When I started writing about watches, I thought women’s models were unattractive, expressionless. They were exclusively quartz clones of men’s mechanical watches, so I deliberately omitted them in my texts, and my dislike for women’s watches turned into a dislike for all quartz watches. This was further fuelled by collectors and most luxury brands, who focused solely on mechanical watches and deliberately left out quartz ones.

It was not appropriate to speak positively about a quartz watch because it was a symbol of evil: it had nothing in common with the great complications and it led to the collapse of many Swiss brands.

I must admit that I also ignored certain models just because they were quartz. Today I look at them differently and I think it’s time to do them justice and stop thinking that a watch must be exclusively mechanical.

Let’s accept that quartz is an important part of the history of watches. Henri Stern, who was president of Patek Philippe, shared this opinion. He believed that in addition to the precision and complexity of mechanical watches, progress is also important, thanks to which it is possible to introduce various innovations. He established the “Electronics Division” in 1948 to investigate the possibilities offered by using quartz in clocks. And when the first successful project, a quartz console clock, was created in 1952, Henri Stern announced it with pride, which proved that he considered quartz technology to be one of the milestones in the history of the brand.

Even the quartz crisis of the 1970s did not change this approach.  At that time, the “Electronics Division” was given a new task: to produce quartz watches whose quality would be as high as that of other timepieces offered by the Patek Philippe brand. Patek Philippe presented their first quartz movements in the 1970s, including the E15 and E23 which were created in their own factory.

The principle regarding the highest quality is still valid today and the development of quartz movements still takes place in their own factory.

And while quartz has indeed led to the demise of many brands, not everything in this story was bad. Thanks to quartz, original models such as the Heuer Chronosplit, the world’s first quartz chronograph measuring time with an accuracy of 1/100s, or the ultra-flat (only 3.1 mm) Piaget Polo with the calibre 7P were created.

While writing this, I am reminded of a situation from about 15 years ago. I overheard a conversation between two friends – one of them was a collector of sports watches, and the other was a lover of all different types of watches. The latter was wearing a gold Piaget Polo with a quartz calibre 7P – then considered flashy and demode. They started talking about the superiority of mechanical watches over quartz, and when the collector ran out of arguments, he said to the owner of the beautiful Polo: if we look under the caseback of our watches, I will be happy to look at the moving gears and the balance, and you will cry, because you won’t see anything there except a soulless battery. I will keep the rest of this conversation to myself. Let’s just say that it wasn’t nice.

Of course, I agree that for mechanical lovers, a quartz watch does not have much romance in it. It’s powered by chips and a battery, not a pulsating balance, but that doesn’t mean it’s unattractive. Just look at the electromechanical Élégante by FP Journe, the innovative Grand Seiko 9F or the extraordinary women’s Nautilus Ref. 7010R.

Should we ignore them just because they have a battery-powered movement? That would be a gross exaggeration.