Expensive watches~ Cheap quartz movements.

One thing I've noticed since I started replacing batteries in my watches, is how inexpensive the movements are.

From my sub $100 beaters to my more luxurious pieces, the movements are practically the same. Unlike mechanical watches intricate hand assembly, these engines are essentially machine made and just dropped into a case by an assembly worker.

I deal with a watch retailer located in Vancouver and here's a list of movements they provide and look at the prices in CAD : https://perrinwatchparts.com/collections/watch-movements

When you spend thousands for a time piece, you kind of wonder where the money is actually going...

That is why I buy manual movements. 🤓

^ This. I have quartz watches but they are inexpensive beater watches. Nothing wrong with them but I’m not paying up for quartz movement.

kscarrol wrote

^ This. I have quartz watches but they are inexpensive beater watches. Nothing wrong with them but I’m not paying up for quartz movement.

True and that's why I prefer my mechanical ones.

Lady Jane wrote

When you spend thousands for a time piece, you kind of wonder where the money is actually going...

When you spend thousands on a quartz watch, it's probably not gonna have any of the quartz movements listed in your link.
Movements like that (say like a GS 9F series, found in GS watches in the 2k-4k range) usually can only be bought through the official channels, not generic wholesalers.

But indeed, there are a whole bunch of cheap quartz movements that are more of the throwaway type. Only battery replacement is done, everything else is replace.
But there are also a whole lot of OEM seiko, myota and maybe sellita movements (and a lot of chinese ones) that also hardly justify a service.
A seiko 6R movement can already be had at around ~€200, and that isn't even the bottom tier movement line (7s26 for instance can be found for €80)
So movements like these also already are of the throwaway type.

That said, paying thousands for a quartz watch...watches are almost never a sensible investment, but those certainly arent, unless you have a very special limited model maybe. (I'm talking new here, vintage is another world....)

When one spends many Townsends of Dollars on a watch with a Quartz movement, you are usually paying for the brand name or the precious metal casing/diamonds etc. One exception may be the FP Journe Elegante, which is made by the best watchmaker alive, and which price is outside of most people's reach.
While Quartz gives you more time accuracy than mechanical movements, with proper service, that latter mechanism can last you a hundred years or more. Battery operated quartz ones, have not been around for that long, so the jury is still out on their centenarian longevity.
But at the end of the day, every individual spends their hard-earned money as they see fit.