Automatic or quartz watch: which should you really choose?

Tokyo, 25 December 1969. A gold watch appears in the shop windows, priced at 450,000 yen, roughly what a popular car cost at the time. It does not tick. It does not need winding. And it drifts by only five seconds a month, when a good mechanical watch gains or loses twenty a day. Within fifteen years or so, this invention would wipe out close to two thirds of Swiss watchmakers. Yet in 2026 people still buy automatic watches, and not out of nostalgia.

So, automatic or quartz? The honest answer fits in two lines. Quartz wins on everything that can be measured: accuracy, price, simplicity. The automatic wins on what cannot: a living mechanism, with no battery, that your wrist keeps running and that is a pleasure to watch. Choose quartz if you want the right time without giving it a thought, an automatic if you want an object that keeps you company. And bear in mind there is a third way, meca-quartz, which you will find in our chronographs.

Two ways of counting time

Every watch needs two things: a source of energy and a steady beat to slice time up. On both counts, our two families could not be more different.

In an automatic watch, the energy comes from you. A half-moon weight, the rotor, swings with every movement of your arm and tightens a spring. The spring unwinds slowly and drives a balance wheel, which plays the part of the pendulum. In the Seiko NH35 fitted to most of our watches, it beats 21,600 times an hour, or six times a second. We have told the full story of this mechanism in how an automatic watch works.

In a quartz watch, the energy comes from a battery. It makes a tiny quartz crystal, cut in the shape of a tuning fork, vibrate. In nearly every watch, that crystal vibrates 32,768 times a second. The figure is no accident: it is 2 multiplied by itself fifteen times, a frequency just above what the human ear can hear. A circuit halves it fifteen times in a row and ends up with exactly one pulse per second, which moves the seconds hand on by one step.

That explains the easiest way to tell them apart. The seconds hand of a quartz watch jumps once a second. That of an automatic moves in steps so close together, six a second on an NH35, that it seems to glide.

The match in figures

Criterion	Automatic (Seiko NH35)	Quartz
Source of energy	The movement of your wrist, or the crown	A battery
Accuracy	From −20 to +40 seconds per day according to the maker	About 15 seconds per month for an ordinary quartz
Left on the bedside table	Stops after a little over 41 hours	Keeps going as long as the battery lasts
Seconds hand	Glides, six steps a second	Jumps, one step a second
Servicing	An overhaul every 2 to 3 years or so, Seiko recommends	A new battery from time to time
What you are buying	A mechanism, a ritual, an object that is alive	The right time and peace of mind

On accuracy, there is no contest. The error an ordinary quartz builds up in a month, an automatic can build up in a day, and that is perfectly normal. Seiko itself points out that the actual rate of a mechanical watch depends on how long it is worn, the temperature, the movement of the arm and how fully the spring is wound. In practice, you reset an automatic now and then, much as you would wind a clock. If yours stops more often than it should, the reason is almost always simple, and we explain it in why an automatic watch stops overnight.

Christmas 1969: the watch that cost as much as a car

The idea of measuring time with a crystal did not come from watchmaking. The first quartz clock was built in 1927 by Warren Marrison and Joseph Horton at Bell Laboratories in the United States. It was a laboratory instrument, not something you could wear.

Thirty years on, size was still the problem. The Seiko Museum recounts that the quartz clock brought into service in broadcasting stations in 1959 was "about the size of a large locker". To turn it into a watch, it had to be shrunk to one three hundred thousandth of that volume. The steps followed one another: a prototype table clock in 1962, the crystal chronometer that served as the main clock of the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964, then prototype pocket watches and wristwatches in 1966 and 1967.

On 25 December 1969, Seiko launched the Quartz Astron 35SQ, the world's first quartz wristwatch. An 18-carat gold case, 450,000 yen, and astonishing accuracy: ±0.2 seconds per day, ±5 seconds per month, when mechanical watches of the day ran at around ±20 seconds per day. Its crystal vibrated at 8,192 hertz; the 32,768 hertz standard came later. One detail mattered a great deal: Seiko published its patents on the quartz tuning fork and the step motor, which let the whole industry take them up.

The Swiss earthquake

What followed goes by two names. In Switzerland it is the "quartz crisis". In the United States, the "quartz revolution". The figures are the same: by 1978, quartz watches had overtaken mechanical ones in popularity. Between 1970 and 1983, the number of Swiss watchmakers fell from 1,600 to 600. Between 1970 and 1988, jobs in Swiss watchmaking shrank from 90,000 to 28,000.

Why the automatic never went away

By rights, the story should have ended there. A technology that is more accurate, cheaper and simpler replaces the old one: that is what happened to the typewriter. The mechanical watch changed roles instead. No longer the most exact way of knowing the time, it became an object valued for the care that goes into making it.

