The Quartz Crisis: The (Almost) End of the Watch Industry 

And he and his team are KICKASS content creators!! I wonder just how many people they have working to create SO MANY at such great quality level??! OG BOSS LEVEL STUFF

I suspect he's been cloned and it's a different one on each channel.

He is a developer of the simulation we are in

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This whole comment thread is a ride and I’m glad I was on it 😂😂😂

thats so funny! now that was a good purchase! I hope the buttons were useful too atleast!

That's a story and watch to give your kids haha congrats

Buy more buttons; you might find a band for it.

It's all about the band.

@@Diwasho She's getting the band back together.

I have a Seiko solar that connects to the atomic clock, and it's one of my favorite watches. It's just stunning to think how it does that. Connects to a radio frequency and boom. That's a watch I rarely wear, but it's definitely a factor for my timepieces now. Like I see many fancy watches and go, "But Seiko has this feature" while Rolex, last I read, still doesn't have shock absorbent material and always get knocked off time.

Longines have created a 36,000 beats a minute movement that is accurate to -2/+2 seconds a day and is a LOT cheaper than the Seiko Spring Drive.

@@LS1056 So what? Longines have a VHP ultra accurate quartz movement that is accurate to 5 seconds a YEAR and does not rely on unreliable radio links to the atomic clocks. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

​@@tancreddehauteville764 but Grand Seiko have more hand finishing. longines might be a hi beat movement but still nothing compared spiring drive... maybe breguet 10hz movement or bulova Accutron can compete with that but second hand glide on a Grand Seiko is mesmerising. Spring drive is at least 1 second per day accuracy.

@@LS1056 atomic clocks get their signal via radio frequency, not GPS. if it required GPS, watches would be a wee bit larger.

It's actually mostly wrong...

@@ilanpi This! There are A LOT of errors in this video.

@@rsr789 Please detail these errors.

@@romanmichaelhamilton8729 I've detailed the mistakes in a commednt, let me cite it: -No, Seiko didn't invent the quartz oscilators. They were based on tuning fork oscillators, created first during the 20s, but in quite a large size. -A group of swiss companies, including Omega and Longines were also developing quartz movement prototypes along with Seiko. What Seiko did was to present their watches a few months earlier, and having a more elegant design - stepper motor instead of tunning fork motor. Just a few moths later the presented Beta 21 movement watches were just as good, only downside was the lower battery life due to the sweeping seconds hand. -As an owner of Bulova 214 Spaceview - also a series of half-thruths. The tuning fork movement was designed by Max Hetzel, a swiss engeener working for Bulova. Elgin had nothing to do with it. The first watches were sold from 1960. And to state they weren't revolutionary is wrong - they were far more accurate than mechanical movements, for up to 2 sec/ day. The 214 movements were used in railroads (RailRoad Approved series), as a standart equipment on A-12 and SR-71 (Accutron Astronaut), as on timing clocks on US sattelites and on Air Force 1. There is even a rumour that the government delayed the production versions, so that the soviets wouldn't copy them , which they did after all with Slava Transistor. And no, the hum is quite quiet, only heard in a very silent room. -You refer to traditional brands as "luxury", but before 1972 they weren't. The watches were used mainly as a tool, and that why we have so many different complications - divers with rotating bezel, chronographs to measure time increments precisely, GMT to have two time zones at once. The quartz watches turned out to be better tools, that's why some brands turned to luxury status for their products. One of the first such watches were the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, The Patek Phillipe Nautilus and Vacheron Constantin Overseas.

Well researched and presented. Simon is the best on RU-vid.

I'm miffed by the exclusion of Waltham watches. Ball's all well and good, but Waltham is awesome.

Nice GS reference. Considering I’ve just put a deposit down on the new SBGP017 with the 9F85 movement (+- 5 seconds a year)

@@MyMarsham That watch is a STUNNER holy crap GS nailed it with that one. The blued GS logo at 12 just does it for me, congrats, that is a killer watch! That was IMO the best recent GS release, I really liked the SBGK017 too but not nearly as much as the SBGP017. Its awesome they used that movement b/c it should be a bit thinner. I had a chance at a SBGV245 last week for $2400 but I have my watch funds tied up at the moment waiting on 'the call' so I let it go. Probably a big mistake. Congrats again, beautiful piece.

