Author: Marcus Henry

Let’s face it. Mechanical chronographs are all but obsolete at this point. You don’t need a mechanical watch to time your life events by any stretch of the imagination when the phone in your pocket can do so with significantly greater precision. As a self-confessed watch fanatic, however, that doesn’t stop me in the least from admiring and cherishing these beautiful watches. 

Using a mechanical chronograph keeps track of time with a sense of poetry, not of cold electronic accuracy. You can follow along with the duration of your latest lap time or the length of your drive to work with a sense of the beauty in this moment as the heartbeat of your mechanical timekeeper ticks furiously away, hundreds of parts turning in harmony in an effort to serve you faithfully.

This concept won’t speak to many. Millions will scoff at the idea of finding elegance and poetry in their everyday routine with an expensive watch to keep guard over their fleeting moments here on Earth.

But there are those who, captivated by the beauty of these timepieces, can’t help but watch the progression of their thin seconds hand make its smooth progress over the glossy surface of their dial with rapture and awe. If you find yourself in the second camp, then read on—you are welcome here.

The Chronograph: Complex Mechanical Perfection

The first chronograph was invented in 1816 by the talented Louis Moinet, but it wasn’t until 1913 when the complication was adapted for the wrist by Longines. Today, one of the most useful watch features takes many different forms and variations, depending on its presentation and function.

Every chronograph is almost always accompanied by a set of subdials, usually either two or three. These are respectively referred to as “bicompax” and “tricompax,” which are terms invented by Universal Genève (a now-defunct watch brand that Breitling currently has plans to revive) and today applied more generally by the watch collecting community. 

The seconds hand of the watch stays at 12:00 without moving until the chronograph is started. Meanwhile, the running seconds of the actual time display are usually in one of the subdials, while the other one or two are used to count chronograph minutes and/or hours.

Still with me? Good, because it gets a little hairier. Most chronographs have two pushers on the right-hand side of the case, above and below the crown.

The top one of these starts and stops the chronograph, and the lower one resets it to zero when it’s stopped. Some, however, are “monopushers,” with only one pusher (usually set into the crown) and will start, stop, and then reset as you push it. 

Okay, the last thing to mention. There are a few extra complications that can make a chronograph even more useful if a watchmaking maison is capable of the necessary level of engineering and design required to make them work. The first is what’s known as a flyback, often popular in pilots’ watches. 

This allows the chronograph to be reset while it’s in motion without having to stop it first—thus, you can bring everything back to zero if you start a new lap or a new leg of your flight and have it continue running without any pause in the timeline. 

Another common one is what’s known as a rattrapante, or split-seconds chronograph. In this case, the chronograph runs with two hands at once, directly on top of each other, so you only see whichever one is on top. When you press stop, the lower hand usually stops and the upper continues, allowing you to time subsequent events like back-to-back laps.

The 15 Best Chronographs In 2025

Did you make it the whole way through that background context? Great! You’re now well-equipped to follow along in the list I’ve prepared for you and to explore the wide world of chronographs on your own. Let’s jump right in! Here are the 15 best chronographs, ranging from precision to new technical developments to elegance and class. 

Each of these could easily be a watch collector’s grail piece. I’ve covered all different price points here, from the accessible to more-than-the-average-house expensive. Whether you’re looking for your next poetic measurer of time or not, follow along as we explore together some of the best watches ever made in the chronograph category.

Omega Speedmaster

The Speedmaster is quite possibly the most iconic chronograph ever made and continues to be one of Omega’s strongest offerings today, which is saying something given the popularity of their other collections such as the Seamaster and Constellation. 

This is a solid mid-range watch (starting at $7,000, depending on the model you opt for) and comes with a spectacular heritage. It’s notably nicknamed the “Moonwatch” because it was the first watch worn on the Moon, and the modern versions of the watch also include the absolutely spectacular Co-Axial escapement, invented by the brilliant George Daniels to be incredibly efficient without any oil. 

Its design, including the external tachymeter bezel, black dial, and recessed subdials, has influenced all chronograph designs since its release. It’s one of my favorite watches ever and a true icon of horological history.

Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Chronograph Rattrapante

Swinging firmly to the opposite side of the elegant/sporty spectrum, the Toric Chronograph Rattrapante couples an incredibly classy design with mechanical advancement for the whopping price tag of $145,200. 

