answer: Yes.

I have both, but I think I prefer quartz, especially Seiko's VK for their mechanical-ishness and for any others with 1/5 chrono second sweep. There are a couple of reasons:

Firstly, service cost. A $3 battery every few years is a lot easier to swallow than a who-only-knows hundreds of dollars servicing of a mechanical.

Secondly, a quartz is going to be superior in accuracy to a mechanical, and the practical part of my brain screams about the importance of this.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by AndroidIsAwesome »

I've got a Longines hydroconquest with a 7750 in it and then a few Seiko quartz chronos. I really like watching the Longines and am generally more careful about how I use it. So it's nice to own some quartz ones I just throw around and not care about. But I think everyone should try and own at least one mechanical chronograph once in their life. They are a work of art especially if it's an exhibition caseback. Mechanical service costs are very high which makes sense considering the parts involved, but I try to not think about that [emoji16]
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by PetWatch »

This is a case where you can have both, meca-quartz, essentially a quartz watch with a mechanical module. It has the function and feel of a mechanically controlled chrono, which is what it is. Seiko VK series being one, maybe not all. Don't know.

I have a Citizen meca-quartz with a crisp mechanical feel, tactile and audible. Having mechanical parts one still has to be careful using it. I thought I had broken one due to careless usage, but somehow after a while pressing all the pushers around, somehow it started working again, been as flawless since as I have been careful.

Nothing wrong with quartz chrono either, quality varies as in everything else. I have those too.

I don't have a completely mechanical chrono. Contemplating getting one of those cheap, around $200, Chinese one's with exhibition caseback. While certainly not comparable in quality and finish to more expensive models, they do look great. Spending money on a watch who's repair/service costs is more than I typically spend on a watch is not an attractive proposition to me, neither is being so careful with it that it takes away from carefree enjoyment. Personal quirk.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by cortman »

I love quartz chronos, so long as they don't have my one very particular pet peeve- a 24 hour subdial. I don't know if a proper totalizer is just too expensive to engineer or what, but it seems cheaty and inauthentic to try and make a "chronograph-looking" watch instead of a real chronograph.
Also not all quartz chronograph movements are created equal- I wound up selling my Zodiac because I couldn't get used to how wobbly and innacurate the running second hand was, even on a tiny subdial. Those watches use an ISASWISS chronograph movement, which from what I can tell isn't even in business any more.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by Klaatu3 »

I’ve come down firmly on the side of quartz, particularly with the growing availability of so-called mecaquartz movements. In over 20 years of collecting I’ve owned exactly one mechanical chrono (a Poljot, admittedly not the best of breed), which just stopped dead one day, and the repair cost was a no-go for me. On the other hand, I have an older Seiko 7T32 (pictured) which is still going strong, has a sweeping center second hand, and also an alarm! Too bad they stopped making those, but the newer Seiko meca’s are affordable, accurate and a joy to behold without so much worry of an expensive service bill in the future.
seiko7T32-01R.jpg
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by MoT »

Klaatu3 wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 12:13 pm I’ve come down firmly on the side of quartz, particularly with the growing availability of so-called mecaquartz movements. In over 20 years of collecting I’ve owned exactly one mechanical chrono (a Poljot, admittedly not the best of breed), which just stopped dead one day, and the repair cost was a no-go for me. On the other hand, I have an older Seiko 7T32 (pictured) which is still going strong, has a sweeping center second hand, and also an alarm! Too bad they stopped making those, but the newer Seiko meca’s are affordable, accurate and a joy to behold without so much worry of an expensive service bill in the future.

seiko7T32-01R.jpg
7T is a classic! Apart from the 7A series, it's my favorite classic Seiko quartz chrono.

Seiko does make a "descendant" of the 7T line, the V172. It has the 1/5 resolution of the 7T, alarm and is solar.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by THFPureAsGold »

For me I really prefer quartz for chronograph for practical reasons.

However, I have not found any high quality chronograph with quartz movement, yet. I would buy a 2k+ quartz chronograph if the case and bracelet finishing, and dial quality are amazing.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by PetWatch »

THFPureAsGold wrote:For me I really prefer quartz for chronograph for practical reasons.

However, I have not found any high quality chronograph with quartz movement, yet. I would buy a 2k+ quartz chronograph if the case and bracelet finishing, and dial quality are amazing.
May not be to you liking, but the Citizen Signature flyback chrono's would qualify for less $.

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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by pgcity »

I think both are fine however my OCD is on the hands alignment vs markers/indices issue. I could be wrong but seems to me regardless of the movements, some of hands don't seem hit the markers all the time. It seems to be about living with what you would consider an acceptable compromise when it comes this issue.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by cortman »

PetWatch wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 1:14 pm
THFPureAsGold wrote:For me I really prefer quartz for chronograph for practical reasons.

However, I have not found any high quality chronograph with quartz movement, yet. I would buy a 2k+ quartz chronograph if the case and bracelet finishing, and dial quality are amazing.
May not be to you liking, but the Citizen Signature flyback chrono's would qualify for less $.

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Interesting! I haven't looked into those at all.
I recently acquired the classic Seagull 1963 (no doubt from some factory other than Tianjin, but still looks great), and that movement is just so beautiful. I doubt I would even consider a mechanical chrono without a display caseback.
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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by PetWatch »

cortman wrote:
PetWatch wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 1:14 pm
THFPureAsGold wrote:For me I really prefer quartz for chronograph for practical reasons.

