What is a Meca-Quartz Movement? Watch Movement | CaliberCorner.com

https://wornandwound.com/chronography-8-meca-quartz-really-poor-relation/

Charlie

 

Why one would choose over the other? Usually price. But the nice thing about classic mechanical chrono is getting all those little parts to count up that accurately. Pretty mind-blowing.

But I had a VK63 for a while and I loved it; they're totally rad. For me, if I want to use a chrono (not really a chrono guy, but had one for a while), I'd want the meca. If I ever get back into chronos, I'll go quartz, hands-down. There are some killer HAQ chronos out there on the market that are super cool. Been eyeballing the Certina DS-2 (the one with the green hands) for a while now... Can't pull the trigger, but I almost have several times. It's not VK63 or anything but still, it's 40mm, sapphire crystal, HAQ, and it doesn't look lame. Great little watch.

As usual, YMMV...

 

Briefly, 'the quartz chronograph loses out on the mechanical's feel. For one, the pushers on a quartz chronograph lack the satisfying click of a mechanical's. Furthermore, a quartz chronograph's hands slowly sweep back to the zero position when they reset, a process that takes a few seconds, whereas a mechanical chronographinstantly resets to zero. A mecha-quartz on the other hand, brings back the clicking sensation in the pushers as well as the instant reset to zero.'

As for why someone would choose a quartz chrono over a mech-quartz chrono, probably it may have to do with a HAQ having a thermocompensating movement and greater precision.

Gear Pratorl's "These Hybrid Watches Combine Mechanical Craftsmanship with Quartz Sensibility" provide a good comparison between these two quartz movements:
https://gearpatrol.com/2019/05/01/b.../01/buying-guide-watches-combine-mechanical-craftsmanship-quartz-affordability/

 

I have an assortment of regular quartz chronographs and meca-quartz chronographs and have not had any problems with either type. The Victorinox Maverick below is a conventional quartz chronograph and is absolutely spot-on. The Pulsar (Seiko) 262862 chronograph below uses the VK-63 meca-quartz movement , while the Hemel HFT20 (microbrand) below uses the VK-64 meca-quartz movement. They are both also great chronographs. If you were to consider a microbrand, I should note that just yesterday August 15 Hemel began sales of a companion timepiece to the HFT-20, the Hemel Brabant which uses yet another meca-quartz, the VK-61. The various VK meca-quartz movements are all made by Seiko. Best of luck with your purchase.

 

You can probably find vids of the two types in action on YouTube. I must admit that I like meca because it’s more “satisfying” to use (I think it is anyway)