the quartz invasion

When I first began collecting watches, I can remember the allure I had for the first automatic mechanical timepiece I saw. After obtaining my first automatic timepiece, especially one with an exhibition caseback, I immediately fell in love with being able to view the inner-workings of the watch movement. Getting a birds-eye view of the true essence of watchmaking, only served to wet my appetite, and admittedly, I became a bit of an automatic watch snob.

I then went on about a two to three year run of autos only, not even wanting to consider adding a quartz timepiece to my collection. I did occasionally add mechanical, hand-wound timepieces, but automatic timepieces ruled the day.

Eventually, the number of automatic watches within my collection, not only outpaced my storage space, but also available winders to keep my automatic timepieces wound, when not being worn. So, whenever I would choose to wear a timepiece that hadn't been in the rotation for a while, I'd have to go through the chore of setting the timepiece.

Then, one fateful day, most likely a day when I was rushing to head out the door, spending the additional time to set one of my autos didn't sound to appealing at the time, and I made the decision to opt for a grab-n-go quartz timepiece. And so began the resurgence of quartz timepieces within my collection.

Soooo many of our days are consumed with endless hours of doing stuff, and a quartz timepiece offer me the convenience of having one less thing to do, in a day of having many different things that need to get done. As my spare time has decreased over the years, the value of quartz timepieces has increased, and during any given week, my ratio to quartz versus automatic or mechanical timepieces being worn, is probably 40 / 60, and continuing to creep forward towards an even split.

Quartz timepieces had their best shining moments within the watch industry during the 1970's and 1980's, crippling the Swiss Automatic watch industry, but the quartz renaissance is happening again, within my collection.