However, I have not found any high quality chronograph with quartz movement, yet. I would buy a 2k+ quartz chronograph if the case and bracelet finishing, and dial quality are amazing.
May not be to you liking, but the Citizen Signature flyback chrono's would qualify for less $.

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Interesting! I haven't looked into those at all.
I recently acquired the classic Seagull 1963 (no doubt from some factory other than Tianjin, but still looks great), and that movement is just so beautiful. I doubt I would even consider a mechanical chrono without a display caseback.
I will likely get one of those or similar at some point, for one reason and one reason only, the movement. Exhibition caseback is a must, not that the dial isn't attractive, but to me the beauty of the movement is the main attraction.

I prefer exhibition caseback on all mechanicals, come to think of it, on quartz too, which are rare.


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Re: Chronographs- Quartz or Mechanical?

Post by Perdendosi »

AndroidIsAwesome wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 2:53 pm I've got a Longines hydroconquest with a 7750 in it and then a few Seiko quartz chronos. I really like watching the Longines and am generally more careful about how I use it. So it's nice to own some quartz ones I just throw around and not care about. But I think everyone should try and own at least one mechanical chronograph once in their life. They are a work of art especially if it's an exhibition caseback. Mechanical service costs are very high which makes sense considering the parts involved, but I try to not think about that [emoji16]
I heartily agree with this. And considering that you can get Chinese chronos with the ST19 in them for under $400, that's a worthwhile addition to the collection.
I have a Poljot 31681 (3133 with a 24-hour display...)-- a Poljot Journey, which gives of an air of IWC Portuguese-ness. It's a really cool watch except for the nonquickset date and the fact that the internal 12-hour bezel turns too easily on one's arm. But it gets very little wrist time anymore. Maybe it's just a little too dressy looking for its thickness? Or maybe since I've had it for more than 5 years, I'm afraid of it stopping working, and I don't want to pay for a service? Or maybe it's because I had back luck with its WR (when under warranty--phew!) and don't want to subject it to abuse? Or maybe it's just that I don't wanna deal with the date.
Thanks to HUISABH, I got a Baume & Mercier diver's chrono recently from TOM. You don't get the exhibition case back, but it's a pretty nice watch that I'm enjoying and feel like can be pretty versatile (and it's running +4 per day, even though it's not a chronometer). But the lume isn't all night, the butterfly clasp bracelet is just a little too tight at certain times of the day, and the silver on silver dial is just a little blase. I dunno; maybe I'll try to trade it. Still, for now, it's a fun and interesting piece that I like quite a bit.
No pics? Sorry. I haven't taken any of the Baume. I wanna do a mini-review, but that'll probably have to wait.
PetWatch wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 4:22 pm This is a case where you can have both, meca-quartz, essentially a quartz watch with a mechanical module. It has the function and feel of a mechanically controlled chrono, which is what it is. Seiko VK series being one, maybe not all. Don't know.

I have a Citizen meca-quartz with a crisp mechanical feel, tactile and audible. Having mechanical parts one still has to be careful using it. I thought I had broken one due to careless usage, but somehow after a while pressing all the pushers around, somehow it started working again, been as flawless since as I have been careful.

Nothing wrong with quartz chrono either, quality varies as in everything else. I have those too.

I don't have a completely mechanical chrono. Contemplating getting one of those cheap, around $200, Chinese one's with exhibition caseback. While certainly not comparable in quality and finish to more expensive models, they do look great. Spending money on a watch who's repair/service costs is more than I typically spend on a watch is not an attractive proposition to me, neither is being so careful with it that it takes away from carefree enjoyment. Personal quirk.
So I have an Undone chrono with the VK61 mecha-quartz, and two things really put me off of it.
First, the minute hand doesn't "snap" from one minute to the next when the chrono seconds hits the 60 second mark. It feels inauthentic and on my chrono, the individual minute ticks aren't on the minute register, so it's nearly impossible to tell how many minutes have elapsed.
Second, like lots of quartz chronos, it stops after 60 minutes. I know that's to avoid running down the battery, but it's surprising how often I want to use my chronos to time something longer than an hour. Even if the watch doesn't have a totalizer, I can figure out if something's been going for longer than an hour and add the chrono minutes to it.
P1110217.JPG
My Seiko SSC509, though, has solar power, 1/5 sweep second chrono hand, a 24-hour chrono, PLUS world time and an alarm! (Seiko V195 movement). Plus, the dial is really nicely finished. (The case feels a little economy class, but that's to be expected at the price).
I don't know why it doesn't get more wrist time -- maybe the white dial just feels a little too big. Or maybe I haven't figured out the right strap to go with it to convince me to abandon my autos. :) But I think I like it more than most mecha-quartz movements. Sure, you don't get the "cachunk" feel or instantaneous flyback when you reset the chrono, but you get a lot more features--at least features that I like.
P1110224.JPG
P1110227.JPG
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Baume & Mercier Capeland Chrono | Alpina Startimer Heritage GMT | Oris Artix Date | Christopher Ward C60 600 White Trident | Hamtun H2 Meteroite | Poljot Journey Chronograph | Nth Nacken Renegade | Direnzo DRZ-03 "Blood Moon" | Citizen Grand Classic | Nodus Sector Field | Seiko SSA409 "Honeycomb" Star Bar **** Time | Seiko Save-the-Ocean Great White Turtle | Manchester Watch Works (RIP) Equinox All-Lume Dial | Heimdallr Bronze Turtle (6309 Homage) | Seiko SSC509 Solar World Time Quartz Chronograph | Undone Modern Chrono | Bulova UHF Military 96B229 | Raketa "Big Zero" | Casio AE1400WH-2AV
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