@@Nefville Thank you for the response. I was actually putting money away for the SBGV245, but the blue cloud came up and I was on the phone to my local (well, Sydney) GS boutique the day after I saw the photos. Already got old Snowflake and SBGM021. If “the call” is from a particular brand we all know, I hope it’s soon for you.

I have 3 Rolex Datejust along the years. I love automatic watches but everyone knows quartz are the best timekeepers. Why haven't gold Rolex oysterquartz have never took off is beyond me. They are beautiful, keep great time a d were limited production. All the things that make collection of great watches. Why do you think this is ? Neal

A Certs can start MAP gas.

It's still amazes me that *_quartz_* is basically *_transparent rock._*

There are quite a few other piezo-electric crystals out there, too. They are well worth exploring.

Not to mention that Eco-Drive movements are the first solar powered movements which are capable of being charged by a single desklamp, not just by the natural light of the Sun.

And the Citizen Promaster Aqualand diver in 1985 often overshadowed by the Seiko Arnie

Same, automatic watches just have a special flair and i love it

Can't go wrong with Invicta Seiko movement.

@@patricklynch9574 a lot of people have had good luck with Invicta.. unfortunately I'm not one of them. I've had 3. 2, one of the hands popped off. On the 3rd the holes in the lugs were drilled crooked and it would not keep spring bars in. I've given them a fair shake, but I'm not going to buy another Invicta.

I also have a automatic because of that reason but when you think about it it's silly because a quartz is just way better for way less money but I would still take a automatic over a quartz every time

@@not-a-raccoon I like that you can buy 1000 $ 85 watches for the price of one mechanical Rolex. I wish they had harder pins. I replace the pins on mine twice.

The number one watch in the world is the Apple smartwatch.

@@imhereforthememes5063 Have you got any numbers to back that up? I thought it would be something along the lines of a Casio F91W as the best-selling watch in the world.

@@DiamandiL The quartz crìsis almost destroyed the luxury market but the smartwatch is the watch that saved wearing any watch at all after the smartphone was invented.

​@@imhereforthememes5063 People wore watches after Smart Phones were invented and before the Apple Watch was introduced. Also the Quartz Crisis was well and truly over by the time Smart Phones were released let alone smart watches. I'm trying to find out if the Apple Watch has surpassed the venerable and ubiquitous Casio F91W as that has been sold in great numbers for over 30 years now.

@@DiamandiL Apple smartwatch sales "According to Cybart’s figures, the Apple Watch passed the 100 million mark in December 2020, and another 30 million new users were added in 2020." If you are going by one watch for 30 years I don't know. But one thing I do know. Casio F-91W are cheap to make but that doesn't mean they get sold easily either. They are a meme watch now. As of right now the Apple smartwatch has saved the watch industry.

whats the reserve on it? that is fantastic. I have an old Timex that is on point too. It used to be my grandfather's and he always said how much he liked that watch

You sir might just be a Unicorn. Cheers

@@JoeKyser It will run about a day and a half if I just leave it on my dresser, so I don't do that since then I'd have to reset it. It's annoying enough to have to do that twice a year anyway.

@@michiganengineer8621 nice, oh I get it lol. Watches are funny. I see people dog watches that I have had good luck with. I guess maybe with the more money you can spend the standards get higher. I just need to be able to tell time, not be a pain in the butt, and it hold up to the test of time.

@@JoeKyser I've had a few battery powered ones, that CLAIMED to run 2 years on a battery. Everytime, the first battery would fail in 9-12 months. I'd replace it and within another 9-12 months the entire thing would be fried. Wearable electronic devices do NOT like me!

I remember the TV changer watch! Or at least something like it. A kid in high school had one and whenever we would watch a video he would always mess with the TV screen to piss off the teacher. We knew it was going on so I couldn’t stop laughing so he told me to just put my head down lololo. I think he drove the teacher insane . The teacher started cursing and talking to himself.

@@2steaksandwiches665 Super story and many thanks as I good laugh at the poor teacher's expense, long after the fact of course. :-)

Agree ! I knew all the information but he has a way of explaining things that's different .

