Automatic vs manual vs quartz watches: the differences
How each kind of movement keeps time, how accurate it is, what it costs to own and which one suits you. A plain comparison for a first watch.
Published
The short answer
- Quartz: the most accurate and the least fuss. Battery powered, a ticking seconds hand.
- Automatic: mechanical, winds itself as you wear it. A sweeping seconds hand and a few seconds a day of drift.
- Manual, or hand-wound: mechanical, wound by the crown every day or two. Often thinner, and a small daily ritual.
Quartz
A battery makes a tiny quartz crystal vibrate 32,768 times a second, and a circuit counts the vibrations. A typical quartz watch is accurate to about 15 seconds a month, and high-accuracy quartz to about 10 seconds a year. The battery lasts two to five years in most watches. Solar models charge from light, and radio-controlled ones reset themselves from a time signal every night.
Automatic
A coiled mainspring stores power and a balance wheel ticks it out several times a second. A weighted rotor inside spins as your wrist moves and winds the mainspring. Everyday automatics keep to within about 20 to 40 seconds a day, and certified chronometers to within a few seconds. Most run about 40 to 80 hours off the wrist before they stop.
They need a service every 5 to 10 years, and setting one again after a weekend off is part of owning it. That is what the sync countdown is for.
Manual
The same mechanical movement without the rotor: you wind it by turning the crown. Without a rotor the watch can be thinner, and you can see the whole movement through a display caseback. The winding guide explains how many turns it needs.
In between
- Spring Drive, from Seiko: a mainspring for power, with a quartz crystal regulating it. About one second a day.
- Mecaquartz: a quartz movement with a mechanical chronograph module, for the feel of the pushers at a quartz price.
Which one suits you?
- You want to put it on and never think about it: quartz.
- You want a mechanical watch you wear most days: automatic.
- You enjoy the ritual, or want a slim dress watch: manual.
- You will own several and rotate them: any, but mechanical watches will need setting each time. The date-change guide shows how to do it safely.