A Love Letter to Quartz Part II – High Accuracy Quartz

Follow me in the rabbit hole that is HAQ (short for High Accuracy Quartz).

The definition of “Accuracy” is:

accuracy

/ˈakjʊrəsi/

noun

noun: accuracy

Scottish Watches and Bark and Jack

the quality or state of being correct or precise. “we have confidence in the accuracy of the statistics”

TECHNICAL

the degree to which the result of a measurement, calculation, or specification conforms to the correct value or a standard.

Google Images, thanks google.

Image: Accurate vs Precise – Google Images

So there you have it. Very, very accurate. So you might say, well then, a Casio, Seiko or Citizen GPS assisted  watch, or Multi Band radio wave, or even Bluetooth to your phone/internet etc. is the most accurate watch as it corrects itself at fixed intervals to the nuclear time of the GPS satellites or other highly precise watches. Done. Well, not so fast, my friend. Following this definition an Apple iPhone is the most precise watch you have in any case, Apple has created Stratum 1 level time servers around the world so that iPhones (and other iOS devices) are adjusting themselves to these time servers (when they are connected to the internet) every few hours ( more to be exp0lained in part 3). So that the internal Apple iPhone time is only between a hundreds and thousands of a second “off” the reference time. It doesn’t really get any better than that for the normal person. Usually, your computers operating system does the same thing in varying time intervals depending on which OS you use and sync themselves up to some NTP time servers.

New type of atomic clock could help scientists detect dark matter and study gravity's effect on time | The nation press

Image: Urwerk’s Atomic Clock , $2,7 million US – not for your wrist. Image from: thenationpress.net

Precision – by itself or with “help”

This is exactly where the HAQ community is quite peculiar. And the reason is: Left alone, these watches are just as good as +/- 15 seconds per MONTH – incredible for mechanical watch lovers, laughable for HAQ watch aficionados. This means that watches without the assist of a corrective time signal will not be very accurate. Hence the HAQ community decided (it’s not any official standard by any means) that the watch has to show an “intrinsic” precision of plus/minus 10 seconds per YEAR to be considered HAQ. Completely on itself, without any “outside” interference of time signals via BT, internet, radio waves or GPS signals.

And then there is the environmental temperature

No – we are not talking about global warming and its effect on quartz watches. But the swinging of the quartz crystal is important – as this will end up being the measurement to move the second hand/ gear train forward by the right intervals. Quartz crystals are unfortunately swinging faster or slower depending on the temperature of the environment. That “problem” of the quartz crystal ever so slightly vibrating differently in different temperatures, is overcome with Thermo-Compensation. The watch measures a few hundred to a few thousand times a day which temperature the crystal is at and compensates for this with a small calculated offset. Again – this needs to happen inside the watch and completely autonomous. A lot of manufacturers claim the best accuracy is achieved when the watch is worn at least 8 hours a day. Because when worn on human skin with a body temp of 37 degrees you pretty much know how warm the watch will be given normal weather conditions.

All fine and dandy – aren’t there any official standards?

So – what about COSC? Breitling just released some of their new Professional watches (Endurance Pro) and like all Breitlings these Quartz watches are also COSC Certified Chronometers (for quartz). Unfortunately this is as well not really that high of a standard in high accuracy terms. A Chronometer certified quartz watch can still be “in spec” when going fast or slow for about 0.07 seconds per day at 23 degrees Celsius and plus/minus 0.2 seconds at 8 or 38 degrees Celsius. That can add up t more than a minute per year…and still be called Chronometer.

Image: Breitling Endurance Pro – Chronometer certified Quartz movement inside

So who actually makes HAQ watches?

Well there is Citizen – they carry the crown for the most accurate production movement in the world. Recently they combined the movement with their Eco Drive solar power (a great combination). They produce a movement capable of plus/minus 1 second per year. With the inclusion of a solar powered battery system – the watch, once set, will be a maximum (worst case) of 10 seconds fast or slow after a whole DECADE of use. In reality it will most likely be less than that. And the watch will likely continue ticking for a few decades until the rechargeable battery needs replacing. A true marvel of technology and engineering.

Image and text auto-translated from citizen.jp

Then there is Seiko (Grand Seiko) with their 9F Quartz movements – they come in different variants with plus/minus 5 or 10 seconds per year depending on their “grade”. These movements are assembled by a single watchmaker for each movement, are hermetically sealed from the battery part and require very little to no service for up to 50 years (!!!). Pretty decent and a marvel of watchmaking even if you are a fan of mechanical watches. Little fact: watches with a precision of 5 seconds per year have a little star on the dial – if it’s not present the watch will “only” be precise to 10 seconds per year.

 

Image: left Grand Seiko SBGN009 +/-10spy, right: SBGN007 +/-5 spy

Next up we have Longines or in a broader sense the Swatch group Certina, Tissot etc. They came out recently with a brilliant movement capable of 5 seconds per year derivation bettering their previous one by 50% (down from 10 spy). However it’s worth noting that these watches are already little computers with an analog display – rather than a traditional watch. They can independently move the hands and even continue time keeping while the hands are in a power saving mode and stand still. The Grand Seikos and Citizens are more traditional with their gear trains in this regard using the quartz mechanism to give the impulse to drive the hands, rather than using motors for each hand etc. to “display”. On the other hands it means the Grand Seiko and Citizen HAQ watches are mostly “dumb” meaning you would need to adjust the date every other months, while the Longines watches are perpetual calendars as well where this is not needed.

What about the high-end luxury brands?

Let’s leave away the fact that Grand Seiko and The Citizen Chronomaster are playing in that field with prices for special editions going in the tens of thousands of dollars, there are and were high end luxury brands playing this field. Rolex had their Oysterquartz movement that was produced for 25 years and last sold in the 2003 Rolex catalog. We had mentioned Breitling before as well, they never stopped selling quartz movements…. So who else?

Another contender for quartz watches is F.P. Journe  – yes, THAT magnificent watchmaker, one of the greatest alive, is spending his time producing a quartz watch. Let that sink in for a moment…..

Around $10k (if you can get one as they are super popular and hard to get) will buy you a quartz watch from one of the most coveted watch maker of current times.

 

2 Replies to “A Love Letter to Quartz Part II – High Accuracy Quartz

  1. Longines is no more a computer than Citizen. Gear trains do not a quality watch make with regard to quartz. Either way, the quartz impulse determines the function of the watch. All use stepper motors to move the hands directly or indirectly. I wish I could write your articles. They would be accurate and unbiased

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