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Comment by martinkraft | Hacker News Reader

For those who are interested in superior technology, start reading about quartz movements and the piezoelectric effect. Citizen Watch Company recently release the most accurate quartz watch ever, accurate to 1 second per year. Contrast that to the mechanical watches that Rolex—one of the best mechanical manufacturers—produces and the best they can do is an accuracy of about 1 second per day. Hundreds of times less accurate. Yikes! And then you can get into radio-controlled and GPS-controlled solar watches that you literally never have to set or change the battery. So neat!

Mechanical watches are an emotional rather than rational technology, and hey if that's what you're into: mechanical watches and horse-drawn-buggies and gas lanterns then that's totally cool.

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> Hundreds of times less accurate. Yikes!

Everyone knows this; you're making it seem like it's some kind of conspiracy.

Mechanical watches are awesome. I bought my first "semi-luxury" one (a Longines Diver for like $3,000) two years ago and I love everything about it: the style, the complication, the fact that I need to wind it if I want to wear it. Everything is so interesting and neat. Everything has so much history: watchmakers were the pinnacle of human engineering for centuries!

It's something special I'd love to leave to my hopefully future kids. I like my Casio F-91W for different reasons[1], but it's certainly not as special.

[1] https://dvt.name/2019/06/03/hacking-the-casio-f-91w-to-handl...

Longines makes a high-accuracy (± 5 seconds-per-year) quartz watch called the Conquest V.H.P. that is respectable. Both your mechanical and their quartz movements are produced by ETA (Swatch Group).

I respect Quartz watches. In fact, I've thought about getting a Citizen eco-drive. I've had a timex for years.

But I got into mechanical watches earlier this year - a Hamilton Pilot and a Field. There is a beauty in the combination of accuracy, complexity and the lack of reliance on electricity that I find fascinating, just as someone can appreciate a sailboat or a record player for their amazing engineering.

I haven't figured out how to express it clearly, but things like mechanical watches, pour-over/press coffee, record players, coal grills. They all involve a lack of electricity and lack of network connectivity. The heat is right there from the coal. The coffee was ground and made by /me/. The power comes from the sails. The watch moves from my winding it - it depends on me. The sound is imprinted on the record - The source of the sound, right there on a platter, vibrating a needle, not from a coded bitstream I can only access with an internet subscription, a computer and a music subscription.

Anyway. There is a better essay somewhere in here. My point is, I get the superiority of Quartz over mechanical re: accuracy and maybe even ruggedness, but there is a lost romance.

You left out fountain pens, which is something that often goes hand in hand with these other things.

If this had not yet occurred to you, well, let me be the first to welcome you to that particular club. ;) A Lamy Safari is a great place to start.

Analog vs digital! I feel similar to you. There's a certain feeling with analog/mechanical instruments that is hard to replicate.

That being said, I think there is something fascinating about eco-drive movements, or just plain quartz movements in general. In the eco-drive case, you're harnessing the raw energy of the sun! Right there on your wrist! And they're using piezoelectricity to accurately keep time!

It's so simple nowadays that we all take it for granted, but centuries of scientific improvements have gone into making that relatively inexpensive and accurate wristwatch accessible to everybody.

Got a Citizen Eco/RadioSync. Never been happier. Had to use an RPi to fake the YYJ/WWVB signal (I live outside the reception area for any radio timesync signal)

Sunshine for watch power is gods gift. I have a minor-brand Seiko mechanical with a self-winding mechanism, love it to death but it loses time like a grandfather clock from the victorian era.

> Mechanical watches are an emotional rather than rational technology, and hey if that's what you're into: mechanical watches and horse-drawn-buggies and gas lanterns then that's totally cool.

You could say the same thing about people who are into classic muscle cars. "Hey, if like driving around in a model T and braking down every 5 miles then that's totally cool." Everything is emotional. Does anyone really need a GPS synced watch that is accurate to the nanosecond? No, people want it because they think it's cool. Some people want mechanical watches because they think they are cool.

You must be so fun at parties.

> Everything is emotional.

No it really isn't. HN is not the correct forum for this sweeping psychobabble.

> Does anyone really need a GPS synced watch that is accurate to the nanosecond? No, people want it because they think it's cool.

