Post #1832625 · Elektrine

2026-04-15 12:10 UTC

Please remember! When your watch needs to be serviced, whether it be mechanical, quartz, solar or any of the other funky secret types, take it to an AUTHORIZED service shop and not some random mall kiosk that copies keys and changes watch batteries! Watches are delicate and often require specialized, even proprietary tools to safely open and repair. Third party batteries can be sub-par and solar watches absolutely require first party solar cells and accumulators. Finally, and most importantly, whenever a watch is opened at all the gaskets need to be replaced to ensure water resistance. Many kiosks that offer watch battery changes don't replace the gaskets or use lower quality third party ones. As a result you have no guarantee that your watch retains its water resistance and every time it gets wet you're taking a gamble. Water getting into a watch movement has the potential to ruin it very quickly if it's not immediately dealt with. If you care about your watch and want to keep it in good condition for many years, please don't cheap out on servicing. Go to an authorized service. Also, when getting a new watch it might genuinely be worth it to get the extended warranty, depending on the store of course. Where I work, the extended warranty gets you 6 years worth of movement repairs and battery changes for a smaller fee than a single battery change. An analogue quartz watch would require about 3 battery changes in that span of time. (None of you will buy an extended warranty from me so I have no financial incentive to be lying about this. These warranties can genuinely be pro-consumer because watches require regular servicing and you usually keep them for many years.)

Replies (2)

@njion@bark.lgbt 2026-04-15 12:45

One thing that differentiates quartz and mechanical watches is the second hand. On quartz watches, the second hand almost always moves exactly once per second. On mechanical watches it moves at the same frequency as the balance wheel, so usually 3-5 times per second (up to 10 on some of the most high end watches) which gives the illusion of a "sweeping" second hand. Sweeping hands on quartz watches are possible but usually impractical because of the increased power draw. I think this is where I talk about my favorite type of watch movement ever - the Seiko Spring Drive :dragnhearteyes: Basically you have a mainspring wound by wrist movements (just like an automatic mechanical watch) which steadily unwinds. Part of this spring's kinetic energy gets converted into electricity which powers a quartz crystal. The oscillations of the crystal are then processed by an integrated circuit that uses them to precisely control an electromagnetic brake that slows down the unwinding of the mainspring. All the hands of the watch are connected to gears on the gear train which is in turn moved by the mainspring. The electromagnetic brake slows down the whole mechanism to the exact pace at which the gear of the second hand makes a full rotation in precisely 1 minute. The result is a second hand that sweeps in a perfectly continuous motion, more fluid than on even the very best of mechanical movements. All this while having the super high accuracy of a quartz watch and still running on mechanical power without a need for a battery. The Spring Drive is an insanely elegant piece of engineering and I would love to own a watch with this type of movement someday. (Sadly it still needs to be serviced like a mechanical watch because it still has a lot of moving components) Here's a 2 min video visualizing and explaining this tech: https://youtu.be/HoEorK6elZM

Open ##1832626
@nebula@beach.city 2026-04-15 12:36

@njion Nothing entertained me more than walking into a very bougie jewelry store and having them change the battery in my very old Timex explorer (cost me $17.00) for like 5€

Open ##1832627