I'm surprised no one else has pointed this out...

That stuck out to me too. And while Accutron isn’t as known as say Seiko, it’s still around and viable, and highly desired by many watch enthusiasts.

@@thewatchfemme4051 That's true, but even then, the Accutron isn't even it's own brand like Seiko, it's still Bulova. It was just a single product for that brand. And I'd definitely say Bulova is basically still as well known as seiko.

Elgin and Lip co-developed the original electric watches around the same time as Hamilton Ventura so think that’s probably got mixed into the accutron story here.

@@IlluminatingWatches yeah, that's a good thought.

Disagree about the Accutron's humming - it's far from inaudible. My father had an Accutron, a present from a railway company that used them in a nod to its time-sensitive past, My youngest brother could hear it well enough that he could tell immediately when Dad entered the room. I could hear it in a quiet room when its face was presented in my direction, and after a time, it became annoying.

I heard it was a railroad term for having the right of way. Maybe both at the same time thanks for the interesting comment.

Etymologists don't always agree, it's likely a sports metaphor as we have more in common through sports than watches

A side excursion for mechanical movements looking at the evolution of various tourbillon designs and their transition from a mechanism that attempted to remove a source of variation in the timekeeping to a 'boutique' status where the point is not to improve the regulation of the watch, but to create ever more complicated and visually interesting mechanisms would make an entire video just on its own.

a deep dive on the quartz crisis was great, but a similar deep dive into the total history of time keeping devices would be marvelous. Here we got just a quick hand waving sketch of that history

Omega also uses a different escapement, the co-axial escapement.

I would not turn down the watch the Dali Lama of Tibet has great story.

Mechanical watch gear trains are always under pressure of the mainspring. In a quartz watch the gear train is under no pressure and at rest until the very moment the second hand wants to move one second. In a fraction of a second the electrical system tells the electric motor to spin the gear train then the gears go back at rest until the second hand needs to moves again. Other than the constant vibration of the quartz the watch is not doing anything for most of its life. Such little strain or wear in a quartz watch it can be made to function well with the cheapest material and construction.

That's quite true, the Swiss were even making fake French and British brands.....! How times change....ehh? However by the time of the quartz crisis the Swiss had already moved far away from that game. Even small Swiss brands of the time produced good quality watches.

@@brianmsahin Not quite. In a Columbo episode the detective notices the dead guy was wearing expensive clothes and a crappy watch. This gets him thinking the scene was staged. Watch geeks identified it as a "Swiss made" no jewel or low jewel store brand watch sold at department stores etc.

@@vladchan Colombo? A tv show?? 😂😂😂

Cheap and crappy swiss watches made many American watch companies bust or in Swiss ownership long before the quartz crisis, Elgin, Waltham and Hamilton, to name but three, Bulova followed

@@jamesblonde2271 Cheap and crappy? BS. The American companies couldn't compete, so they went under - simple as that.

That's a controversial story. When Zenith and Buren/heuer/Hamilton presented their movements Seiko wasn't officially ready, but eventually someone started to find 6139 with serial numbers that indicated that the watches were made way earlier than the official release

@@fedomandez I know that's part of what makes it an intriguing topic .

@@fedomandez Yes, I personally have a couple of these very early 6139s. Zenith was smart to be the first to announce their 'El Primero' movement in January, 1969...even though it would not actually be available for retail sale until October. The Caliber 11 was publicly shown in March, 1969, but the watches on display were prototypes. Production models would not be available until June or July. Seiko has a policy of starting production of a new model two or three months before its official release so supply will be able to meet demand, a policy which persists to this day. Buy a brand new Seiko on the day it is released and the serial number will tell you it was actually made 2-3 months earlier. The 6139 was officially introduced in May, 1969, so naturally there will be watches serial numbered to January-April 1969. They almost certainly had working prototypes in 1968. Seiko was likely starting serial production of automatic chronographs on the very day Zenith was announcing theirs, and production was certainly in full swing when the Caliber 11 press conference was happening. I spoke to a guy who was a US jeweler at the time and his answer was simple and firm: "We got the Seikos first."

