There are three types of watch movements : Quartz Watches, Manual Wind Watches , and Automatic Watches(Self-Winding ) .Therefore it is vital to know which one is of your preference.
QUARTZ WATCHES:
These watches are operated with battery and do not need a lot of maintenance . Usually the battery needs to be replaced once a year of every two years.. There is also a special kind of quartz that can be called a hybrid, because it is automatic and quartz at the same time. It has an electrical generator that gets charged with the movement of the arm. . These type of watches are made by Japanese or Swiss companies such as Seiko, Tissot , and Omega under model names called “Kinetic”, “Autoquartz”or “Omegamatic . The last kind of Quartz watches are charged with the sun’s energy. These solar watches have solar cells located on the dial that charge the watch mechanism. The most popular of these solar watches is without doubt the Citizen “Eco-Drive”.
MANUAL WIND WATCHES:
These were the first type of movement made . In other words it can be said that they are the classic movements. For this reason they are very desirable by watch enthusiasts. These watches need to be manually wound usually once a day. Once the watch is wound it will keep a power reserve to the next winding. In such cases in more expensive models they can keep up to 18 days or more of power reserve and usually have a power reserve indicator. These expensive models made by Swiss Brands such as Jaeger-Lecoultre and Franck Muller can cost higher than $500,000 depending on their complications.
AUTOMATIC WATCHES:
These watches do not need to be wound , thus they are also called self-winding watches. The timepiece winds itself automatically with the movement of the wrist. The movement of the arm makes the rotor, a metal weight attached to a winding mechanism, to rotate back and forth in a circular motion to wind the mainspring, a flat coiled spring that powers mechanical watches.
It is good to keep in mind that each of these type of watch movements have their advantages and disadvantages. For example , You might think that automatic watches are better than quartz watches because you do need to replace a battery, however one advantage of quartz watches is that they are more accurate than automatic watches. What really matters is that they all show the time , the most valuable asset in life.
Author and Expert in the field of buying and selling fine watches like Rolex Watches as well as Rolex Submariner Oscar Messina is owner of Messina Jewelers.
Tags: clocks, collectibles, Jewelry, watches