Quartz watches are something of a tetchy subject in the world of horology. They’re generally viewed as cheap and disposable products, abhorred by watch enthusiasts for bringing about the near extinction of the mechanical watch industry during the namesake ‘Quartz Crisis’ of the late 1970s-1980s.
But, I would argue that quartz timekeeping, in fact, liberated mechanical watches… allowing mechanical watchmaking to move from a practical raison d’etre to a more expressive one.
To use fine art as a parallel, think of it in terms of what photography did for painting - giving the latter space to fully develop into a higher form, spawning impressionism, cubism and so on.
When it comes to its own merits, dig a little deeper into quartz and you’ll find that an array of interesting, well-designed and in-their-own-right collectible pieces have been produced under its banner and over the decades too.
A lineage which many watch brands happily continue to this day…
Hamilton
Ventura H2430114
This now-iconic model made its debut in 1957 as a part of the ‘500’ collection, the world’s first electric watches and a notable waypoint in the development of quartz wristwatches.
In celebration of this new style of timekeeping, the Ventura featured a bold modernist shaped-case with asymmetric, angular lines. It won an army of fans, including Elvis Presley, who’s hit song ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ inspired the gradient dial colour of this year’s new Ventura H2430114.
In an apparent nod to its battery-powered history, the H2430114 – alongside numerous other modern Ventura models – is produced with the 500’s successive and superior quartz technology.
32mm x 50mm; £870, hamiltonwatch.com
Grand Seiko
Snowflake Quartz SBGX355G
A high-end offshoot from the mainline Seiko brand (maker of the first quartz watch in 1969), Grand Seiko may be more famed for its Spring Drive, but it also produces some of the finest quartz timepieces every to be manufactured.
And the SBGX355 ‘Snowflake’ is no exception. Its in-house 9F movement is assembled by hand and produced to obsessive standards. As such, it can boast of torque comparable to that of a mechanical calibre, exact orientation between second hand / marker, instantaneous date change and high-end finishing. Housed in a nicely proportioned 37mm stainless-steel case, it also incorporates GS’s beloved, textured ‘Snowflake’ dial and a tempered blued-steel second hand.
37mm, £3,700, grandseikoboutique.co.uk
Christopher Ward
C63 Valour
The C63 Valour is the latest addition to the brand’s MOD-approved Military collection and the first watch dedicated to all three of His Majesty's Armed Forces.
It sees the re-introduction of quartz into CW’s line-up in the form of the thermo-compensated ETA Calibre G10.212i, featuring a split timing function and Chronometer accuracy of +/- 10 seconds per year.
The new trio of chronographs are all crafted from stainless steel, with 39mm Light-catcher™ cases wrist-hugging 11.55mm case height.
The dial features a reverse-panda colour scheme, reminiscent of 1960s sports
chronographs, with each subdial hand colour-coded to represent each section of the Armed Forces: red for the Army, dark blue for the Navy, and light blue for the RAF.
Pictured on Consort Bracelet, £750, https://christopherward.com/
Citizen
Iconic Nature Limited Edition
Looking to Japan’s UNESCO-protected craft of paper making for inspiration, Citizen’s Iconic Nature Limited Edition features a dial made from Tosa Washi paper.
This material not only has an attractive naturalistic texture, but also has the benefit of allowing light to pass through its surface and thereby charge the Iconic Nature’s light-powered Eco-Drive movement.
With the dial’s textured finish only fully appreciated with play of light, it marries up nicely on both an aesthetic and technical level with the Eco-Drive movement.
Citizen’s proprietary SuperTitanium, DLC-coated black, has been used for the 38.3 x 12.2mm case on the right.
38mm, £2,995, citizenwatch.co.uk
Tissot
PRX
With the PRX, Tissot has perfectly ridden the zeitgeist wave for integrated-bracelet-steel-sports watches. At an accessible price point to boot, the PRX can trace its family-tree back to a 1978 quartz watch from Tissot’s archives.
So, aside from the ‘grab and go’ practicality afforded by quartz, to those in the market for a PRX, I would direct your attention past the automatic versions and to the quartz models, which directly and authentically continue its heritage bloodline.
The PRX’s name derives from a long-standing, dual-meaning Tissot acronym for “Particularly Robust” or “Precision and Resistance”, combined with the Roman numeral “X” in reference to 10 bars of water resistance.