Its rich brown grenage dial is a perfect base layer, above which the polished applied logo and indices float in perfect complement. The movement is crafted out of 18K rose gold—not gold-plated, mind you, but solid gold—and features a double column wheel for its rattrapante complication. It’s one of the dressiest and most beautiful watches I’ve ever seen, let alone chronographs. 

Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX Transponder

I’ve already said a few times that several watches on this list are among my favorites, and that trend continues with this one (sorry, not sorry). The AMVOX collection from JLC was in collaboration with Aston Martin (hence the AM part of the name—the VOX comes from JLC’s famous Memovox line) but was anything but your standard automotive-inspired watch. 

You might notice that the case is completely devoid of pushers—that’s because the case itself actuates the chronograph. With a push at 12:00, the case pivots on a central axis and starts or stops the chronograph, and a push at 6:00 resets it. This makes the chronograph incredibly easy to use, especially in a racing context while wearing gloves and handling a car at high speeds through precision turns.

Jaeger-LeCoultre wasn’t content to stop there. With their Transponder model, they included a small antenna within the watch itself so that, with just a tap on the crystal, you can lock or unlock your connected Aston Martin car. No, you can’t start it from the watch—but this is easily, without a doubt, the coolest complication I’ve ever seen in a watch. Plus, the watch just looks so darn cool. I can’t fault it.

Breguet Type XX

I have a soft spot for Breguet in my heart, even though it’s a brand that most other watch fans tend to overlook. Their Type XX isn’t my favorite Breguet model, but it is objectively a spectacular and historical watch. 

It’s one of the ultimate pilot’s chronographs and was originally developed in the 1950s, when Type 20 (note the lack of Roman numerals) watches were ordered by the French Air Force to certain specifications. Numerous brands supplied these watches, including Breguet, and many also offered a Type XX as a civilian model for purchase, which had the same design. 

Every part of the dial is crafted for extreme legibility and is brightly lumed. Note as well that the Type XX is a flyback chronograph for extra functionality.

You also get automatic winding and a slick, elegant design with an iconic “big eye” subdial at 3:00. It’s not cheap—prices start around $20,000—but for such a legendary pilot’s watch from the legendary watchmaking house of Breguet, you really can’t go wrong.

Furlan Marri Nero Sabbia

The Nero Sabbia is our first budget option, an amazing chronograph choice at an affordable price from a brand known for one of the best quality-per-price ratios in the industry. At around $600, you really wouldn’t expect a watch this good. Admittedly, it does run on a mechaquartz movement, which is a little cheaper than a standard mechanical and, in this case, is sold by Seiko—the caliber VK64. 

This, however, means you get the clean sweep of a mechanical seconds hand with the accuracy of a quartz movement: in my book, that’s a win-win. The design is simple and restrained.

It’s essentially vintage without any of the overbearing vintage touches, like fauxtina that it certainly could’ve had.

The pushers are engraved with a lovely radiating pattern that Furlan Marri calls a “Tasti Tondi” style. Plus, the case size nails the sweet spot at an even 38mm. What more can you ask for from any chronograph, let alone one at this price?

Rolex Daytona

The Daytona is probably the Speedmaster’s biggest competitor for the title of most iconic chronograph ever made. Its sub-collections are also among the most popular watches ever—note, for example, Paul Newman’s personal “Paul Newman” Daytona, which is the most expensive watch ever sold at auction. 

Unlike the Speedmaster, the Daytona has automatic winding, making it a little more practical. Also unlike the Speedmaster, it has screw-down pushers, making it significantly less practical. Yes, the pushers add a little extra water resistance, but come on—does anyone really want to go about unscrewing their pushers before they use them?

While Omega has leaned hard into their “Moonwatch” identity, Rolex has chosen the racing feel for their Daytona, and it has significant ties to the racing world (starting even with just the name!). You also get more contrasting finishing compared to the Speedie, with mirrored portions of the bracelet.

This creates more of an elegant look and, with those screw-down pushers, perhaps one that feels to many to be more meant for timing the length of your board meeting than your Formula One race.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date (Ref. 26650FO.OO.D353CA.01)

The Royal Oak Concept is AP’s playground, taking a riff on their most iconic model and throwing all sorts of chaos inside its case. Quite a few lovable (or hateable, to some) watches have emerged from this collection, like the Black Panther and Spiderman models as well as the “Companion” watch designed by KAWS.

