Crystal Method: Is There Such a Thing as a Beautiful Quartz Calibre?

They say history is written by the victors. Thus, in the current luxury watch landscape, mechanical calibres sit at the top of the horological Mount Olympus. Meanwhile, quartz-powered watches are often regarded as cheap, mass-produced, and lacking in artistry.

But it wasn’t always this way: recent relaunches from Movado (the Museum Imperiale), Louis Vuitton (the Monterey), and Girard-Perregaux (the Laureato FIFTY) pay tribute to cutting-edge, quartz-powered timepieces of the past, while replacing their battery-powered innards with automatic movements.

And quartz may just be the technology of the future. These days, it seems like everyone from indie upstarts to the luxe houses is looking to tap into this alternate energy.

I’m a child of the ‘80s, with a collection of fun Swatches, Casios, and even original TAG Heuer F1 models to prove it. Still, my first forays with quartz left me cold.

The watches were fun, but they still felt cheap due to the tiny, one-size-fits-all movements rattling around on the inside, barely secured by a white plastic movement holding ring. In fact, none of the components – neither the battery nor the coil – were pretty at all.

I missed the immediate emotional connection of winding my watches, setting the gears and springs into motion, and holding the timepiece against my ear to hear it tick.
 

But recent conversations with both brands and collectors have given me a new appreciation for the art of quartz. And while the Quartz Crisis is often cited as the event that almost killed the Swiss watch industry, quartz-powered movements were meant to be its savior.

Seiko released the first quartz watch on Christmas Day 1969; Longines wasn’t far behind with the Ultra-Quartz. Longines continued to innovate throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, introducing the ultra-thin Feuille in 1979 and its high-precision V.H.P. model in 1984.
 

Even today, the most precise mechanical watch is not as accurate as one regulated by a quartz crystal and an electronic oscillator. However, in terms of prestige, quartz has taken a hit since the end of the Quartz Crisis.

For brands like Blancpain, being anti-quartz is baked into the corporate manifesto. Starting in 1980 and continuing until at least 1997, the manufacture attached this statement to many of its print ads: “Since 1735, there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be.”

In fact, even the brand’s 2023 collaboration with Swatch – the Scuba Fifty Fathoms – was powered by a Sistem51 automatic movement.
 

But just as the slimmer silhouettes of the 1970s and ‘80s are making a comeback, so too is there a renewed appreciation for quartz technology. And then there’s the meca-quartz (or mechaquartz) – a hybrid developed by Frédéric Piguet and Jaeger-LeCoultre in the 1980s, which married a mechanical component to a standard quartz chronograph to deliver the satisfying feel of a sweeping second hand.

Cult indie brand Brew is probably the best example of this because almost every watch in its catalog is a mechaquartz. That said, in 2021, Furlan Marri won the “Horological Revelation” Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for the brand’s “Mr. Grey” model. This neo-vintage mechaquartz chronograph perfectly combined a retro-modern design with deluxe finishes.

Beyond precision and nostalgia, the quartz revival is also being fuelled by accessibility.

No one will deny that quartz-powered models tend to be less expensive than mechanicals (just compare the price of Breitling’s Endurance Pro models, which are all quartz-powered, against any of its other models). This makes them appealing to emerging enthusiasts.
 

But another thing collectors like is a watch that stands out in the crowd. For a new generation of watchmakers, using the technology gives them more flexibility to match the buyer’s tastes.

According to Ray Lin, the co-founder of Hong Kong-based Sunrex, “every watch is a tool watch.” Thus, almost all innovations over the last five decades have been explicitly aimed at just one task: telling time well. For Lin, the choice to use quartz movements reflects the lifestyle aspect of the brand’s collections. These durable calibers “can face everyday situations.”
 

Quartz watches are also more robust than their mechanical counterparts, as the finicky springs and regulators of a mechanical movement are replaced by a battery, a circuit board, and a sliver of quartz that oscillates with an electric charge.

One can also appreciate the practicality of using a quartz-powered timepiece when it comes to complicated watches. For example, adjusting a moonphase or perpetual calendar is trickier than merely winding a watch every morning. If you don’t wear that watch every day, you need to keep it on a winder to maintain its accuracy. Some of us simply don’t have enough space to allocate to a single watch.
 

As for innovation, battery-free pieces such as the TAG Heuer Aquaracer Solargraph (using Solargraph technology), Tissot’s PRC 100 Solar (using Lightmaster Solar Technology), and Seiko’s motion-charged hybrids (using Kinetic Direct Drive technology), address the demand for environmentally thoughtful mechanisms (i.e., fewer batteries, less waste). This, in turn, affects product design.

Because quartz calibres are generally smaller and lighter, they also free up design options. That’s why so many jewelry watches feature quartz movements. The 23mm Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Mini released in 2024 is a good example of this. It is powered by the calibre 2730 quartz movement.
 

And for those who remain wary of the longevity of quartz, Lin points out that it is now a mature technology.

As my quartz collection continues to grow (but my savings account doesn’t), I have added three very vintage pieces to my watch box: a 1970s Universal Geneve from the 1970s, a 1978 Zenith Time Command (the first ani-digi watch), and an Accutron from 1980.

All house movements with interesting stories. The UG’s calibre, for example, was developed in collaboration with Accutron when Accutron began phasing out the tuning fork technology.

This flexibility is essential to design-forward outfits like Brew and Sunrex. Which brings us to the big question: Can quartz movements be beautiful

The new generation of independents is also mindful that they cannot skimp on finishes. For example, at the Sunrex booth at the Toronto Timepiece Show, visitors trying on the timepieces all remarked how substantial the watches felt – specifically noting the roundness and play of light of the slightly domed crystal as well as the heft. There are no plastic parts on these chronographs – even the ring holding the movement in place is made of stainless steel.
 

Some brands are so confident in quartz that they use exhibition casebacks to show off decorated calibres.

Grand Seiko, for example, has an exceptional quartz movement known as the Caliber 9F. In 2018, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this calibre, Grand Seiko added a display caseback to the SBGV238, putting its hand-decorated 9F82 on display.
 

Then, of course, there is F.P.Journe, one of the hottest haute horology houses, which offers the exquisitely finished Élégante, with its circuitry surrounding a heart-shaped decoration.

My quartz journey is far from complete. I’m still mostly living in the mechanical world. But the more I learn, the more open I am to the possibilities of crystal power.