In an era where people never leave their smartphones behind, wristwatches have quietly evolved into everyday accessories. Take those trendy “street watches” that go viral on social media for example; their style and versatility are the selling points that keep them popular over time. If you observe closely, you will find this to be true. The watch models you see most often during your daily commute are definitely those few designs.
Many people are familiar with mechanical watches, quartz watches and electronic watches. It is easy to tell mechanical watches apart from quartz ones. However, explaining the relationship and differences between quartz watches and electronic watches clearly is much harder. We often fall into a misunderstanding, believing there is no distinction between electronic watches and quartz watches since both run on batteries. This claim would be ridiculous. In fact, there are major differences between quartz watches and electronic watches.
Quartz watches can be divided into four types
Digital Quartz Watch: A watch that combines the piezoelectric effect of quartz crystals with liquid crystal display using diodes. All its functions are fulfilled entirely by electronic components. It boasts affordable pricing and is widely seen in fashion timepieces.
CK Digital Quartz Watch
Analog Quartz Watch: Also known as analogue quartz wristwatch, it features an analog dial with hands just like a mechanical watch. It can be made with three hands or two hands as required, and may include additional functions such as single-date or dual-date calendar. The power source of a quartz watch is a silver oxide button cell.
Eco-Drive Quartz Watch: It converts light energy into electrical power via solar cells. The electricity is stored in a lithium-ion rechargeable battery. The battery supplies power to an integrated circuit, which generates pulse signals sent to the coil. Electric energy is then converted into kinetic energy to drive gears and hands for time display. Once fully charged, it can operate for roughly 40–180 days in darkness. It delivers precise timekeeping, and the rechargeable battery has a service life of 10 years.
Citizen Eco-Drive Series BM7300-50A, Solar-powered Quartz Watch
Auto Quartz Watch (also known as Kinetic Quartz Watch): It is an analog watch equipped with an automatic power generation system, a perfect combination of automatic mechanical watches and quartz electronic watches. It integrates the advantages of self-charging from automatic mechanical watches and the precise timekeeping of quartz watches. Currently, Tissot from Switzerland and Seiko from Japan both produce auto quartz watches.
The term “Quartz Crisis” is familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in watches. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Swiss watchmaking was nearly defeated by quartz technology. Major traditional Swiss mechanical watch manufacturers barely survived. So what capabilities did quartz watches possess to spark such a massive storm within the Swiss watch industry!
In the 1970s, Seiko even defeated Omega, which prided itself on being the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games.
Overall, its performance advantages boil down to being lightweight, thin and transparent. Beyond that, it was over 100 times more accurate than any watch in the world at that time. Its battery life exceeded one year, 250 times longer than most mechanical watches, while its price was only 1/200 of a mechanical watch’s. It is easy to imagine that the Swiss watch industry was helpless against this disruptive newcomer.
(How mechanical watches survived the Quartz Crisis and evolved into luxury goods and even works of art today? We will cover that next time if you are interested.)
The second hand of a quartz watch jumps in discrete ticks, delivering exceptional timekeeping precision. A monthly deviation within 15 seconds is generally regarded as normal. Its movement uses an integrated circuit board, making assembly highly straightforward. There is no need for manual winding when wearing it, and a single battery typically lasts 2 to 3 years.
However, some quartz watches use lithium batteries with a long service life, lasting approximately 5 to 6 years. Quartz watches are generally cheaper than mechanical watches, yet high-end branded quartz models can carry a hefty price tag, as brands invest heavily in aesthetics and materials. Certain quartz watches are far more valuable than ordinary mechanical watches, usually crafted with 18K gold, diamonds or other precious metals.
What exactly is an electronic watch?
Electronic watches are a new type of timekeeping device that emerged in the 1950s. The earliest electronic watch was known as the “balance wheel hairspring electronic watch”. This watch used an electromagnetic balance wheel instead of a mainspring for power. It adopted the balance wheel and hairspring as the oscillator, powered by a miniature battery, and the electronic circuit drove the balance wheel to operate.
The first-generation electronic watch prototype designed by Elgin (USA)
Electronic watches generally refer to watches that contain electronic circuits. Depending on the vibration system or oscillator used, electronic watches can be categorized into balance-wheel electronic watches, tuning-fork watches, quartz watches and so on.
Steve Jobs Wearing Seiko Quartz Watch
Up to the present day, electronic watches can do much more than simply display the time. They may feature stopwatch functions, date and weekday displays, calculation, data storage, blood pressure measurement, pulse detection, positioning and many other capabilities. Most electronic watches have received a lukewarm response in the market. Compared with mechanical watches boasting rich metallic mechanical texture, these electronic watches come across as less formal. Many people regard electronic watches, especially fully digital ones, as something akin to children’s toys.
However, electronic watches and mechanical watches are positioned differently by nature and are not competitors. Within the thousand-yuan watch segment, the only timepiece capable of rivaling DW is probably Casio’s G-Shock. This watch, with a style vastly different from DW, happens to be an electronic watch that lets you check the time conveniently.
In short: electronic watches include quartz watches, and quartz watches are one category of electronic watches. It all comes down to personal preference!