With this particular very long-named Royal Oak Concept, you don’t get any fun characters, but you do get one of the coolest chronographs ever made.

The case is crafted from carbon fiber intermingled with luminous material, so it glows in a unique pattern and style in the dark, which creates a beautiful and avant-garde look.

It’s a large wearer at 43mm x 17.5mm, but let’s be honest, you aren’t buying this watch to be discreet. In terms of complications, you get a split-seconds chronograph and GMT, so it’s just as technically advanced as it is materially. 

Cartier Tortue Monopoussoir Yellow Gold

The Tortue Monopoussoir is one of the most elegant and simple chronographs you’ll ever see. Its case follows Cartier’s Tortue collection, which is their second-oldest design after the Santos-Dumont. The shape is fluid and elegant and wears exceptionally well on the wrist thanks to its many sweeping curves and slim silhouette. 

The dial is classy and restrained with an opaline base color and pure black Roman numerals, over all of which float the blued Breguet hands. The recessed subdials feature circular finishing and appear as if they were set straight into the dial or carved out of it, with no sloping flanks merging into them.

It’s one of the classiest watches you could imagine, and only 200 were ever made, making it a true connoisseur’s watch that looks incredible yet anything but flashy about its quality and master craftsmanship.

Studio Underd0g Salm0n

At just $2,000, the Salm0n takes a totally new spin on the idea of a “salmon dial” by utilizing the full color palette of this noble fish, from its pink flesh to its silver scales. Compared to some of Studio Underd0g’s other chronographs (looking at you, Watermel0n), this one is significantly more subdued in its color palette, but I find it to be just the right amount of eye-catching thanks to the way its colors play together and stand out. 

The movement is a Sellita monopusher (caliber SW510M, in case you were wondering) and is even customized with a special bridge with the brand name on it. The case, lastly, is perhaps the perfect size for a modern watch, sitting right at 38.5mm. That number alone, more than its seafood associations, is sure to make collectors drool.

Breitling Navitimer Chronograph

Let me start with one thing: I’m not a huge fan of Breitling. Frankly, their watches just aren’t my style. In this case, however, the fact that they’re on this list should be a testament to the quality and enduring appeal of their iconic Navitimer collection, which remains one of the most iconic pilot’s watches ever made. 

Their Navitimer Chronographs start at around $10,000 and feature the dual functionality of both a chronograph and Breitling’s iconic slide rule complication, which I personally have absolutely no idea how to use.

But I know it’s useful somehow! If you’re interested, go ahead and one-up me and watch a video on it. Overall, it’s a highly functional and purpose-built watch that will be a faithful companion on any journey—airborne or otherwise.

Hublot Big Bang Unico Titanium Blue Ceramic 42mm

Confession time: I love Hublot. That’s an unpopular opinion among watch nerds. But Hublot has pushed the boundaries of watchmaking in more ways than other brands would even dream of, and they continue to offer watches that are just so dang cool. Their Big Bang Unico is one of my favorite chronographs. 

This model, in particular, has a spectacular two-tone appearance with a muted interplay of navy blue ceramic and rich gray titanium. The Unico movement inside is an automatic chronograph, and one of the best, being completely in-house as well as automatic and featuring a column wheel and flyback. 

Everything in the design screams sporty and usable, from the oversized numerals and hands to the oversized and yet strangely beautiful pushers. In particular, I love the iconic Hublot bezel.

I know there are many haters who will claim it’s a Royal Oak ripoff, but to me it feels perfect for Hublot’s identity (their name means “porthole” in French, and that’s exactly how it looks to me). It references the Royal Oak in a constructive way, not a ripoff.

Patek Philippe ref. 5270J Grand Complications

For many collectors, this is the watch. A chronograph perpetual calendar from Patek Philippe is their holy grail—and rightly so. It’s not a cheap watch (retail price is $194,190), but it is just about as close to perfect as you can get from a chronograph, or from any watch at all. Its movement is hand-finished to absolute perfection and is manual-wind. 

This sure makes it tricky to keep the calendar up to date but also allows for an unimpeded view of that gorgeous movement. The lugs are sculpted and crafted to perfection with several facets and sides.

