What is a quartz watch & How does a quartz watch work?

Vaer Watches Updated by Vaer Watches

The term quartz refers to a watch with a quartz movement. Here at Vaer, we love quartz watches because they're affordable, accurate, and easy to care for.

Using the term quartz to describe a watch refers specifically to the technology powering the watch's inner timekeeping device. This timekeeping machine, referred to as a watch movement, serves a similar role in a watch as an engine in a car. Like a car engine, it's typically hidden from view and is the core technology powering all mechanical operations.

"Quartz watches are a lot like electric-powered cars. They rely on battery power, they're super efficient and they have comparatively low operating costs. However, like electric cars, some people feel that they lack the charm and personality - and for those folks, the appeal of mechanical watches is a lot like the impractical appeal of a vintage V8."

- Reagan Cook, Vaer Co-Founder

Why is it called a quartz watch?

The movement in a quartz watch relies on an electronic oscillator regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. Unlike more traditional mechanical watches, a quartz watch's crystal oscillator creates a signal with very precise intervals, leading to far greater accuracy than even the most expensive mechanical watches. Beyond the simple oscillation, the quartz movement is also responsible for a simple computational logic that determines time-based cycles such as seconds, minutes, hours and days. There are a variety of complications based around the core quartz technology (GMTs, chronographs etc.) and there has been a near-endless variety of quartz watch designs since the technology first arrived in the late 1970s, and today quartz watches and clocks are the most widely used timekeeping technology on earth.

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