@@aaroncostello8812 Wow, thanks for detailing that history.

Btw love the video. Made me smile

Well he did get the prominence of Switzerland wrong, he said they were THE country for watch making for two centuries before World War 1, but they actually just made cheap knockoffs of English and French watches (like China does with Swiss watches currently) until after the railroad boom in the second half of the 1800s.

And prior to railroad watches, in the 18th century, marine chronometers (used for navigation) were an essential part of the development of the modern mechanical wrist watch.

Yet no mention of Timex, the brand that (besides Rolex) is likely the only brand most people will recognize, with Seiko a far away second, and Casio considered that company that makes calculators and shitty keyboard instruments

Simon's writers are always spot on.

Good point

Yes. The story sound like internet bullshit. Our ancestors were not idiots.

The story is good though.

The margin of error in the planned time tables may have been bigger, but the conductor was pushing things right up to the edge of the margin. But the edge was four minutes sooner than he thought it was.

I was told there would be no math.

Imagine your dad smiling at the knowledge that my local independent watchmaker quoted and received $500 to service my 1969 Omega Constellation. I was thrilled with his price, which was a bargain.

I am an antique watch collector of all wind up pocket railroad watches. They actually keep outstanding time when serviced. I carry one on a daily basis.

It's too bad he couldn't hang on. Watchmakers these days can charge a premium for routine services of these luxury brands.

Yes. I have 9 watches. Some automatic but my favorite is a small gold wind up. I have bought a few at goodwill and had fixed and gave as gifts.

@@speedmastermarkiii True, wish he would have done that in his advance years. I think those bad days were still fresh in his mind and would not want to go back.

He hired me when I was 24 and I worked for him 10 years. A very charismatic, demanding boss that could scare some employees. Always the smartest in the room. Energetic genius, incredibly intelligent, impulsive, with a very soft core and a heart of gold. One of the best persons I ever had the pleasure to know in my life. I worked for a boss that I loved.

The Harrison clock is still functioning 300 years later with no lubrication. Made entirely of wood. It has to be wound up by lifting the weight which powers it. It is located atop a stable in a farm.

@@munawarkarim8026 it is stunning, and IMO one of the most amazing things ever crafted by a human.

John Harrison also invented the caged roller bearing in his quest for accuracy (and the prize money). I was surprised he didn't get a mention in this video.

Huh, that's interesting. I remember hearing this story about Zenith. They wanted to throw away all of their mechanical watch making equipment (thinking quartz was the future), but one of the workers just decided to put everything in storage. That one single move saved the entire brand.

Hamilton made the first digital watch

Kinda of. There were already wristwatches before the Cartier Santos, but they were pocket watches adapted to be used on the wrist. So the concept was there. Cartier, however, did produce the first watch designed specifically to be a wristwatch, with the Santos.

those omegas famously also failed by having that stupid domed glass pop off, I like bulovas technology, but their watch design deserves to have the designer shot, into the sun.

@@GamingAmbienceLive Bulova now and Bulova in the 60s have nothing in common. After they were bought by Citizen, everithing went downhill. Especially the design - watches like 214 Alpha and Deep Sea 666 218 are really pretty, and now Bulova doesn't make such watches.

That was before the standards of time zones. The two sides may have been using different definitions of what time it was.

New Channel! New Channel! Side Watch Mega BioWatch Projects! Because another neat video would be Russian/Soviet Horology, the number 1 Moscow watch factory, the number 2 Moscow watch factory, first watch in space, the cheapest legitimate dive watch in the world ($50 for a Vostok Amphiba). I would definitely watch (hahahha!) your new Side Mega Project watch Bio channel!

Looks like the U.S. gov's efforts failed, considering that the Slava Transistor exists.

Accutron is legend . But are all going to fail (?) if they have not already. That is, the supply of some critical part, maybe not the tuning fork, are no more and can't be replaced. Clarify if you can. Wish I could have an Accutron!

@@stevenj2380 all mechanical watches Including new, vintage, and accutrons need servicing every few years. There are parts available for them and people know how to service them just like any other new or vintage watch. There are some watchmakers that specialize in them as well.

