Automatic, Manual, Quartz, or Spring Drive: Which Watch Movement Should You Actually Buy?
There are four ways a watch keeps time, and choosing between them is really about choosing what you want from a watch. Automatic and manual are both mechanical, one self-winding and one hand-wound. Quartz uses a battery and a crystal for accuracy and convenience. Spring Drive, Grand Seiko's hybrid, pairs a mainspring with quartz regulation for one-second-a-day precision and a glide-smooth seconds hand. A working dealer's plain-English guide to how each works, the real tradeoffs, the accuracy numbers, and which movement you should actually buy.