The (New) Quartz Revolution

Decades after the cheap, reliable movement shook the watch industry to its core, enthusiasts are giving these luxurious, collectible timepieces a second look

- JONATHAN EVANS

FOR WATCH NERDS, ANY TIMEPIECE WORTH collecting is usually the mechanical kind. The watches so many aficionados have gravitated toward over the past decade and a half have been tough, utilitarian designs. Getting a thrill from a timepiece with a quartz movement wasn't just unusual-it was laughable.

"When you're a watch person and you're making a thoughtful purchase, you might not understand the mechanical movement," says James Lamdin, founder of the vintage- and pre-owned-watch marketplace Analog:Shift. "I would wager most people truly don't. But you want to know that it's there."

There's a romance about gears and springs that doesn't translate to a watch that uses a battery to make a quartz crystal oscillate at 32,768 hertz, he explains. It's akin to cheating. Even after the "quartz crisis" of the '70s and '80s sent shock waves through the industry by introducing a new class of inexpensive and easy-to-use watches, many makers and collectors remained analog.