Meca-Quartz, Is It Really The Mecca of Chrono Movements?
Meca-Quartz watch movements have been all the buzz recently within the watch industry, but what's all the fuss about? And will the Mecca-Quartz movement really be the next game-changer for the industry?
The reality is, that Meca-Quartz movements have been utilized for over 40-years, by some very notable, high-end luxury brands. The Meca-Quartz is a hybrid movement which combines a battery powered, Quartz movement, with a mechanical Chronograph module. The general idea being that the movement will afford the best of both worlds; super accurate timekeeping, which is the earmark of Quartz movements, and the smooth sweep of a chronograph second hand, found within mechanical timepieces. The concept of movement manufacturers attempting to capture the essence of a mechanical or automatic timepiece, within a Quartz platform, isn't unique. ISA, another movement company has done this as well, with their pure Quartz movements. Albeit, the ISA method to obtain the Chronograph second-hand sweep, is more akin to an optical illusion, as the ISA movements simply use a higher tick-rate per second, to obtain the visual "sweep" effect.
If nothing else, it's a nice marketing tool by both movement manufacturers and watch companies to utilize the hybrid movements. After all, there is definitely a love affair between watch lovers and timepieces with mechanical and mechanical automatic movements, some watch purists choosing to go mechanical only as their movement preference. So why not bring some of those purists back from the dark-side of Quartz, by offering lovely sweep goodness? The Meca-Quartz movements will also allow for more flexibility with case designs by watch companies, affordability, and supposedly, an increased level of accuracy; I'd love to see a long-term accuracy test between Meca-Quartz and other quartz movements, to see if the enhanced accuracy claims are indeed true.
There seem to be some nice features and advantages that the Meca-Quartz movements bring, with very little to any downside, so either way, the resurgence of the Meca-Quartz movement could prove to be a big win for both watch brands and watch collectors alike.