Caring for a watch in Mumbai’s humidity
Salt air, monsoon damp and air-conditioned offices are hard on watches. A few habits help.
Automatic or quartz?
How each kind of watch keeps time, and which suits the way you live.
A quartz watch runs on a battery. A tiny quartz crystal vibrates at a fixed rate when current passes through it, and a circuit counts those vibrations. It is accurate to a few seconds a month, needs a battery every two to three years, and asks nothing else of you.
An automatic watch runs on a spring. Each movement of your wrist swings a weighted rotor that winds the mainspring, and a balance wheel releases that energy in steady beats. It keeps time to within about ten to twenty seconds a day and will stop if you leave it in a drawer for two days.
Which should you choose? If you want a watch that is always right and costs little to keep, choose quartz. If you enjoy the idea of a small machine on your wrist, one that can be serviced and passed on for fifty years, choose an automatic.
We sell both, and service both. The best choice is often one of each: quartz for every day, and an automatic for the days you want to wear something you love.
