A Love Letter to Quartz Part III: Assisted Quartz

One of the most precise watches you can possibly think of is already in your pocket. Yes – your iPhone/iOS device (Android/Google probably has something similar) – Apple has their own network of about 15 strata 1 class network time servers, placed around the world to minimize latency and signal run times. Stratum 0 is an atomic clock, stratum 1 means, directly connected to a reference time, making iPhones stratum 2-time devices (stratum 2 is connected to a stratum 1 server via a network path) – iPhones (and other Apple products) sync up to this time servers every few hours so your iPhone is usually only a few thousand to a few hundreds of a second off from the atomic reference time.

Think about that for a moment – maybe that is the reason a lot of people don’t wear watches anymore, since a watch (including all complications like Chronograph, multiple Timezones, perpetual calendar, etc) you never have to set or worry about changing Daylight Saving Time –  is already in your pocket.Image from: NTP – Network Time Protocol Zeitsynchronisierung im Netzwerk (NTP-zeit.de)

However – left on its own devices (switching the phone in airplane mode and letting it there for a few days) shows what the internal quartz clock is capable of without “cheating” and correcting itself via the time servers. Like many other quartz watches, we end up with around +/-15 seconds per month – or in most cases, worse!

So – we have plenty of so-called assisted accuracy watches, some use atomic signals distributed via longwave radio signals, some use GPS signals, some use Bluetooth (yep) and connect to your phone, which in turn is already plenty precise thanks to its internal synching.

Image: Casio G-Shock G-Steel Carbon Core with Bluetooth time sync

While these watches are in practice more or less constantly 100% spot time-wise, quartz aficionados see this a bit like cheating. It’s like correcting your watch every day and then claiming that, in one week, your mechanical watch is still +/- 0 seconds per day – yeah – but you set it daily duh….

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A great example of these watches is Casio G-Shock Squares. Especially the GMW-B5000 series is one of my personal favorites. It connects to atomic time servers via long-wave radio in Japan, China, the US, Germany, and the UK (covering most of Europe).1-1Source: Citizen Watch Company

If that is not available you can install an app on your phone and the watch will connect to your phone via Bluetooth and sync itself 4 times a day to the phone time. The watch will also change daylight savings time automatically – very welcome if you live in an area that observes DST. Since this synching with GPS satellites, radio waves or Bluetooth is usually quite a battery intensive most of these watches feature solar battery charging.Image: Casio G-Shock GMW-B5000D-1ER

So here we go – intrinsic high accuracy quartz precision, assisted precision, and just average precision – whatever you prefer, there is something for everyone when using quartz.

Personal Take

Personally, I find that the solar aspect makes all the difference even for intrinsic high accuracy quartz. Example: My +/- 10 seconds per year Grand Seiko SBGN009 (while having independent hour hands) still needs a battery change every 3-5 years. That means I have to set the time again. In the worst-case scenario, my watch would be half a minute slow or fast after 3 years of running independently. How crazy is that? In the best-case scenario, it would be probably less than 10 seconds. Now imagine you take the battery change out of the equation with not having to exchange the battery at all but using sunlight. Genius. Real-world usage would then probably see a watch being within less than a minute off after 10 years of running autonomously. And Citizen just did just that with their new 0100 movements. Combined with their Eco-Drive technology the maximum derivation possible after 10 years would be +/-10 seconds in 10 years. Citizen Caliber 0100: The Most Advanced, Accurate Eco-Drive Movement Launches in Three New Watches | WatchTime - USA's No.1 Watch MagazineThis is amazing precision and accuracy – it really makes me appreciate watches as what they were meant to be – tools to tell the time. As precise as possible. I hope this little series has triggered some interest in quartz watches in you or at least given you a few reasons to appreciate quartz more. Quartz watches don’t deserve the bad reputation they have in some of the watch enthusiast circles. Again – if FP Journe creates quartz watches and movements there must be something to it, don’t you think? F. P. Journe Élégante - $13k for Quartz? - The Truth About WatchesImage: F.P. Journe ÉLÉGANTE 48 MM TITANIUM

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