Thanks--you gave me a new appreciation of quartz movements. I just got into mechanicals, and was looking down my nose at my old quartz Seiko and Casios. Now I'm wearing 2 at a time!
I can't say this enough but THANK YOU FOR THIS. If I were just getting into watches right now this would basically be my most anticipated video series on the subject. Your videos are truly awesome and I hope it helps newcomers.
Just a little thing to note: the automatic Swatch Body & Soul model can be opened and serviced. The caseback crystal is pressure-fitted and held in place with a metal tension ring.
I have so much more respect for quartz movements now. I still love automatics because of their complexity, but wow... had no idea quartz used an oscillating quartz tuning fork.
Joe Joe Quartz get a bad rep because cheap watch will have a quartz movement (a low quaility quartz but still battery powered none the less.). There’s also a part of history when quartz almost killed the mechanical watch industry but that’s for hardcore watch nerds. I myself have a few quartz and they have been accurate for years, never have to adjust them except for daylight savings. I still prefer my mechanical and auto movements but Quartz still holds a special spot in my heart because my very first watch was a Timex Quartz watch.
Thank you very much Mark ! Your videos on quartz watches make me appreciate my quartz pieces more ! Mechanicals aren't the only ones to be deserving of appreciation !
As someone always drawn to elegant mechanical devices, I now have much more respect for the quartz movement. Quartz tuning forks, pretty sweet! Though not as cool as that Accutron. (Great series!)
Great video! Thanks for sharing. One thing I want to say is that the automatic Swatch is serviceable. Swatch may not want to do it, but another watchmaker will. They can pop the plastic (or glass) out of the back, and work on it. I have the same basic model and I've had it serviced twice: once by the store I bought it from and once by a different watchmaker.
I was looking at mechanical watches a few years ago, but thankfully discovered that the Swiss Certified Marine Chronometer title doesn't mean accurate enough to determine longitude reliably while at sea in the case of a mechanical watch, while the same title does in the case of a quartz watch before I spent any money on an expensive watch that's literally an order of magnitude less precise at keeping time than a $10 Casio. The sad thing is that this level of accuracy was achieved with mechanical watches in the 1700s to win the Longitude prize, but watchmakers both then and now get paid more to make shiny jewellery for the conspicuous consumption crowd than they'd ever get making well engineered, precise instruments.
good video very informative. I new most of the quartz if not all. you have just made me think stronger that quartz movement is the best and most accurate. good video explaining the 2 movements side by side through skeleton watches. some people might not have ever seen inside the watch in it's working state.
Fantastic video. This was super useful to understand the various movements and their history. Even more interesting to discover quartz (although used on most cheap range watches) is actually more accurate than automatic watches.
When I was young I used to wear a Sector ADV 4500 quartz powered chrono, (I still got it but never worn anymore) it has an interesting feature to optimize battery consumption: when the battery power decrease, instead of moving the second hand once per second, it moves it once every 2 seconds, to save power and double the remaining duration! A very interesting feature for this (at this time) very inexpensive watch!
grew up on long island. moved away at 24. growing older, when i visit family i notice more and more that i hate the accent. thought i would have trouble watching these vids because of that. but the quality of content makes me completely overlook the voice. if/when i buy a watch in the future i'll try to do so from you. thanks for teaching me so much.
21,600 vph is 3hz or 6 ticks per second. 28,800 is 4hz, and 36,600 is 5hz. The number of hz includes clockwise and counterclockwise rotation of the balance wheel, and each direction causes a tick, so that's why a 4hz movement ticks 8 times per second. Great vid! I'm loving these more technical videos.
