The Quartz Crisis of 2025

As watch enthusiasts, there’s often this feeling that we should care more about mechanical watches than quartz ones. We’re told that mechanical watches “have soul”, and that “quartz is boring”. Well, I’m a watch enthusiast, and I love both quartz and mechanical watches. What is The Quartz Crisis of 2025?

The Quartz Crisis of the 20th Century

The Quartz Crisis was an era of time in which quartz watches (battery powered) hit the market, and overtook mechanical watches. Japan lead the charge, with Seiko, Citizen and Casio releasing quartz watches in the 1970s. Quartz was new and hot, and why not? You could have an accurate watch, which was lower maintenance, shockproof, and only needed a battery change every few years. Oh, and now you can have a digital display too! What’s not to love?

Many Swiss & American companies went out of business, as they couldn’t change with the times. Companies needed to reinvent themselves, and mechanical watches became “luxurious”, as they needed a way to try and market them. 50 years later, and there is still this trend to view mechanical watches as better than quartz. Sure, there is higher degree of finesse to making mechanical movements. They’re complex machines with gears and cogs, springs and rotors, and lots of screws. However, what does that matter to us in the practical world?

Day-to-Day

Just like 50 years ago, quartz watches are low-maintenance. You only need a new battery every few years, and with the advent of solar-quartz, it’s closer to once every 15 years. On top of that, if you don’t wear it for a few days, it’s still going to be running. Aside from telling the time, we’ve probably got a backlight, alarm, and stopwatch functions if it’s a digital quartz watch. Hey, a way to wake up on time, and to make sure you don’t burn the casserole in the oven.

Now, automatic watches aren’t high maintenance either. They may need a service every 5-10 years, and unless you’re doing some really hard activities, they’ll be plenty durable. However, most mechanical movements will gain or lose time more severely than quartz does. They also stop running if not worn or wound for a few days. If you’re only wearing one watch, this is easy to overcome. What if you aren’t?

As watch enthusiasts, we’ve probably got more than one watch. We may have a “rotation”, or we just wear what makes sense for the day. Well, with automatics, that probably means needing to rewind and set the time on them. While this isn’t a massive time sink, it is an annoyance. What’s the counter to annoyances? Convenience.

The Quartz Crisis of 2025 (and the latter bit of 2024)

Back in September of 2024, I got into a pretty bad car accident. I was t-boned by another driver, and had my vehicle rolled over. The other driver was fine, and I avoided serious injuries. However, as I found out with x-rays, I had 8 slipped vertebrae in my spine, and a dislocated bone in my neck. Physical therapy combined with chiropractor visits were the treatment, and I’m mostly healed now, 6 months later.

Why do I mention this? Well, the pain and discomfort from the injury turned small tasks into big tasks. Needing to wind and set the date and time on a mechanical watch became a big annoyance. With that, quartz became something that I appreciated even more. I was never anti-quartz, but my love for it has only grown when facing the trials and tribulations of life.

I’m preaching about my enjoyment of quartz, but am I practicing that?

The Quartz Collection

I’ve talked about it here, but I have a small watch collection. Of the 5 watches currently in the collection, 3 are quartz. Of those, 2 are solar, and both are perpetual calendars. I only need to set them when traveling across time zones, or for DST (aside from my G-Shock, which does that automatically).

I don’t baby any of my watches. They all get worn, but I do select specific ones for some of my activities. My 3 quartz watches get worn when I’m doing physical things. For example, things like hitting the gym, target shooting, doing house projects, or when I’m working on a vehicle. On top of that, I’m generally wearing quartz at nighttime. My Seiko Arnie has great lume and a backlight, and the G-Shock has a backlight too. I’m a poor sleeper (and a back injury has only made that worse), so having a way to quickly tell the time at night is important to me.

With the praise for quartz in my collection, does this mean that I disregard my mechanicals? Not at all! If anything, it’s made me realize what I like in them compared to the quartz pieces. For my “wear rotation”, I no longer worry about letting an automatic watch “die”. If it ain’t running when I go to toss it on, it’s either a winding day, or a quartz day. With my recovery in 2025, it’s been nearly a 50/50 split of mechanical and quartz wearing days.

The Verdict

Back in 2023, I bought my 65 year old father a watch. It was an Orient Kamasu, an automatic dive watch. It was my Dad’s first mechanical watch, as he had been wearing quartz since the 1970s. He had some learning curve to the watch, but likes it now.

It took a back injury for me to really appreciate quartz. I was already a fan, but that physical discomfort and stress made quartz the easy wearable for my daily life. I’m able to understand what made it so quickly popular in the 1970s, and why my old man never cared to give mechanicals a try.

This isn’t meant to be Mechanical vs. Quartz, but is really here to show how they can both live in harmony. I have appreciation for all of the watches in my collection, regardless of what’s under the hood.

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