Quartz wristwatch

Quartz

— a mechanism based on an electronic quartz oscillator. Such a generator produces a strictly defined number of pulses per second, and on the basis of this data, the clock keeps time. In common parlance, only clocks with hands are called “quartz”, but the same principle applies to “electronic” models (with a digital display). Anyway, the main advantage of quartz movements is high accuracy — even in inexpensive models it is about ± 15 sec / month, and in the most advanced it can reach ± 0.3 sec / month. And these watches are much cheaper than mechanical ones. The main disadvantage of "quartz" is the need for power supply; and although a miniature battery usually lasts for several months, it still has to be changed periodically. In part, this moment is compensated by the use of special functions such as solar panels (see "Advanced") or autoquartz movements such as kinetic (electric analogue of self-winding).