It is less accurate, more expensive and needs a service every six years. It is also the reason the watch will outlive you. The case for the spring.
A quartz watch loses perhaps ten seconds a year and costs a few euros to keep running. A mechanical watch loses a few seconds a day and costs a few hundred to service every six years. On paper the argument is over before it starts. In practice most men who care about watches own mechanical ones, and it is worth understanding why before you spend the money.
What is happening inside
A mechanical movement stores energy in a coiled mainspring and releases it through a train of gears, regulated by a balance wheel that swings back and forth at a fixed rate, typically 28,800 times an hour. Hand-wound watches are wound by the crown; automatic watches add a rotor that winds the spring as you move. Both are the same machine. A quartz movement replaces the balance with a crystal that vibrates 32,768 times a second when a battery runs a current through it. It is more precise because the crystal does not care about gravity, temperature or how you slept.
A quartz watch is a tool that measures time. A mechanical watch is a machine that keeps it, and the difference is the whole point.
Why mechanical anyway
Three reasons. First, longevity: a well-made mechanical movement, serviced, runs for a century. There are Omegas from the 1940s on wrists today. No electronics last like that. Second, repairability: every part in a mechanical watch can be made again by a competent watchmaker. When a quartz module dies out of production, the watch is finished. Third, the intangible: a mechanical watch is alive on your wrist, and owning something made by hand that works by physics rather than by battery is a pleasure that does not fade.
The honest costs
A service every five to seven years, €300 to €900 depending on the brand and the complication. Accuracy of minus four to plus six seconds a day for a chronometer, which means resetting it once a month. A power reserve of forty to seventy hours, so a watch left in a drawer over the weekend stops. None of these are problems. They are the terms of the relationship.
Where quartz wins
Travel watches, sports watches and anything you will knock about. A quartz Cartier Tank or a Grand Seiko 9F quartz is a serious watch by any measure. And the Spring Drive movement from Seiko, a mechanical watch regulated by a quartz crystal with no battery, is arguably the most elegant answer to the whole argument. Own one mechanical watch that matters. If the second one is quartz, nobody serious will judge you.
Questions we get asked
Automatic or hand-wound?
Automatic for a daily watch. Hand-wound for a dress watch you wear occasionally and enjoy winding; it is also thinner.
What does in-house mean and does it matter?
That the brand designed and built the movement itself rather than buying it from a supplier. It matters for pride and sometimes for finishing; it does not necessarily mean better timekeeping.
Can I swim with a mechanical watch?
If it is rated 100 metres or more and the crown is screwed down, yes. Have the seals checked at every service.
