Hello strick9! Just wanted to respond to a few points you have made...
He said mid to high end *snip*
Mid-tier omega or Rolex geez are you a hater or what?
The answer is "or what" because I'm certainly not a hater. I've owned Seiko's in the past, and even said that I would love to own a good condition 62MAS. Here's a nice Seiko 5 Sports I owned a number of years ago - the lume was excellent:
I also own Rolex and Omega - between my wife and I we own or have owned 3 Rolex watches and 6 Omegas. I'm also a watchmaker so I've repaired/serviced many of these brands...
Yes he said mid to high end Seikos, and I was actually agreeing with his point. The finishing is on par with mid-tier Swiss brands like Rolex and Omega. But it is clearly not on the level of the top Swiss brands like PP, VC, AP, not to mention the independents or even the German brands like ALS.
Spring Drive has a quartz capacitor But its far from Quartz watch look it up, at the time its the most accurate watch on the planet
And from your second post taking me to task:
That's from there website How is that like a quartz where the battery controls everything? how is that like a kinetic that uses a quartz capacitor
like a battery to control watch movement. Don't bother reading and learning just hate on the inferior watches as you call it.
Thanks for the advice to "look it up" but I did that a long time ago and I do actually have a very good understanding of how this watch works.
So the thing is based on what you wrote (not the cut and paste section), I don't think you understand how a regular quartz watch works. If you would like to learn a bit more about how quartz watches work and the technology that they use for timekeeping and to extend battery life, this thread would be a good start:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/qua...on-some-may-find-interesting.5475/#post-64086
The battery is only the power source, so neither it nor the capacitor in a kinetic watch "control" anything as you contend. That is like saying the gas in my car's tank is what controls the speed of the car - it doesn't work that way. Like the mainspring in a mechanical watch, they simply provide the power needed to make the watch function. The business end of the timekeeping function is the oscillator, and in a mechanical watch this is the balance, in many wall clocks it would be the pendulum, in the Accutron watches it's a tuning fork, and in quartz watches it's a quartz crystal. The crystal is in a small silver metal tube or can typically, but I found this photo on the internet that shows one removed from the housing:
When current is applied it vibrates to provide the oscillations that form the base of the timekeeping function. The circuitry then uses whatever specific designs the engineers came up with (some as simple as a dividing circuit, but others more complicated as the post I mentioned above illustrates) in order to provide the controlled release of energy. Although the spring drive uses a different methodology to release that energy, the base for the timekeeping is still the quartz crystal...therefore it is a quartz watch.
So let's compare some spring drive features to a conventional quartz watch with a battery...
Power reserve - spring drive is something like 72 hours, where a conventional quartz watch is 2-3 years with the battery.
Accuracy - contrary to your assertion, the spring drive is far from being the most accurate watch on the planet. As others have already stated the spring drive is less accurate than pretty much any HAQ watch.
Service intervals - I have a Seamaster 200 (ref. 28505000) in the shop right now that was bought new by the owner in 1989, so it's approaching 30 years old. It has had nothing but battery changes over it's life, and the quartz movement still functions perfectly - it keeps time within specs and all parameters such as the lower working limit, base consumption and total consumption are within specs. In contrast the spring drive's service recommendations are as follows (taken from a spring drive manual that came with a watch):
"The movement of this watch has a structure that consistent pressure is applied on its power-transmitting wheels. To ensure these parts work together properly, periodic inspection including cleaning of parts and movement, oiling, adjustment of accuracy, functional check and replacement of worn parts is needed. Inspection and adjustment by disassembly and cleaning (overhaul) within 3 to 4 years from the date of purchase is highly recommended for long-time use of your watch. According to use conditions, the oil retaining condition of your watch mechanical parts may deteriorate, abrasion of the parts may occur due to contamination of oil, which may ultimately lead the watch to stop."
So like a mechanical watch, as soon as there is power on the mainspring the pivots and wheels are under constant load and high friction. In contrast the regular quartz watch will pulse the motor approx. 7.8 milliseconds out of every second,
at most. Often they are chopped pulses or the pulse width is even smaller - in this Cal. 1438 in the Seamaster the pulse width is only 4.9 milliseconds. So the wear and tear on a conventional quartz watch is miniscule in comparison to what a spring drive would have.
Service availability - due to the complex nature of these spring drive models, they are apparently very touchy to service and although I understand Seiko is trying to expand the service network, it appears they still have to go back to Japan for the most part. Pretty much any watchmaker can change a battery in a quartz watch, and often people do it themselves (minus all the testing of course).
So as I've said, it's not the most accurate, has shorter, more expensive, and more difficult to acquire servicing - the real advantage is the cool factor of that smoothly sweeping hand.
Now I'm okay of you think I'm some sort of hater - it really doesn't matter to me. But I would wager that having seen what I've seen as a watchmaker I'm probably the least emotional person you are going to find when it comes to assessing the technical side of watches.
Cheers, Al