@ Not really. The index wheel is 2.5mm in diameter, and have 320 teeth. If it's toched by a bare finger, it gets damaged. Of cource, it can be produced again with a highly precise hobbing machine, but currently no company is willing to.

I can't imagine working at the one place for 50 years!

@@RiffRaffMama. She was 15 when she was hired in. Once upon a time working for a company and retiring from it were highly sought after.

So was going to be buried in it? And someone then took it off his body??

@@fukkitful Nothing like that. The wake was in his house, and it disappeared from his dresser drawer.

@@maxhand1562 That seems even worse. Someone was deliberately digging through his stuff then. At least put him in the ground first.

The "spring drive" deserves a own video alone

You don't need that sort of thing for a quartz oscillator. They're stable within a wide range of supply voltages.

I have one and it's an amazing piece of technology.

@@WatchTimePass what's the name of it?

@@brighbytes G-shock/Waveceptor

@@desertsoldier41 thank you muchly

@@brighbytes and DW5610

Two words: Orient Tristar. $80 for a Beautiful quality self-winding mechanical watch

It's just the last few years I have really gotten into watches. Looked up videos to fix my old Star Wars mechanical watch and fell in love. Saved for a while then did the last thing anyone expected, instead of buying a Breitling, I spent 50 bucks and got the dreaded Invicta. Everyone loves to hate it but it has impressed me. Built with a Seiko Movement I keeps time within 15 seconds a week, will hold a wind for close to 40 hours and is dead ass tuff. Been my daily wear doing everything but welding with no complaints. I am sure others on here who collect will give me crap about it but I am totally impressed.

@@TalenGryphon I love my blue dial TriStar!

@@mrmyc0rn840 Yeah! I have a gold Tristar with a gold face that is polished into lateral bars. It is "Baller on a budget", and my go-to dress watch! People love it, including horologists :-)

Literally any Soviet watch (such as Pobeda, Raketa, Slava, Luch, etc.) or Indian HMT on eBay will have you sorted for maybe $50.

I'm a watch person and my current favorites are Grand Seiko but that doesn't mean I don't buy others. Cell phones make setting the time so easy.

Seiko is the best! Don't be fooled by luxury/prestige.

Which model? Lots of great info on Seiko out there.

@@chozar Eco-Drive WR300 Titanium

@@cdnaudioguy That sounds like a Citizen, you sure? There should be a movement nah case number on the back. It's like a 4 digit number, a dash, and many more numbers after that.

@@chozar You are absolutely correct. I was thinking of my Citizen. My Seiko Chronograph looks similar, but is much more conventional. Sadly, I wear my Apple Watch most of the day for work.

Unfortunately not enough people care to appreciate the wonder of a mechanical movement 😭

I have been replacing the batteries of my watches for about 5 years. I got the tools when I was quoted $300 USD for a battery and new seals for my 1995 Omega Seamaster.

and then there are the ridiculously high servicing costs.

@@christurner6430 Not really; the conspicuous consumption brands WILL charge you a lot, because that is what they live on, the image of being expensive. IIRC, my more wealthy friends like to brag about paying in excess of $500 to have their Rolex, IWC, PIaget serviced every year, by a corporate approved watch repair service center. But I still have a local watch repair man who does the servicing on my mechanical watches, when needed, for around $100 each. I don't go for the rich craziness of an 'annual cleaning', I only bring them in when they need it. However, he's nearing retirement age, and I'm not sure where I will go, when he closes shop.

I haven't worn a watch in probably 15 years. But I do love them. I still remember the swatches I had in the mid 80s, one was classic 80s colors and design but my favorite was completely clear so you could see all the components.

You could try a 24h single hander, might help ease that time anxiety a bit.

So how do you deal with the so called ''smart'' phone ?

@@m.bernard7017 I've gotten good at ignoring it. It helps that few people call me.

@@ericstromberg9608 To me they are not 'smart' just annoying

Just the price has gone up exponentially! Besides that...

I have the same question!!

.

Em, it's not really the watch that's keeping time.......

Because you have a smart phone.

@@dyingbreed7740 Because I can literally feel what time it is, if I can't simply look up and know by the position of the sun.

I can feel the time by my stomach, it is incredibly accurate on alerting me of the time,