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Seven quartz watches to add to your collection
For years, “best quartz watches” would have been seen by purists as something of an oxymoron. The received wisdom was that for a watch to be taken seriously, it needed a mainspring. But high-end quartz watches have long since put paid to that myth: here are the best
The romance of mechanical engineering is unlikely to fade anytime soon but a battery buzz is growing.
The received wisdom has long been that if you want a “proper” timepiece, it has got to have a mainspring – anything other than mechanical was seen as soulless. So what to make of the resurgence of high-end quartz?
For some, it’s about design. The Cartier Santos-Dumont, for instance, is 7mm thick, thanks to its battery-powered movement – 20 per cent thinner than the standard Santos.
For others, it’s about doubling down on the inherent advantage of quartz, which is reliability. A new watch category dubbed “high-accuracy quartz” (HAQ) is gaining traction, particularly among the online watch community. The Grand Seiko 9F86 Quartz GMT, say, is accurate to +5/-5 seconds per year – an astonishing feat.
The romance of mechanical engineering is unlikely to fade anytime soon. But, even for arch traditionalists, here’s a tip: seek out a vintage Rolex Oysterquartz and throw it in the back of the safe. You might just find it pays dividends.
Here, we round up the best quartz watches…