[jcp123]

I come from a mechanical background, so when I started getting into watches…once I learned how quartz and mechanical worked, I naturally gravitated towards mechanical. Quartz sucks with battery changes…so ideally it would be solar or some kind of spring drive-ish kinetic…but I’ve grown to really appreciate quartz for allowing a quick and cheap breadth of styles and colors to cover anything I might want to wear/do, and of course for allowing either a quick reference to set mechanicals to, or just a straight grab and go. But those battery changes still suck.

 

[jcp123]

I find battery changes about every 4-5 years a lot simpler than finding a good service and it costs $275 per service. Batteries cost me about $20

My mechanicals aren’t worth a $275 service in the first place lol - but because of my mechanical background, I think I have what some of us automotive enthusiasts call “mechanical sympathy”, where I am aware of and sympathetic to the mechanical bits, whereas quartz, like any form of electronics is (to me) always impossibly needy by needing anything at all. I don’t and never have had patience for quirks on phones, computers, or, yes, battery changes on quartz watches, because the user experience never matches the seemingly endless promises of perfection and ease. That’s a lifestyle choice which existed before I was into watches, and also extends far beyond watches. But anyhow, that’s why I said solar quartz is my huckleberry…my EcoDrive Citizen is going on about a dozen years old now and is soldiering on, maintenance-free.