As a real watch fanatic you cannot like Quartz watches. Quartz nearly killed the Swiss watch industry in the late 70s. Explaining it from today’s point of view where mechanical watches are mechanical art with the fascination in the craftsmanship and beautiful finishing, back in the 70s it was more about providing the most accurate time keeper. Today, every smart phone is linked to an NTP server displaying an accurate time signal, so we can focus on beautiful mechanical watches to be worn on the wrist.
The reason to go into Quartz was simply a pursuit of accuracy in the 60s and 70s and Quartz delivered that. That it took the soul out of the mechanical watch, people realised almost too late. Thankfully, today it is probably the Quartz watch that will become a niche. The masses will wear Smart Watches and the people with taste a mechanical watch.
Girard-Perregaux was once at the forefront of the development of the Quartz movement in Switzerland and developed the today’s standard with 32768 HZ quartz frequency. Among the very first releases was the GP 9444 with Caliber 350. To show visibly the technical achievement, some dials were printed with a schematic of the Motorola IC on the dial. A cool piece of history, but made not for eternity. I started to realise when I picked these early Quartz watches up maybe 10-15 years ago, most were still running okay, but now more and more just stop working. Nobody will be able to repair them anymore while even the oldest mechanical watches can be serviced, repaired or restored. I close my case.
As a real watch fanatic you cannot like Quartz watches. Quartz nearly killed the Swiss watch industry in the late 70s. Explaining it from today’s point of view where mechanical watches are mechanical art with the fascination in the craftsmanship and beautiful finishing, back in the 70s it was more about providing the most accurate time keeper. Today, every smart phone is linked to an NTP server displaying an accurate time signal, so we can focus on beautiful mechanical watches to be worn on the wrist.
The reason to go into Quartz was simply a pursuit of accuracy in the 60s and 70s and Quartz delivered that. That it took the soul out of the mechanical watch, people realised almost too late. Thankfully, today it is probably the Quartz watch that will become a niche. The masses will wear Smart Watches and the people with taste a mechanical watch.
Girard-Perregaux was once at the forefront of the development of the Quartz movement in Switzerland and developed the today’s standard with 32768 HZ quartz frequency. Among the very first releases was the GP 9444 with Caliber 350. To show visibly the technical achievement, some dials were printed with a schematic of the Motorola IC on the dial. A cool piece of history, but made not for eternity. I started to realise when I picked these early Quartz watches up maybe 10-15 years ago, most were still running okay, but now more and more just stop working. Nobody will be able to repair them anymore while even the oldest mechanical watches can be serviced, repaired or restored. I close my case.
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