After hours spent gazing with adoring eyes at the smooth sweep of a mechanical movement’s seconds hand, the ticking of a quartz watch can seem garish, unrefined, or almost brutish in unsophistication. Mechanical movements are accurate, visually intriguing and take an extraordinary level of skill to create. Where quartz watches are made, mechanical watches are crafted. But don’t be too quick to dismiss the ticking timepiece. Aside from the conveniences of lower ongoing maintenance, superior accuracy and no requirement to regularly wind, there are plenty of reasons that quartz watches should command our respect. The intricate devices inside many examples of modern battery-powered watches are serious and deserve serious contemplation. We need to talk about Spring Drive Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive reimagined what application quartz crystal and electrical current might have in a watch movement, aesthetically and philosophically, as much as mechanically. The perhaps blasphemous marriage of mechanical and electrical leverages the best of quartz to improve the accuracy of a traditional movement, while still being regulated by centuries-old technology. You never forget the first time you see a Spring Drive movement. They have the rare power to make the sweeping seconds hand on a standard mechanical movement look pedestrian.…
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