機械錶對很多人來說，是迷戀它的互動；我們提供其動力，它回報生命的刻度。
我們有心跳，它亦有脈動。
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother..." (The Hollies)
以下轉載一篇「石英死忠派」，對我們這般迷戀機械錶之「凡夫俗子」的論點，僅供大家參考...。
（有點長，不過很詳盡，論點也很完整。個人還是很欣賞...）
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新聞群組： alt.horology
寄件者： watchking36...@lycos.com (Watch King)
日期： 25 Mar 2004 19:09:35 -0800
當地時間： 2004年3月26日(星期五) 上午11時09分
主旨： Re: Mechanical vs. Quartz Watches
Thorsten, it is unfortunate that many of the people in this forum are
being so misleading in their answers to what seem like two questions
you have posed. The first being whether quartz watches are more
accurate than mechanical watches, and this does not even begin to
cover all of the many ways that quartz watches are vastly superior to
mechanical watches. Your second question seems to ask why
manufacturers of expensive watches advertise or produce a large array
of mechanical watches but not as many models of quartz watches. A bit
of additional information should be included in this discussion, which
is why so many people who have been conned by the makers of mechanical
watches, have their choice of wearing a mechanical watch so bound up
with their egos.
To start with quartz watches are inherently superior to mechanicals in
so many ways it takes a long list to specify these major
superiorities. We'll stick to analog quartz watches that may look
similar if not almost identical to their mechanical counterparts (like
the near matching Omega Seamasters, one quartz and one mechanical). It
will help explain why the vast majority of watch buyers for the last
30 years have bought quartz watches, and why there are still so many
models of quartz watches made by high end watch companies today.
Yes quartz watches are generally more accurate than any mechanical
watch ever made, and substantially more accurate, on an order of about
50:1. Jaeger LeCoultre says in their own literature that the reason
they use a quartz drive in their chronograph is because it is almost
100 times as accurate as a mechanical movement with a mainspring
escapement. Thus the JL chronograph is a quartz watch, and I'll take
their word for it. Rolex makes huge profits on their mechanical
watches but they also make a quartz watch and many of the Rolex
service management trainers wear this watch BECAUSE it is more
accurate and they don't need to fiddle with it all the time. For
people like watchmakers quartz watches are preferred because many
watchmakers don't have ego and self esteem issues that they try to
assuage by wearing a watch "that pretends to make them more special"
than someone who doesn't wear a watch as expensive or anachronistic.
One only need to look at the "chronometer" rating to see the
ridiculously low accuracy of the mechanical movement. The standard
that is used to rate a quartz drive watch as a chronometer is so
difficult to meet that COSC test techs I have talked to, all agree
that if the same standard were applied to a mechanical watch THERE
WOULD NEVER BE a mechanical watch that could ever be rated as a
chronometer ever again. And yet thousands of quartz drive watches pass
the chronometer test every year, thus doing something a mechanical
watch could never do.
But why stop at accuracy. The better made quartz silicone filled dive
watches made by Roven Dino, Sinn and a few others are pressure rated
to depths that mechanical watche companies can only dream of (many
over 2000m rated). These watches are pretty much guaranteed NEVER to
get water into them, but if you check with any Rolex service center
they can tell you horror stories about dozens and dozens of the most
water resistant Rolex dive watches that arrived full of water even
those watches that had recently been pressure tested. There is no way
that a mechanical watch can ever be rated for the depths that many
quartz watches can reach with no problems.
So what about shock resistance? Well due to the laws of physics the
quartz analog watch with plastic parts (and thus very low moving mass)
can withstand shocks that no mechanical shock protection system can
ever hope to be protected against. Check with Swatchgroup and you'll
see that quartz Omega Seamaster suffer internal shock damage at a much
lower rate than mechanical Omega Seamasters. The balance is suspended
on two ultra-thin needle bearings in all mechanical watches. No such
part exists in a quartz drive watch. This is the weak link in the
mechanical design and nothing can ever be done to make a mechanical
watch that can accept a side direct shock to the same extent as a
quartz watch.
So what about the cost of maintenance that conscientious watch owners
should do to prolong the life of their watches. On the basis of cost
the cleaning, lubrication and battery change done to a quartz watch
(except Citizen Eco-drive watches that only need a battery change
about every 15 years), is much lower than the cost of the normal
cleaning and lubrication done on a mechanical watch. This is the case
with the Omega Seamaster for example. It's just simpler and easier to
do this work on quartz watches and so it's less expensive, as are the
watches themselves usually even if they look identical.
What about which type of watch offers more features? Well in this case
as in depth rating, quartz watches are vastly superior. Look at the
Gerald Genta moonphase perpetual calendar chronograph and there is a
number of other features added. The same is true for the Fortis alarm
chrono etc. Mechanical watches can't ever incorporate the same number
of features that quartz watches can offer easily.
And the list goes on and on, with quartz watches being model for model
lower in weight and less obtrusive on the wrist, and or thinner and
more elegant in their design. Again Jaeger Lecoultre, renown
watchmakers that they are, still speak dreamily of their super
ultrathin watch with a case 2mm thick measured from the outside of the
crystal to the back of the case. This watch is so thin that the case
IS, in fact, the battery. A $500 battery may be a little too expensive
for most of us but there are very long waiting lists of people who
have no concerns about money to buy one of these watches. It is
rightly called the worlds thinnest analog watch ever.