The dial, above all, shows the quality of design and craftsmanship that you get from a Patek Philippe. There is a plethora of information displayed on its surface—from the chronograph counters and internal tachymeter scale to the perpetual calendar—but it somehow remains uncluttered and easily legible. Its faceted indices are polished and shaped to perfection. Indeed, that’s the best word to use to describe this Patek Philippe: perfection.

13. MB&F LM Sequential Flyback

The LM Sequential Flyback is a masterpiece, the work of the genius Stephen McDonnell, a mechanism that appears at first glance to be a rat’s nest of steel on the dial until it resolves itself suddenly into a harmonious whole at the press of a button. 

The “LM” in the title stands for MB&F’s “Legacy Machine” category which—believe it or not—is used for their more traditional watches. Released in 2020, this watch contains a whopping 5 different chronograph pushers instead of the usual 2 and controls two separate chronographs, each of which has a flyback function.

Plus, McDonnell added a special “Twinverter” function, which automatically swaps the two chronographs—if one hand is stopped and the other is running, the first starts and the second stops. 

The watch goes for a whopping $218,000, making it even more expensive than the Patek Philippe. In case you were wondering if your money would be well-spent, the GPHG certainly thought so: they awarded it an Aiguille d’Or, the highest prize in watchmaking.

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph

The TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph is another one of the most iconic chronographs ever made, although it suffers from being significantly less appreciated compared to its cousins the Speedmaster and Daytona. Like these other two, it found its birth in racing inspiration—namely, the grueling Carrera Panamericana, one of the most dangerous races ever. 

The modern collection has seen quite a few changes from its original form, but it remains an exceptional watch. It’s best known for its “glassbox” crystal, which makes visibility of the dial and hands from any angle a breeze. I

ts internal tachymeter bezel makes the dial feel larger compared to the case, which is a new approach compared to Omega and Rolex who both put it on the outside. 

The combination of recessed subdials and elevated internal tachymeter create a great sense of depth that’s lacking in many lower-end watches. You also get some serious mechanical advancement, with automatic winding and a serious 80 hours of power reserve.

Overall, it’s the younger brother that doesn’t deserve to be overlooked as it vies for place with the Speedie and Daytona.

Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph (ref. 5520V/210A-B148)

The Overseas is easily the most underrated of the integrated sports watches offered by the Big Three brands—compared to the Royal Oak and Nautilus, most collectors barely bat an eye at the Overseas. They’re wrong to do so. At $35,600, this is an exceptional watch.

Take a look at that rich blue dial, crafted from translucent blue lacquer with a sunray finish that just instantly creates a powerful look of class and elegance. 

The large rehaut around the dial leads the eye right into the bezel, which is shaped with cutouts that visually reference Vacheron’s Maltese cross logo, and the links of the bracelet echo this shape design.

Everything is executed with restraint and yet nearly perfect class and charm, making the Overseas a worthy competitor to its sports watch siblings.

Conclusion

Chronographs are some of the most spectacular and intentionally designed watches on the market today. For many brands, they’re a playground for technical innovation. For others, they’re the defining piece of their collections.

They span every price point and style—a collection could easily be founded on these time counters alone. Whether you’re looking for your next chronograph here or not, I hope you left this article with a deep appreciation for the nuance and craft of each of these watches, which I know to be deeply merited.

I’d be the first to tell you I’m a pretty verbose guy. But this time, I promise I’ll keep it short and sweet. I’m going to break down each of the two types of mechanical watches and how you should wind it, with both the essentials and a little bit more. 

As a side note, if your watch is a quartz watch, you won’t need to wind it at all to keep it running: if it’s stopped and the crown is pushed in, you’ll just need a battery change. That’s all for the intro—let’s get right into it!

Automatic Watches

Most watches sold today are automatics. They use a winding rotor on the back to stay wound and keep running, so this makes your job here winding your watch a heck of a lot easier. If you’re not sure if your watch is an automatic, look for a winding rotor through the caseback (if it’s clear) or look for any sort of text on the dial or on the caseback that would indicate that it’s an automatic.

When an automatic watch stops running, you have two options to get it going again. First, you can just give it a few gentle shakes or spins to get the rotor whirling and get just enough charge back into the mainspring (the power supply for the watch) for it to get ticking again. If you’re a little too impatient for that, or just prefer manual winding, you can use the crown. Here’s how that should work.

