The invention of the quartz watch has made time accessible and affordable worldwide, with many models of quartz watches on sale in the high street and online at very low prices, in fact low grade quartz watches can be made extremely cheap in bulk and many models can be bought for less than £10. You can also rely on the accuracy of quartz watches, so long as the power from the battery is connected and the time was set correctly in the first place then you are certain to have the correct time throughout the lifetime of the battery providing the watch remains undamaged.
Mechanical watches have been around for much longer and even though some models can be bought relatively cheap, the accuracy of the lower priced mechanical watches is not as reliable as their same priced quartz counterparts. So when it comes to buying a watch then the consumer has a tricky decision to make - quartz or mechanical?
There is something magical and wondrous about owning and wearing a mechanical watch, the fact that all those tiny parts placed together can culminate in giving the correct time is awe inspiring, but accuracy can be an issue unless you are paying for a well made and reliable movement such as a Swiss chronograph and this tends to mean buying a watch as more of a luxury item rather than just as means to tell the time, so buying a reliable mechanical watch would be more of an investment with prices ranging from £100 upwards depending on the designer and quality of the watch.
Other things to take into account when buying a mechanical watch is deciding what that watch would be used for. We all have separate lifestyles and wearing an expensive mechanical watch while working on a building site is not a good idea! So if you are thinking about buying a watch and cannot choose between mechanical and quartz then there are several questions to ask yourself regarding your lifestyle and usage of the watch, and this also depends on the level of your investment and affordability. From a £1.99 LCD digital plastic watch to an expensive Swiss movement, all watches have their own way of fitting into your lifestyle, so why own only one watch?
I always found when I owned just one watch that it was not suitable for all occasions. I owned an Omega Swiss Automatic, which was given to me as a present, it was a beautiful and very expensive watch and I enjoyed wearing it wherever I went. However, over the years due to my active lifestyle I had to have it repaired twice and this was very expensive each time, so after the second time it was repaired I mostly left it sitting in the drawer as I became quite afraid of it becoming damaged again if I wore it.
Finally after a few months of not knowing the time, I decided to buy a second watch, not such a luxury model but a cheaper quartz watch. I eventually decided on a Casio digital watch and it only cost £12.99. Now whenever I went out rock climbing, running or just generally hanging about with friends I could wear this watch, safe in the knowledge that if it did break then I could simply replace it without it costing an arm and a leg, and on other occasions when I knew I would not be so active, like business meetings, office work or dinner I could still wear my expensive Omega watch with confidence.
So the question of choosing between a cheap quartz watch and more expensive mechanical watch is easily resolved. Why not buy both, each for their own particular use.
Now 6 years on and my Omega watch is still going strong, although I have bought another quartz watch, but I worked out that I was only spending less than £5 per year in total for my second watch, which is a small price to pay in comparison with expensive repair bills on my Omega!
Paul Williams is an expert in the retail watch sector and works for Watches 2u, one of the largest online retailers of Watches in the UK.
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