Automatic or quartz watch: which one to choose in 2026?
Quartz is more accurate and maintenance-free; automatic is mechanical, endlessly repairable and kept for a lifetime. The choice is not about technology but about what you expect from a watch: a reliable instrument you forget about, or an object that lives.
How each one works
Quartz
A battery sends current through a quartz crystal that vibrates 32,768 times per second. A circuit counts these vibrations and moves the hand one step per second, hence that characteristic ticking motion. It is simple, cheap to produce and extremely accurate.
Automatic
No electronics, no battery. A rotor pivots with the movements of your wrist and winds a mainspring. That spring releases its energy through a gear train regulated by a balance wheel oscillating several times per second, which gives that smoothly sweeping seconds hand. Everything that drives the hand is mechanical and visible.
The point-by-point comparison
Accuracy
Quartz wins by a mile: around 15 seconds of deviation per month. A series automatic is more in the range of a few seconds per day. In practice, that means resetting your automatic watch once or twice a month. If that annoys you, quartz is for you.
Maintenance
Quartz needs a battery change every two to three years, and that is all, until the day the electronic circuit fails and becomes unreplaceable. An automatic needs a service every five to seven years, but every part can be replaced, indefinitely. That is why people inherit mechanical watches and almost never battery ones.
Lifespan
An entry-level quartz watch has a life expectancy of ten to fifteen years, limited by its circuit. A well-maintained automatic movement runs for decades. It is the most concrete argument in favour of mechanical.
Price
At an equal budget, a quartz watch allows more exterior finishing, since the movement costs less. An automatic concentrates a large share of its price in the mechanism. A well-built automatic at 250 francs does exist, provided the brand does not spend everything on advertising.
Perceived value
A seconds hand that sweeps without jerking is visible from a metre away. It is the first detail that people who know watches notice, and it is what visually separates a mechanical watch from a supermarket one.
When quartz remains the right choice
- You only wear the watch a few days a month and you hate resetting it.
- You need absolute accuracy for your job.
- You are after the thinnest possible watch: quartz allows cases that mechanics cannot reach.
- You want a sports watch you can knock about without a second thought.
What about meca-quartz?
It is a hybrid: timekeeping is handled by a quartz module, but the chronograph functions are mechanical, with an instant hand reset and a real click under the finger. It offers the best of both worlds on chronographs, at a price unreachable in full mechanical.
Where we stand
We build automatic watches on Seiko movements because that is what gives an affordable watch a chance to last and to be repairable anywhere in the world. A Seiko movement can be regulated by any watchmaker, with no exotic parts to order. It is a choice of longevity, not of chronometric performance.
Frequently asked questions
Is an automatic more fragile?
No, but it is more sensitive to violent shocks and magnetic fields than a quartz. In normal daily use, the difference is invisible.
Do I have to wear an automatic every day?
For it to stay on time, yes, or wind it by hand. It stops after about 40 hours without movement. See our instructions.
What budget for a good automatic?
From around 250 francs, you get a proven automatic movement with a sapphire crystal and 316L steel. Below that, you almost always trade away the glass or the movement. See the models under 300 CHF.
Our most wanted
Santeiko Two-Tone 9-5
Gmteiko Batgirl Special Edition
Seikojust Roman