First, take the watch off your wrist if you’re wearing it and hold it in your hand. If you wind the watch while it’s on your wrist, you can put too much tension on the winding mechanism because of the angle you hold the crown at and risk damaging something. 

Now that it’s in your hand, take hold of the crown—that’s the little knob sticking out of the side, usually at 3:00—between two fingers. Make sure it’s pushed all the way in, and then slowly rotate it clockwise. You should feel and hear a light grinding. 

It won’t be very tactile, sort of a light resistance and a faint whirring sound as you turn it. If you feel nothing and hear nothing, you’re probably turning it the wrong way and the winding has disengaged. Just switch the way you’re turning it.

Once the watch starts ticking again, you’re good to go! Give it another turn or two for good measure and slip the watch on your wrist after you set the time. The automatic winding rotor will make sure the watch gets wound the rest of the way to its max as you wear it throughout the day and will keep it wound as you continue to wear it.

If you take your watch off for the night and go to pick it up the next day, you should be good to go! As long as the watch is ticking already, you won’t need to worry about winding it. Just slip it on and let the automatic winding do its job.

Manual-Wind Watches

Manual-wind watches are a little trickier than automatic, but still quite easy to get the hang of. Many watch collectors find winding their manual watch to be an important daily ritual, of interacting with their watch and enjoying it before they slip it on for the day. Here’s how you’ll want to go about it.

As with the automatic winding, make sure you’re not wearing your watch before you go to wind it. Take it in one hand and be sure that the crown (again, the little knob sticking out, usually at 3:00) is pushed in all the way. Take the crown between two fingers of the other hand and gently rotate it clockwise. 

Unlike the automatic watches, you should hear and feel a clear tactile tick with every slight degree of rotation. It’s a sound that, after a while, you’ll come to love. If you don’t hear that, you’re probably winding it the wrong way and should switch directions.

Continue to gently turn the crown clockwise. It’ll take quite a few full rotations before the watch gets to full wind. The crown should turn easily, without much resistance. Eventually, you’ll feel it stop. Do not turn the crown any further when you feel this resistance. 

At this point, the watch is fully wound and is unable to accept any more wind. Forcibly turning the crown further could seriously damage the mainspring! But if you’re being relatively attentive and turning gently, you won’t have to worry about accidentally damaging something. You’ll feel your watch push back when you’re done winding.

Like I touched on a little earlier, manual winding is an opportunity to take a moment at the start of each day to interact with your watch and to, quite literally, give yourself the time. Enjoy it, and enjoy watching the face of your watch as you wind it. 

If your watch has a clear caseback, you can also flip it over and watch the winding gears turn and watch the balance wheel sputter into life as you gently wind. It’s a moment to cherish.

Conclusion

There, I kept it nice and short and sweet, with only a little bit of waxing philosophical about watch winding. But to be fair, a mechanical watch is a thing of artisanal beauty, and it deserves a moment of contemplation and enjoyment as you wind it each day. 

It’s a simple task, but one that can’t be passed up and certainly should be appreciated. Make the most of it!

Like American politics, watchmaking runs on a two-party system. Mechanical and quartz. Those are the only two domains—if you ignore the little third parties like tuning fork watches. Unlike the two-party system, however, it’s easy to appreciate and admire both sides of this wide and wonderful world.

Here at Exquisite Timepieces, we love mechanical watches. They’re hard not to love, actually. Mechanical microengineering coupled with tradition makes for some seriously beautiful works of art. 

But all too often, us watch nerds overlook the humbler side of things: quartz. Quartz is usually cheaper, and mass-produced. Yet it offers precision on a level that absolutely blows any mechanical watch out of the water, for a ridiculously cheap price. It’s hard to argue with that!

But where does this technology come from? How do quartz watches manage to be so cheap and yet so precise? How did they come to dominate almost all of the watch market globally—a whopping 96%? No matter whether you’re a seasoned watch collector or just taking your first steps into this deep world, read on for the answers to these questions and more!

History of Quartz Watches

If we want to understand what a quartz watch is today, it’s important to talk about where it has come from. Or at least, so my history teachers insisted all throughout my years in school. Regardless, their past is interesting (not just to history teachers, I promise!) and I think it’s well worth a good overview.