No, we buy these accurate watches because a) there are only a few such watch makers, and b) they all use an even smaller pool of GPS chips. And its these chips that have the precision that bugs you so.

> You must be so fun at parties.

Not your finest comment

> And its these chips that have the precision that bugs you so.

I never said it bugs me. I own a Citizen solar powered watch. I also own a mechanical watch and a smart watch. I would probably by a GPS synced watch.

I stand by my comment that everything is emotional.

> everything is emotional

I guess I “emotionally” choose the most precise tool for the task of telling time.

I stand by it too, as someone who drives a manual car that's older than I am and uses a film camera that's older than either of my parents. There's no point if it's not emotional.

> You must be fun at parties.

My favorite thing to do at parties is to poke fun of hobbies in Hacker News comments.

>Does anyone really need a GPS synced watch

Need? Maybe not. Want? Yes. I find it very useful when my watch can switch times as I cross timezone borders or when daylight savings time switches.

Mechanical watches are a fashion accessory that also happen to show time.

This does not prevent them from being feats of engineering, because of the technology limitations, and the need to show off (ever saw a tourbillion watch?). I would compare them to Fabergé's eggs of our time.

My daily driver is an Apple Watch. It does a dozen small things which add up to a great deal of utility. Sure I have to charge it every day, but it's worth it. Needless to say the time is always accurate, and I can display it however I want just by flicking a finger across the surface.

When I dress up, I put on one of my mechanicals (I have three and will probably add more before I'm done). There's just something cool about an intricate gear-driven machine on my wrist, and they look good: a dress watch is jewelry which happens to tell time.

Quartz watches kind of fall into the middle for me. It runs on electricity, but it won't tap my wrist with two different patterns which tell me if I'm turning left or right when I'm driving, and I can't tell it to remind me in an hour to take the laundry out of the dryer. It won't track my heart rate and I can't play 2048 on it.

So, boring. But that's just my taste, I'm glad you enjoy quartz watches even though they're obviously inferior as technology to a good smart watch.

Are you me? Because this is me:

- Apple daily driver; fancy mechanicals for dressing up

- Utter boredom at the prospect of quartz watches

> And then you can get into radio-controlled and GPS-controlled solar watches that you literally never have to set or change the battery

I got into watches last summer. I was watching a watch-repairman on Twitch ( twitch.tv/mr_horologist ; looks like he has been just working on cars and stuff lately. Darn...) which is relaxing and educational. I dug up my great-grandfather's pocketwatch and got it repaired.

After looking around, I did get a Casio watch exactly like you described (actually, no, it's not GPS, it's so-called "atomic" over-the-air signal from NIST, or other sources in other continents), because in the end I wanted it to do two things: always keep perfect time, yet never require software updates. Not needing a battery is a great additional feature.

One of these, the one with the analog hands instead of (ugly to me) purely digital, although those are cheaper: https://www.casio.com/products/watches/wave-ceptor

To me, that's the perfect type of technology. Sorry you're getting downvoted for bringing up a related, by not exactly the same, topic/opinion.

A mechanical watch is a piece of jewelry that happens to tell time. It’s more like a film camera or record player, things people still actually use.

That Caliber 0100 really is amazing. Looks great too. I like HAQ, but there's something about Seiko designs that just doesn't do it for me.

All that said, I still think you get more for your $7,500 from a luxury mechanical watch. The accuracy of a watch matters so little to me at this point, that's it's almost gone negative; I kind of enjoy setting the time every once in a while. :D

> there's something about Seiko designs that just doesn't do it for me

Totally agree. When it comes to solar-radio the best looking I've found is this, which I bought:

https://www.seikowatches.com/jp-ja/products/seikoselection/s...

Junghans released a solar-radio version of their Max Bill:

https://www.junghans.de/en/collection/watches/junghans-max-b...

... but apparently the hands aren't self-correcting like the Seikos and Citizens and that would bug me way too much because they wouldn't line up perfectly with the markers.

> I still think you get more for your $7,500 from a luxury mechanical watch

I used to agree and then my mind changes; can't say exactly why but I sold my 2 Rolexes and haven't wanted a mech. since.

Anyhow, all my teasing of mech. fans aside, it's all frivolous fun!

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