In the workshop, we often see the same reaction: the first time someone watches the balance wheel beating through an open heart dial, like the one on our Nautmod, they never look at their watch in quite the same way again. An automatic needs no battery. It starts up again when you put it back on. Its seconds hand glides instead of jumping. These are small things, and they are exactly the ones people choose it for.

Which one is right for you?

The real question is not "which is better" but "how are you going to wear it".

• You wear the same watch almost every day. The automatic is in its element: your wrist winds it and it never stops. Our blue dial watch with a fluted bezel or the S Royal are made for this.
• You rotate between several watches. An automatic left to rest stops in under two days; you then have to reset the time and the date. Nothing serious, but if that irritates you, a battery watch will be more restful.
• You need the exact time. Appointments to the minute, trains, recordings: quartz, without hesitation.
• You like to understand what you are wearing. The automatic. It is a small machine, and it lets you look at it.
• You want a chronograph. Take a look at meca-quartz.

The third way: meca-quartz

The Seiko VK63 in our Saytona reconciles the two camps. The time is kept by a quartz, accurate to ±20 seconds per month according to its maker, with a battery that lasts about three years. The chronograph, on the other hand, is driven by a mechanism: the pushers have the click of a mechanical chronograph and the long hand glides instead of jumping. You get the accuracy of one and the feel of the other. Our guide to the movements in our watches compares the three calibres, and we explain how the sub-dials work in what a chronograph is for.

Three received ideas to forget

"Quartz is cheap stuff." The first quartz watch was made of gold and cost as much as a car. Quartz became inexpensive because it lends itself to mass production, not because it is a cut-price technology.

"An automatic is more accurate, since it costs more to make." It is the other way round. Even an excellent mechanical watch cannot match an ordinary quartz. You are paying for the mechanism, not for the last second.

"An automatic needs a lot of servicing." It needs a little: Seiko recommends an overhaul every 2 to 3 years or so, during which the movement is cleaned, oiled and regulated. Between overhauls, all you have to do is wear it.

Whichever you choose, our watches are hand-assembled in Paris, covered by a 2-year warranty and delivered free in France within 1 to 3 weeks, with 14 days to change your mind.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an automatic watch and a quartz watch?

An automatic draws its energy from the movement of the wrist and counts time with a mechanical balance wheel. A quartz watch is powered by a battery and counts time with a crystal vibrating 32,768 times a second. The first is a mechanism, the second an electronic circuit.

Is an automatic watch more accurate than a quartz watch?

No. An ordinary quartz drifts by about 15 seconds a month. An automatic movement such as the Seiko NH35 is rated at −20 to +40 seconds per day. You choose an automatic for its mechanism, not for its accuracy.

Does an automatic watch have a battery?

No. Its energy comes from a spring that the rotor tightens with every movement of the arm. Set down, it runs for a little over 41 hours in the case of the NH35, then stops until you wear it or wind it again.

How can you tell a quartz watch from an automatic?

Look at the seconds hand. If it jumps cleanly from one second to the next, it is a quartz. If it moves almost continuously, it is mechanical. A transparent case back, where there is one, also shows the rotor of an automatic.

What is a meca-quartz?

It is a hybrid movement used for chronographs: a quartz keeps the time, a mechanism drives the chronograph. The Seiko VK63 in our Saytona is one, accurate to ±20 seconds per month.

Sources

• The Seiko Museum Ginza, "The birth of the quartz timepiece" (1959 clock, Tokyo Games, Quartz Astron of 25 December 1969, 450,000 yen, accuracy): museum.seiko.co.jp
• The Seiko Museum Ginza, IEEE Milestone award (18-carat gold case, ±20 seconds per day for mechanical watches of the time, patents published): museum.seiko.co.jp
• Wikipedia, "Quartz clock" (1927, 32,768 hertz, accuracy of an ordinary quartz): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_clock
• Wikipedia, "Quartz crisis" (Swiss watchmaking figures from 1970 to 1988): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_crisis
• Seiko Instruments, "Technical Guide & Parts Catalogue Cal. NH3 Series" (power reserve of more than 41 hours, −20 to +40 seconds per day), manufacturer's document: Seiko Instruments PDF
• Seiko, instruction manual for calibres 4R35 and 4R36, specifications (21,600 vibrations per hour, accuracy conditions) and after-sales service (overhaul every 2 to 3 years): seikowatches.com and seikowatches.com
• Time Module, "VK Series" (meca-quartz, ±20 seconds per month): timemodule.com
• Photo: Francis Flinch, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org). Other photo: SmodParis workshop.

Seiko and Miyota are the makers of the movements mentioned. SmodParis is an independent workshop, not affiliated with these brands.