Quartz technology has been used in timekeeping for a long time—specifically, just under a century at the time of writing this! It was first used in clocks in 1927, thanks to the brilliant mind of Warren Marrison, who was working at the time at Bell Telephone Labs. 

Now I want to save a real analysis of how it works for the next section, but, for now, it’ll suffice to say that the lab discovered that quartz has some very interesting properties related to electricity, which we’ll cover later. Consider that a little teaser for what’s to come.

At the time, the equipment for quartz timekeeping was large and bulky, but it totally shook things up in the world of horology. All of a sudden, you have something that’s not mechanical at all, which is how things had been made for centuries before, and is suddenly far more accurate than even the finest hand-made mechanical clock. 

That’s pretty game-changing. Even the way people think about time itself is called into question. Suddenly, the way we measure time is so precise that the most accurate quartz clocks are able to tell us almost the exact time at any given moment. No more deviation of a few seconds per day—time is now something we have full control over.

Philosophical meanderings aside, it was the well-known Japanese brand Seiko that really pushed quartz technology further from where Bell Labs left off. The technology in these quartz clocks was large and unwieldy. Shrinking it down to wristwatch size was at the time completely out of the question. 

And yet, around 30 years later, Seiko began working on a quartz movement powered by a smaller 1.5V battery. Previously, their research had already led them to produce their own quartz crystals using a special process with hydrofluoric acid and a photolithography technique. 

Essentially, photolithography involves creating patterns on a surface by using light. A photosensitive material is applied to a certain area, and then, when it is exposed to light in a certain pattern, a chemical reaction takes place in those areas. Notably, it’s used in making integrated circuits and silicon chips in computing today.

This technology and innovation enabled Seiko to make great leaps and bounds forward in shrinking down quartz technology beyond what anyone would have thought possible when it was first introduced. 

In 1963, they created the Crystal Chronometer, a table clock that ran on a quartz movement. No more need for a tall longcase clock for quartz accuracy—now it was available to anyone in a small space in your house or on your desk.

They didn’t stop there. Just three years later, in 1966 and 1967, Seiko brought the first quartz pocket watches onto the market. Now, precision was wearable in your pocket. But wristwatches were the prevailing fashion of the day, so Seiko’s work wasn’t complete.

Then, on Christmas Day, 1969, it happened. The first quartz wristwatch was put up for sale. Precision on your wrist, down to the last second. The Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ came into the world, an elegant watch with a large cushion case, and, most importantly of all, a fully quartz movement. It would completely change the notion of what a wristwatch can be forever.

At this point, the Swiss industry was kinda freaking out. Switzerland was already associated with the finest mechanical watches, and precision was a pretty big deal for them. Many factories also mass-produced more affordable mechanical movements. 

Quartz absolutely demolished the Swiss pursuit of mechanical precision and quickly outcompeted mass-produced mechanical movements, which were far more expensive to make than quartz and, of course, less accurate.

For a while now, the Swiss had been trying to get on board with quartz. In 1962, the Centre Électronique Horloger (or, roughly, “Electronic Watchmaking Center,” abbreviated CEH) was formed by 20 Swiss brands, including Omega and Patek Philippe. 

If you don’t know those two names, the takeaway there is that they weren’t messing around. In 1966, they created their first prototype, the Beta-1, and the Beta-2 quickly followed in 1967.

Ultimately, the first Swiss mass-produced quartz movement would be the Beta-21, released April 10, 1970, by the CEH. 6,000 were initially made, and more followed. Member brands of the CEH put this movement to quick use, and Swiss watches by brands like the aforementioned Patek Philippe featuring a Beta-21 movement remain highly collectible today.

Despite the Swiss efforts, the introduction of quartz had a tremendously destabilizing effect on the industry. Many brands started to go under, unable to compete with the cheaper quartz markets flooding the industry. 

The demand for fine watchmaking plummeted as people snapped up the latest technology, which was more affordable anyway. Because of this, the 1970s were what’s known as the “Quartz Crisis,” a time of tremendous upheaval for the industry that left Switzerland in particular much the worse for wear and companies like Seiko on top of the market.