+Long Island Watch Yeah... :P of course the one time I decide to get technical I make a mistake. I'm looking forward to more videos in this series! Keep up the great work on the channel. Cheers, Grant
Another very good presentation. However, it needs a significant correction: 36 kbph = 5 Hz 28.8 kbph = 4 Hz 21.6 kbph = 3 Hz 18 kbph = 2-1/2 Hz 3.6 kbph = 1/2 Hz (my grandfather clock) Every complete cycle of the balance (or pendulum) has two beats. Your narrative stated twice the actual frequency as if each cycle had only one beat. A good topic would be about adjusting and regulating a mechanical movement, the difference between them and how they're performed, with a little about how some of the mid and high grade quartz are regulated at the factory during final inspection and testing.
Thanks! I covered it in more depth in another watch and learn that was published recently. I do realize that a back and forth beat of the balance is one tick, thus the doubling. Why I said it wrong, I'll never know!
When I look at the movement of my Tag Heuer Carrera 1887, the escape wheel moves extremely fast. And being a Chronograph, I love to see the parts moving when I start it. It`s a piece of true craftmanship. To be honest, I gave up Quartz watches a long time ago. Fell in love with the automatics. Simply because of the fact how they work. Yes, Quartz watches have their place. In fact, even I say, if you`re a, let`s say, construction worker, wear a Quartz. It`s most likely tougher than a automatic and more accurate. In the end, get what you like. Very nice video by the way. Very well explained and very informative.
Great series, Marc! I've also enjoyed the "round-ups" of field watches and watches under 40mm. I'd LOVE to see a similar video running through a handful of the watches square and rectangular case shapes available from your store. It's hard to get a sense of what size really means for some of those watches, and how they compare to each other or would wear on the wrist. I think it'd be very useful!
another great job. need to get one of those Accutrons. I look forward to video on chronographs and maybe you could explain why vertical coulomb wheel is desirable
Very nice explanation of the evolution of watches as a function of the oscillator. Note that Bulova quartz watches is based on a frequency 8 times that of the average quartz watch, that is 262,144 which keeps its time plus or minutes 10 seconds per year. I'm sure you already know that and the scope of this video is to go from balance wheel, to metal tuning fork, to quartz crystal. The national time clock is based on an atomic frequency of cesium, which is approximately 9 billion oscillations per second.
Thank you for the useful info. Until a few months ago, I only owned quartz watches, so I did not realize that even high-quality mechanical watches vary by a few seconds per day.
Thank you, for a truly interesting and educational video. I did know already the basics of some of he subject matter but the way you presented the evolution of the watches made for a very coherent lesson and really increased my understanding. The only thing that I still don't understand is why the frequency of the quartz "tuning fork" is fixed, constant, invariable, and independent of manufacturing variations in dimensions, mass, etc.. I guess this must be down to the fundamental physics of the piezoelectric effect. It's a wonderfully valuable and surprising fact.
The accuracy of the quartz is in function of the quartz crystal which will only resonate at that one specific frequency, regardless of battery power, so yeah it'll be accurate until the last sign of life :D
Awesome video, thanks for the explanation! About that automatic Swatch - it would be such a cool and beautiful watch if it didn't have Swatch written all over it. Oh well, they were different times when it released
nutnfancy wow that's cool. Another "famous" RU-vid commenting on one of my favorite pages....I knew you were a 135 pilot but no idea you were into watches!
I'm getting great accuracy on all of my mechanicals which are within 10 seconds per day, but I have one quartz watch which does not lose or gain a whole second in a month (Citizen EcoDrive CA0641-16X). I never wear quartz now unless I'm doing heavy lift. I just prefer having a machine on my wrist.
21,600 bph is regarded as 3 Hz (Hertz), 28,800 bph equals 4 Hz and 36,000 bph would equal 5 Hz. I was confused about this at first, but apparently there are 2 beats in a Hertz (Hertz is one complete cycle, not a beat).
The Swatch is serviceable. Not a brand service, but an «illegal» service is possible. Mine was tuned. If you notice, you can see the tunning mechanism and scale in the back of the watch, on the balance wheel. It even sound strange why a non serviceable watch would have this scale.
