Quartz Watch Revival: Why Collectors Are Taking a Second Look
Quartz watch models, once known for their low cost and dependable movement, are now making a surprising comeback.
Decades after shaking the watch industry to its core, these elegant yet precise timepieces are attracting the attention of serious collectors once again.
For watch enthusiasts, mechanical timepieces have long been the gold standard. Over the past 15 years, rugged and utilitarian designs dominated the scene.
The idea of getting excited about a quartz watch was once seen as unusual—if not comical. But now, that perception is changing fast.
“When you’re a watch person making a thoughtful purchase, you might not understand the mechanical movement,” says James Lamdin, the founder of Analog: Shift, a vintage and pre-owned watch marketplace. “I’d venture that most people don’t. But you want to know it’s there.
He says that the romance of gears and springs does not translate to a watch that uses a battery to cause a quartz crystal to vibrate at 32,768 hertz. It’s similar to cheating. Even when the “quartz crisis” of the 1970s and 1980s shook the market by introducing a new class of low-cost and simple-to-use timepieces, many producers and collectors stayed analog.
Until recently, the increased interest in timepieces and the inherent need for novelty have prompted some prospective buyers to seek out new and unusual categories. Many of these intrepid lovers have progressed from the mid-twentieth century, when tool watches peaked, to the 1970s and 1980s, when flashier forms were popular.
Designs by Cartier, Bulgari, and Piaget—”watches second, jewelry first,” as Lamdin puts it—have witnessed a significant increase in popularity. Quartz watch movements powered the majority of these timepieces. They’re thinner and less expensive than mechanical movements, which is beneficial for both price and design when selling a slim dress watch made of a precious metal already driving up the cost. Furthermore, while the history of mechanical watches is well-known today, quartz was considered cutting-edge when many of these key pieces first appeared.
“They have, frankly, an entirely different set of rules when it comes to collectibility, desirability, and value than mainstream, collectible, mechanical watches,” Lamdin elaborates.
That’s why even watch connoisseurs don’t freak out when they see a quartz-powered Cartier Panthère or Bulgari Tubogas on the red carpet. Just glance at the wrists of men like Paul Mescal and Colman Domingo to know how these small gold watches have become a pop-culture staple. However, it is not limited to celebrities. Every day, collectors also purchase quartz-powered, design-forward timepieces in droves.
“Piaget is, to me, the single most important brand of the moment,” Lamdin said. He goes on to say that other jeweler-slash-watchmakers are equally collectible. “It’s more than Piaget encapsulated the ’70s and ’80s in a way that it’s just on the tip of everybody’s tongue.”
Surprisingly, the pricing for Piaget’s signature pieces, such as the Polo and the Warhol, has not yet increased. They are not cheap, as you usually pay for a substantial amount of gold. However, compared to the exorbitant pricing we witnessed for some steel watches just a few years ago, the market for high-fashion watches with quartz movements appears relatively affordable.
Some outstanding examples are significantly more helpful if you’re not into bling. Consider Omega’s quartz-driven Seamaster, which was released alongside 1995’s GoldenEye. While Lamdin admits that it’s a bit of “a nostalgia play,” it’s still appealing. Mechanically inclined manufacturers such as Rolex and TAG Heuer produce similar quartz outliers.
Does this mean that every certified Watch Guy will soon prefer the tick-tock of a quartz watch movement to the steady sweep of a mechanical second hand? Perhaps not. But right now, if you want to demonstrate that you know your thing, putting a tiny sliver of quartz inside your clock is a fantastic way.
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