THE QUARTZ DEBATE

A quartz watch requires much less servicing than its mechanical counterpart.

The Turismo Tertre Rouge is powered by the 10-jewel gold plated Ronda quartz 5021 and the soon to be introduced Turismo Red Line will utilise the Ronda 5040 movement - which is a 13-jewel gold plated piece.

The choice of the quartz route was a simple one for the Turismo team to agree – We were motivated by the functional excellence of these movements and how this simply aligned with our ethos of ‘making every second count’ and our operating philosophy that ‘every detail matters’.

A quartz watch, save for the occasional battery change, requires much less servicing than its mechanical counterpart.

It is more accurate than even the most expensive, most expertly tuned of mechanical timepieces.

It is arguably the best mid-priced movement for a chronograph.

Spec for spec quartz movements undoubtedly deliver versus their comparative mechanical watches. 

The Ronda movements we have specified power some pretty big hitting mid-market brands… including the Tag Formula 1 and all F1 Limited Edition variants and many of the Edox and Eterna range, as well as other players such as the Versace brand offer. 

Think of the British Army as the ultimate wristwatch test and for most watch collectors the Smiths Auto W10 comes to mind, and indeed this model was general service issue until the 1970s…when you guessed - it the British military specified a quartz movement for its Cabot Watch Company G10 time piece.

THE HISTORY BEHIND QUARTZ WATCHES

The history of the quartz movement can be traced back to the 1927 Marrison and Horton Bell laboratories clock…. Fast forward 30 years and the first to market wristwatch was the 1957, Elvis Presley endorsed, Hamilton Ventura Electronic watch …  a wonderful, stylish piece with excellent examples now commanding £2000+ (more on this model in a future blog as it is a personal favourite of mine). 

Various developments and refinements to the quartz construct continued through the 1960s and by December 1969 Seiko had introduced the Astron – the first commercially available true quartz. The Astron 35SQ had been ten years in development, the first 100 were solid gold and sold out immediately at a hefty period retail of 450,000 Yen or $1250. 

Into the 1970s the march of the quartz became unstoppable, turmoil and upheaval resulted for the traditional mechanical trade many of whom were forced out of business.

Some stole the emperor’s clothes (Omega used the Ebauches SA Beta 21 and in 1974 introduced the first certified quartz marine chronometer) whilst others, such as Swatch, who launched their opening 12-piece range in March 1983, took the quartz to new heights of fashion-conscious culture. 

Today quartz… high-end horological master pieces and manufactured mechanical, co-exist in a watch universe where design, functionality, brand and value for money have become the compelling and relevant defining features of the marketplace…