Nowadays, if you look up the most well-known watch brands, you’ll find that they’re owned by the Swatch Group. (I promise, this is related—stick with me.) Omega, Breguet, Longines, Blancpain: these pillars of mechanical watchmaking are associated with a brand that made colorful quartz watches, Swatch. 

At last, we begin to see the connection. In many ways, it was Swatch that saved the Swiss industry. In the face of Seiko’s dominance of the quartz market, they introduced their first wave of affordable quartz watches in 1983. 

They were colorful, trendy, eye-catching, and reestablished Swiss watchmaking as a force to be reckoned with. Swatch was able to buy many of these other brands that were at risk of collapsing and kept them afloat.

Things stabilized. The crisis slowly faded. And with time, mechanical watchmaking took back an important place in the world of horology. Yet because of these changes, today’s watchmaking world certainly looks very different from what it did just 50 years ago.

How Does a Quartz Watch Work?

Still with me? Great! Here, we’re going to get into that long-awaited analysis of how quartz watches actually function. Remember how I mentioned the significance of quartz’s special electric properties? 

As it turns out, if you squeeze a quartz crystal under a lot of pressure, it actually creates a small electrical current. That’s called piezoelectricity, in case you’re the type of person who collects big fancy words. By the same token, if you run an electrical current through a quartz crystal, something equally interesting happens: it vibrates.

If you know how a mechanical watch works, you probably know that it “beats” several times per second, usually four or five. This is due to the rotation of the balance wheel, which trips the escapement four to five times per second and thereby releases the gear train to advance. 

Typically, the more times the balance wheel beats per second, the more accurate the watch is, as any errors in one beat are much more averaged out. Here’s the kicker. When you run current through a quartz oscillator, it vibrates at a stunning rate of 32,768 beats per second, or 2¹⁵.

That’s the heart of any quartz watch, and it sure is an accurate one. With that many oscillations per second, it’s little wonder that quartz watches manage to be so accurate. The rest of the circuitry is designed to measure the oscillations and then trigger the movement of a small stepper motor once every 32,768 vibrations, or once a second. 

Since the motor doesn’t provide as much torque as a mechanical movement does, most quartz watches feature thin, lightweight hands that won’t be a drain on the battery. The battery, of course, powers all the circuitry and the current that runs through the quartz crystal. Unlike mechanical watches, which need to be serviced every five years, a quartz movement will need a battery change every few years and, for the most part, requires no other external attention. 

Eventually, it’ll break down and die, while a mechanical movement will last forever if it’s kept well-serviced. But then again, it’s a matter of a few moments and a few dollars to pop another entirely new quartz movement in the watch in the old one’s place.

Quartz Watches Today

Today, quartz watches are everywhere. Take a walk around any mall or major department store, and you’re sure to find a few for sale for less than your extra-special Starbucks order. But they’re not just limited to the lowest tiers of watchmaking. Some of the highest-end brands have made them a specialty, most notably, Grand Seiko and their 9F quartz movement. 

Leave it to Seiko, of course, to continue pioneering in the field of quartz: their 9F features specially grown quartz crystals and even a regulation process and extra torque so you can use large mechanical-style hands. F.P. Journe, one of the most famous independent brands, has made its quartz Élégante a staple of its collections, and it remains one of the most sought-after watches on the market to this day.

Lastly, Seiko’s Astron collection, which started it all, is continuing to pioneer quartz in different ways. Modern Astrons automatically connect to GPS satellites to get the time with extreme precision, no matter where you are in the world, and will automatically correct themselves if you cross timezones.

Conclusion

Like it or not, quartz technology is here to stay, and it’s just going to keep getting better. As such, I humbly suggest that you embrace it wholeheartedly. Yes, even you, the seasoned mechanical watch collector in the back. 

With such staggering precision and affordability, it’s little wonder that quartz watches can be found everywhere you look, from Walmart to claw machines, adorned with every imaginable case and dial from a sturdy G-Shock to your favorite lovable cartoon character. 

But quartz is about more than just being cheap and making for some great character watches. It’s the future of watchmaking, and it’s already here now. It’s not for nothing that the modern Seiko Astron was one of the first watches I fell in love with, even after I discovered mechanical watchmaking. 

Quartz and mechanics are yin and yang, perfect complements that make the world of watchmaking all the more wide and wonderful. What’s not to love about that?