Watch enthusiasts are not monolithic. Some are accuracy freaks, but those are not the ones shopping for mechanical watches. They are more interested in high-accuracy quartz watches that can still be quite expensive. Grand Seiko Spring Drive models, for example, use quartz timing, but the timing circuit is powered by the dynamo action of a mechanical spring spinning the timing wheel, and the circuit then applies braking eddy currents electromagnetically to that same spinning wheel to regulate it. So it is wound like a mechanical watch and needs no battery or other storage of electrical power, but is still electronically regulated with a thermally compensated quartz circuit. High-accuracy quarts watches achieve 10-15 seconds a year accuracy, but they have to be thermally compensated to do that. I have a Certina DS2 split-seconds chronograph powered by a high-accuracy quartz movement. It was not expensive by the usual watches standards (hundreds, not thousands), and it is accurate to 10-15 seconds a year also.
Other priorities vary widely. Some are into divers, and are attracted to watches tested to pressures vastly higher than could find use in any practical application. I have an Ebel that is tested to 500 meters, which is ridiculous, but really not that special for deep divers, some of which will withstand pressures to over a thousand meters of depth.
Still others are into precious metals, or watches like those used by movie stars, or watches from companies with deep history (though this is one area of deception in the watch biz--many company histories are about companies that ceased to exist and were revived as brands by companies unrelated to the originals), or watches with particularly highly respected movements, or watches with highly complicated features, or watches crafted by hand by a few rock-star makers, and on and on. Generally, though, people know what they are buying.
My own interests vary, too. I have a large collection of Ebel watches, old and more recent, because the history of the company became a research hobby of mine. Frank Dernie owns an Ebel watch given to him by Keke Rossberg, which is exceptionally cool. I own the same model, but mine doesn't have the same history. That model uses a chronograph movement by the Zenith watch company, which is one of the few that is still in business in their original factory. I own a couple of Zeniths, some upper-range Concords, a Ulysse Nardin chronometer of exceptional quality and accuracy (by mechanical standards), and watches by a dozen other brands ranging from Seiko to Longines. The value of mine range from Seiko 5 cheapies up to Rolex levels, but higher than that I cannot countenance. And even the good ones I have in that range were not that expensive--I'm attracted to unique buying opportunities, and that more than anything is why I don't own a Rolex. Rolex buyers and collectors have lost their minds.
But most watch people think of accuracy as a requirement, not a feature. If it's accurate enough, it's accurate enough. This week I'm wearing an Eterna Madison, which uses an Eterna-made rectangular hand-wind movement that really is lovely to look at. I put the watch on last week, and I've wound it every day but haven't reset the time, and it's at this moment still on the correct minute. That's more than good enough for me.
To pass Swiss requirements to be labeled a chronometer (which requires every watch to be so tested by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres), a watch is tested in five positions and a wide temperature range, and must run 24 hours in each position, losing no more than four seconds and gaining no more than six seconds during that period. The testing takes weeks for each movement, but that's what it takes for a Swiss company to be able to put "Chronometer" on the dial of the watch containing that particular movement. I own perhaps a 8 or 10 watches so certified. Rolex is a company that certified every single watch it sells, and of COSC's three testing facilities in Switzerland, one is devoted just to Rolex watches. But then Rolex makes a million watches a year, or something like that. But a chronometer is expected to run within two minutes a month. Zodiac, back in the late 60's, famously guaranteed their watches to run within "a minute a month", which is, on average, two seconds a day, to give all that some perspective. Common quartz movements are generally expected to be accurate to 15 seconds a month.
But high-end watches have other measures, too. What does the anglage look like under a 20X loop? Is it fully polished to a mirror reflection? Is it precisely even in width? Anglage is the chamfering of the plates and bridges in a watch, and that feature might--might--be as much as 0.1mm wide. It takes a 20x loupe to appreciate it when it is done well. This is like admiring custom jewelry or the brush technique of a great artist, and that's what enthusiasts in the deep end are looking for. There are some published standards for that sort of construction, such as the Geneva Seal, for example.
Rick "doesn't have to keep his best audio stuff in a safe" Denney