Thank you very much for this. I just wonder where mechanical watches would be if John Harrison's 18th century clock designs were taken more seriously. It's amazing to read that his H4 'Sea Watch' (made in 1759) was accurate to 39 seconds over a 42 day sea voyage (in the pursuit of the Longitude Prize) and his 'Clock B' design (only fully realized by Martin Burgess/Donald Saff and tested in 2015) validated his outrageous claim (even today) that his 1775 clock design would be accurate to within one second over a 100 day period. The Guinness Book of World Records verified a 5/8ths second loss for a 100 day controlled test period in 2015. Yes, clock designs are not watch designs, but who knows what he could have achieved had he lived a few more decades.
It would be nice if a high end watch firm would find it remotely feasible to pursue miniaturizing and refining Harrison's mechanical designs, so it could possibly surpass the accuracy of a Citizen A660 movement, at a more attractive price point -- then have Seiko come out with a sub-$200 version. (Unfortunately, this probably would take several decades). Then again, the obtainable Casio WaveCeptor readily surpasses this (despite not being fully mechanical). In any case, many amazing watches at all price points, if you know what to look for.
As soon as radio communication allowed time signals to be broadcast easily worldwide, watchmaking became much more about jewellery than engineering unfortunately. The Illustrated Longitude by Dava Sobel is a beautiful book on the subject. Back when monarchs understood enough cutting edge science to adjudicate on scientific matters when Harrison petitioned the king out of frustration with the astronomers who were also chasing the Longitude prize. This story was made into a TV movie too.
very nice video Marc. I'm a fan of qwartz and treat mechanical as a novelty of sorts. However, I can see the value of mechanical in a military setting when everyone needs to be on the same page with no chance of battery's going dead
The problem with mechanical in a military setting is that mechanicals are very sensitive to shock. I'm no watch maker but I wouldn't think the repeated recoil of a gun would be good for accuracy.
Ideal delivery in these little videos Marc. If working from notes it sounds like that, and the conversational delivery just isn't there and so is harder to listen to. There's at least a couple of highly expert watchmakers making more detailed clips but they lack this delivery, to their detriment. Yours are close to perfect, for me anyway.
Are there any modern tuning fork watches like the Accutron that they still make these days? I love the sweeping second hand motion for a battery powered watch. Or are there any hybrids like it that exist?
Mechanical watches are know for their long life span, if maintained correctly. But how long well made quartz mechanism lasts? I am not talking of course about cheap disposable watches you can buy for 10 dollars.
Moving hand needs energy. The counter in a quartz watch is designed to count up 32,768 beats before sending power to the motor to move the second hand. Normally in analog quartz watch battery lasts in 3-4 years. If we design the watch to sweep the second hand like a mechanical watch, the battery will last in 6 months. Some quartz watch have sweeping second hand but they need something special to do that.
Nathaniel Wilson - I knew Bulova Precisionist. It uses CR2016 battery that has 3 time capacity of SR626 and it can run only for 2-3 years. Most of watches run on smaller SR626 battery for 3-4 years without replacement. Do you see the point?
The unique appearance and function of the Bulova Accutron was initially intended only for display. Customers were fascinated and were buying the display models from retailers, prompting Bulova to mass manufacturer the design.
a question please: how come the balance wheel turn borth ways with the same speed when the spring is coiled at the maximum vs when the coil has little tension in it (power reserve is nearly empty) - cannot figure this one out.. this would mean that we have a slight difference in time measurment when the clock is wound up to the max and when it is almost going to stop? (i read that mechanical movements are less imprecise than quartz, is it because of this?) thanks and keep up the cool videos!!
do you know if it's possible to open up a swatch skin watch by removing the crown and using pressured air through the crown hole to pop the plexiglass off?
I remember the potato clock it was digital face black and gray and you had 2 cup holders on each side stab potatoes. Digital part would light up. Wasn't to big size brick maybe
