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payodpanda
958
Jun 11, 2016
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Nice, but I feel that you missed out on one important distinction between mechanical and quartz watches that is apparent to the naked eye and might help lure people to the dark side. :)
For the uninitiated, some more info. Unlike (most) quartz watches that beat / tick once every second, mechanical movements usually tick at a faster rate. This results in a smoother movement of the second hand, what people tend to call the "sweeping seconds hand". I've only seen three different rates at which the second hand moves - 21,600 beats per hour (bph), 28,600 bph, and 36,000 bph. There must be more, but I haven't come across them yet. What that basically means is that the second hand ticks six / eight / ten times each second. I feel this is something that new mechanical buyers should know about.
Some other stuff with some science / mechanics terms thrown in to make me look really intelligent:
Adding to the list of components, The *movement*. This is the heart and soul of your watch. When you say a watch is quartz vs mechanical, you are referring to this "movement", which is the engine that rotates the hands of your watch. Quartz movements run on battery power which charges the quartz crystal. Quartz is a substance that exhibits the piezoelectric effect, that is if pressure is applied to it then it generates electricity. So the crystal vibrates when a current is passed through it (inverse piezoelectric effect), and this kinetic energy is used to rotate the gears. In the case of mechanical movements, the power comes from a spring mechanism. A spring is "loaded", meaning, some torque is applied to it, and it stores some potential energy. This energy is used to drive a mechanical watch, and once this spring is completely depleted of its potential energy (ie the spring is completely unwound), you will need to wind the movement again.
Winding mechanism. In mechanical watches, you can have two types of winding mechanisms: hand wound, or automatic. As stated above, mechanical watches run on spring power. On some movements, you rotate the crown to wind the spring. On others, you would have a rotor that moves automatically as you move your hand. This rotor's kinetic energy is used to wind the spring and rack up potential energy in the spring which is eventually used to drive the watch. Because of this these watches are called "automatic", because once wound they will automatically stay wound as long as you keep them on your wrist.
Hacking movement: A hacking movement is one where the second hand stops when you pull the crown out to set the time. Most quartz watches, in fact all quartz watches that I know of, have hacking movements. It's not that uncommon to find non-hacking movements in mechanical watches, though, so that's something to consider too.
I hope this helps, and hope I was clear. I'm not too good with being concise, though.
Oh well.
Jun 11, 2016
ChristopherJ
1189
Jun 13, 2016
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payodpandaVery nice additions! We were thinking about adding a section explaining the difference between sweeping seconds and ticking seconds, however you explained it beautifully. We ended up omitting this section because we really wanted to distill this 101 article down to the very basics and leave out technical explanations. Perhaps more advanced articles in the Talk tab explaining such topics could come out of the community. :)
We wanted to focus on why people wear watches and why enthusiasts prefer mechanical watches despite being less accurate, harder to maintain, and generally more expensive than quartz. To many people, it doesn't make logical sense because a watch is primarily a utilitarian product. But enthusiasts appreciate watches for reasons that are slightly harder to convey and this is perhaps the most curious aspect of this hobby IMO.
Jun 13, 2016
payodpanda
958
Jun 13, 2016
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ChristopherJThank you, and I completely understand your point. I get carried away too easily and have in the past been accused of making things more complicated than need be while explaining them. :)
Agree on the weirdness of the hobby. As far as keeping time is concerned, quartz watches are better, so why should one spend more on mechanical watches? You nailed it on answering that question.
"Perhaps more advanced articles in the Talk tab explaining such topics could come out of the community." Perhaps. :)
Jun 13, 2016
dnmeicpa
1
Aug 30, 2016
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payodpandaThanks! Always willing to learn something.
Aug 30, 2016
toestor
598
Oct 24, 2017
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payodpandaDon’t forget the Bulova high beat rate quartz movements 262khz. They have beautiful sweeping hands :)
Oct 24, 2017
payodpanda
958
Oct 24, 2017
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toestorSort of knew about the hi-beat movements from Bulova but didn't realize their frequency was that high. Learn something new everyday. Thanks!
Oct 24, 2017
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