Types of Watch Movement

Quartz

Introduced in 1969 by Japanese watchmakers Seiko, the quartz movement watch uses a battery connected to a single quartz crystal to produce vibrations 32768 times per second. These vibrations are measured by the device and the precise frequency is converted into a signal pulse every second. This causes a tic, or movement of the second hand each second, and thus keeps the time of the watch.

This method of timekeeping challenged the more traditional methods of using a mechanical or automatic watch, and triggered the quartz revolution, or quartz crisis, with many companies bringing out their own quartz timepieces, and others struggling to keep up with the revolution.

Benefits of a quartz movement include the high degree of accuracy they have, ease of use, with watches not requiring any winding due to being battery run, lower maintenance and higher durability due to the lower number of moving parts, and a smaller cost than mechanical or automatic pieces. Check out some of our quartz timepieces here: https://www.boutiquevonburg.com/watches/movement/quartz

Mechanical

In a mechanical movement the passage of time is measured by a spring-driven mechanism, called a mainspring, which must be wound periodically. This device powers the watch where, in a mechanical movement, the moving parts are often more complicated than in a quartz movement. In fact there are often hundreds of parts in a mechanical movement consisting of springs and gears and due to their steady movement as the spring unwinds these often create an elegant sweeping second hand, with movement multiple times per second.

The benefits to owning a mechanical timepiece are the lack of batteries and ability to power the watch by hand, the craftsmanship that often goes into the watches, making them durable, and the aesthetically pleasing nature of many mechanical timepieces which often have windows and displays in order that you may see their mechanisms working away.

Automatic

Automatic watches are very similar to mechanical in that both use a mainspring mechanism to propel the watch, the difference is however that an automatic watch has a self-winding mechanism that harnesses kinetic energy from the movement of the watch whilst on the wearer’s wrist. The mechanism then transfers this kinetic energy into winding the mainspring. Often this is done via a weighted rotor added to the watch.

The benefits to an automatic watch include the lack of need for a battery or manually winding you watch. Conveniently, with regular wear, the watch will continue to function, however there is a downside which is without regular wear the watch will also cease to work. Check out our mechanical and automatic movements here: https://www.boutiquevonburg.com/watches/movement/automatic