Thank you! Nice read! I can wear my Quartz with some pride now

 

Must be the twin to yours, only still on original bracelet.

 

This was a very interesting article. I will see some Quartz watches differently now

 

Thanks for an awesome article, I only own one quartz amd will wear it with a little less indifference from now on.

 

This is a great thread, would be nice to make it a Sticky

Could possibly fit it in a sub-category thread titled "Watchmaking"... As OF members have mentioned!
Then we can all take some time to study the basic and the not-so-basics!

 

Thanks Al, very interesting!

 

See if you can find the service or user manual for it here. The first 4 digits on the back is the caliber.

 

Thanks Al, very enlightening! Was not aware of such complexity in a Quartz watch.

 

Does it tick in quarter second increments?

 

I have a 1968 Pontiac Le Mans, The old clock has not worked for years, I had a quartz movement put in and it now keeps excellent time, while using 1/300th the power the old movement used. so there is a place for quartz movements .

 

Ditto!

Thanks for posting this, Al.

I have a new appreciation for my Glycine GMT 2000 that I purchased new over 20 years ago...I think I'll have to get it out of storage and add it to the rotation.

 

Thank you Al, for this very interesting and educational article.

I have a Credor quartz as my work watch for the last 10 months, adjusted the time twice a year for daylight savings plus a couple more times due to travelling across time zones, and it has never been off more than 1 second. According to the manual, "in order to set the time accurately, turn the minute hand 4 to 5 minutes ahead and then return it to the correct time". I am just curious, what would be the reason(s) for that instructions?

 

Sorry been meaning to add some information to this thread, but first your question....the direction you turn the crown to adjust the time depends on the gearing for the setting parts and time train. The reason for adjusting it past the time and then setting it backwards I can only assumer is to take up the slack in the gears. If you don't do this, the hands will appear to drift off because they won't start moving again right after you push the crown in, since the slack is being taken up first.

It's not specifically because it's a quartz watch - mechanical watches can have this as well. For example when setting the time on an ETA 7750, I always go past the time and back up to the minute I want to take up the slack.

Cheers, Al

 

I was doing some quartz work recently and decided to take a couple of photos to help illustrate some of the things I've talked about in this thread. I mentioned in my first post that older quartz watches do not have the motor management that modern quartz watches can have, so they don't utilize the feedback loop, and are pulsing the motor and hoping the hands move, where a modern watch looks for that feedback to confirm movement of the hand.

The old watches also use a single continuous pulse of the motor, so when the motor is on, it's on for that whole pulse. Newer movements use a "chopped" pulse, and my timing machine can graph the motor pulses so you can visually see this work.

Here is a "dumb" quartz movement, again from my CWC G10, and the pulse duration is again 7.8 ms, and as you can see the pulse of the motor is one continuous pulse:



Now in a modern quartz, the chopped pulse turns on and off a few times during that same 7.8 ms time frame. Here is a new Cal. 1538 I installed in a watch this week, and as you can see the pulse is chopped:



If you look at the text under the graph, the pulse width here is 50% instead of he 100% that is on my CWC. This means that over that 7.8 ms, the motor is only "on" 50% of the time, so this saves energy, lowers consumption, and extends battery life.

I hope this helps you visualize what I described in my first post.

Cheers, Al

 

thank you for the info, gained some more respect for quartz and a 2254.50 in quartz might be on my list now to save some moeny

 

Nothing is ever as simple as it appears, even quartz. Thanks for the post.

 

Wow, thanks for bringing this thread back to life... and thanks @Archer for this great info. I have quite a few watches I bought in the 80's and 90's that have been sitting in my box of shame unworn for years. I need to take them out, get fresh batteries and put them in rotation.

thanks!

 

Thanks Al! So much information in this thread. I have a new respect for the engineering of quartz movements. Mine are all pretty old, my TAG Formula One is the newest, and the movement was replaced maybe 12 years ago. Took what I have to my local watchmaker for new batteries last weekend, before reading this. It happens that a Cartier quartz movement came up in the conversation and he said it was quite good. I have a much better idea what that means.

 

@Archer First - THANK YOU for this. I've read this 3 times now and find something new every time. My "WRUW When it Rains" watches are mostly Bulova Accutron II and Precisionist watches. Curious how those differ from what you have described here? I only understand enough to be dangerous in this area, but I'd love to understand how they obtain this level of accuracy, an how they speed up the quartz. My favorite rainy day watch is actually described here as well: http://www.ablogtowatch.com/bulova-accutron-ii-surveyor-precisionist-movement-watch-review/. Thusfar, I've been extremely impressed with these watches at the price point.

 

This is a superb reference piece (no pun intended). Many thanks for your work.