From £335, tissotwatches.com
Bulova
Jet Star
A tweaked reissue of a vintage design from 1973, Bulova’s contemporary Jet Star packs one of the brand’s Precisionist High Precision Quartz movements under the hood.
Thanks to this movement and its exceptionally high 262kHz frequency, the Jet Star’s second hand smoothly sweeps round the dial at an imperceptible 16 beats per second rate; omitting the signature jumping second hand ‘tick’ associated with quartz watches in general.
Supplied with both a handsome vintage-esque multi-link bracelet and a leather strap, the design of the 40mm case has been respectfully updated from that of the original to feature sharper, geometric lines in keeping with evolving consumer taste.
A star for the jet set.
£449, bulova.com
TAG Heuer
Aquaracer Professional 200 Solargraph
Forming a part of TAG’s water-borne Aquaracer range, comes the Aquaracer Professional 200 Solograph. Highlights include, a unidirectional diver’s bezel with inlaid SuperLuminova; a 40mm case made from heavy-duty Grade 2 titanium; and, as its name suggests, 200m of water resistance.
The real hook is TAG’s solar-powered Calibre TH50-00 which requires only two minutes of sun or artificial light through the semi-transparent dial to generate enough charge for a whole-day’s operation. Full charging requires 20-hours of light exposure, which provides charge for six months of operation. A ‘power save’ mode, good for three-and-a-half years, can be activated by pulling out the crown.
£2,800, tagheuer.com
Furlan Marri
Rosso Grigio
Startup brand Furlan Marri has made waves in the watch collecting community with its loving homages to ‘blue chip’ vintage watch designs, combining normally ruinously expensive vintage looks with modern usability and economic pricing.
Driven with a Seiko-manufactured meca-quartz movement – a hybrid which merges quartz with a mechanical chronograph module – the Rosso Grigio clearly draws from the Patek Phillipe ref.1463 for its attractive ‘Tasti Tondi’ (round button) chronograph pushers.
Its ‘sector’ dial with applied ‘Breguet-style’ numerals is straight out of the vintage playbook too. The dial also includes a rarely seen ‘physician’s’ asthmometer scale for measuring respiratory rate.
CHF555, furlanmarri.com
Casio
GM2110 ‘CasiOak’
No round-up of quartz watches could be considered complete without inclusion of the venerable Casio G-Shock.
Beloved for its reliability and near invincibility, G-Shocks have found their way onto the wrists of everyone from astronauts to rappers
Nicknamed the ‘CasiOak’ for its resemblance to Audemars Piguet’s iconic Royal Oak, the 2100 series has fast become one of G-Shock’s most popular.
Initially, it was only available in resin, but in 2022 the brand released a series of ‘Full Metal’ versions, including the GM-B2100D-1AER in steel. Watertight to an impressive 200 metres, it crams in chronograph, world time, alarm, full calendar, bluetooth connectivity and more
into its 49.8mm case.
£449, g-shock.co.uk
Paulin
Modul
Glaswegian indie watch brand Paulin has won a devoted band of customers since its launch 11 years ago. Now owned by fellow Scottish independent watchmaker, anOrdain, last year’s Modul wristwatch was the first model launched under new management.
With its 35mm cushion case, punchy use of block colour, mid-century leaning dial typography, and squared-off handset, it’s a well thought-out, charming design.
Wearing its quartz credentials with pride, an exhibition caseback displays its discontinued ‘new old stock’ Swiss ETA 955.112; a movement which has previously found use with the likes of TAG Heuer and Longines too. Not bad company to be keeping.
39mm, £450, paulinwatches.com
Omega x Swatch
MoonSwatch Mission To Earthphase
Swatch, in an extension to its much south-after MoonSwatch collab with Omega, has introduced the Mission To Earthphase. In keeping with the MoonSwatch’s Speedmaster / NASA roots, this novel iteration incorporates moonphase and earthphase complications.
The lumed moonphase sub-dial is found at the 3 o’clock position and displays both Northern and Southern hemisphere lunar appearance.
While the also lumed earthphase sub-dial is found at 10 o’clock and shows how the earth looks from the moon at the given time. In further reference to the moon, the dial bears a granulated pattern to resemble moon dust.
£288, swatch.com