Finally we come to the part where mechanical watch fans say that their
watches will still be working 50 years from now and quartz watches
won't. If we assume that comparable watches have been maintained
properly I wonder what they are suggesting because there are quartz
watches from the 60s that still function perfectly today. At the same
time there are numerous mechanical watches from the 60s for which
there are no longer any parts. The Lemania 5100 chronograph movement
is a case in point as Swatchgroup/Lemania doesn't sell repair parts
for this movement any more because there just aren't any parts to
sell. There are fully geared quartz watches made by Girard Perregaux,
Lecoultre and especially Piaget made in the 60s that these companies
claim can be repaired forever, as long as the companies exist or as
long as a watchmaker is around to make a part. The gears used on early
Piaget Polos are still being made today. Thus any quartz drive watch
with metal parts can be made to work for as long as any mechanical
watch will ever be made to work. So perhaps these mechanical watch
lovers are only referring to quartz watches using self lubricating
plastic movements. I wonder why these people want to pick such a
narrow view (although it is true that Rolex quartz movements are
mostly plastic). Since we don't wear watches inside out, it shouldn't
matter that the movement is swapped out every decade or two. It is
strictly splitting hairs to find ANY possible contest that mechanical
watches can win at because they don't compete well doing the things
watches were intended to do like keep good time and withstanding the
everyday bumps and knocks of life.
So how about ease of usage, and here quartz is vastly superior as
well. Leave a mechanical watch off your wrist for a 3 week vacation
and unless you want to add the complication of having outboard
equipment to babysit your mechanical watch, all mechanical watches
will have stopped. But own a Citizen Eco-drive watch and when you come
back from your 3 week or 3 month vacation the watch will still be
keeping perfect time. I like a watch that makes my life easier not one
that requires extra work and complications in my life.
The real reason that most mechanical watch making companies push
mechanicals is that they make much greater profits on them now and
forever into the future. It is very much an ego thing and the watch
companies have marketing experts who have developed numerous ways to
exploit the lower self esteem felt by the vast majority of men between
the ages of 21 and 49. Men are told in advertising from a very early
age (especially using role model endorsees from sports or
entertainment, paid to say what they are told) that these mechanical
watches are a "badge" that shows a guy has "made it". Thus the watch
is used as a way guys can show other guys that the wearer of a
particular watch is better than other guys because he has that watch
and those other guys don't. That way the watch marketing companies can
make a big profit when they sell a mechanical watch, and then these
same companies can make very large profits keeping those same watches
serviced for years and years. Even watches as expensive as the Rolex
Datejust can cost the owner much more than the original cost of the
watch in service over the next 2 decades.
Many watch companies at the high end make quartz watches like Patek
Philippe (I like their mid-sized Nautilus), IWC, Jaeger Lecoultre,
Gerald Genta, Cartier and Piaget who make mostly quartz watches even
though their Polo is one of the most popular $20,000+ each models of
watch ever made. There have been a very few companies that never made
a qurtz watch mostly to use a marketing ploy. Of more interest are the
companies like Vacheron and Audemars Piguet who used to make men's
quartz watches and stopped because their quartz watches made their
seem like they didn't work as well (for timekeeping, shock resistance,
cost of maintenance etc) and so they stopped making quartz watches.
You see it is very difficult for most high end watch companies to make
a quartz model of watch because then many people will wonder why they
are so expensive if other good watch companies can make a quartz watch
as accurate etc. in a similar gold case etc. Some companies have brand
names so strong (Rolex, Patek, Lecoultre, Genta, Cartier for example)
that they don't really care what people in the market think. But
companies that feel the need to say "We make watches that other people
can't make", must forego making quartz watches (as superior as they
might be as useful, convenient timekeepers) so that men will find
their sales pitch more acceptable. Of course women don't buy that kind
of a con job so women buy many more quartz Patek Philppe watches than
mechanical.
Psychologists and many women tend to think that men are fascinated by
shiny glittering objects that make interesting noises much the same
way that kittens are easily distracted by a jingling set of keys and
puppies are comforted by the ticking of a clock. But I just think that
the reason why men are so easily exploited by watch company marketing
is that they want high-end mechanical watches that show other guys
that not only can they afford a high end mechanical watch as a badge
to display their superior manliness, but these same men are also
saying that they can afford the extra cost and hassle of maintenance
that comes with a mechanical watch and it's inherently lower accuracy
because the whole world is waiting on them and not the other way
around. Men who don't need to show off for other men (and themselves)
might not wear a watch at all. If they have a cellphone or a Palm
Pilot they don't need a watch, or at the very least they have
assistants who can tell them the time.
The same people who proclaim the qualities of mechanical watches have
lost perspective. There are beautiful mechanical calculators that were
made 30 years ago, but they aren't as good as computers or calculators
today. The rotary dial telephone worked great and was pretty much
perfected but the increased features of chip-based telephones made the
mechanical telephone the choice today of only a minuscule number of
people (in fact cellphones are winning the battle for market share and
there are no mechanical cellphones, or even rotary dial cellphones).
Cars perform so much better now-a-days because the car's computer
checks the fuel/air ratio and monitors most of the other features so
that fans operate properly etc. That's why tune-ups and warranties are
spaced so far further into the future than they ever were in the days
of purely mechanical cars.
So while we bemoan constantly moving technology or perhaps our
selective memories wish the world would go back to a few of the "good
old days" we remember, the real reason there are so many
non-mechanical things in our live today compared to 10 or 20 years ago
is because newer computer driven things perform their functions better
and they make our life easier. Technology improvements can be scary
sometimes like the belt driven dental drill vs the air drill but when
we view these new technologies without getting our egos or fears
involved, our objective selves can clearly see these new technologies
are vastly superior. If we don't see this obvious fact then we just
can't be objective about something. Mechanical watches, rotary
telephones, non-computerized cars, steam locomotives, and various
other old technologies should be collected, enjoyed and even used, but
we shouldn't lie to ourselves and others by saying that these old
technologies are better, not unless we can back up our definition of
"better" with facts, not a con job arguements developed by a marketeer
who is trying to exploit people with small egos to increase the
profits of companies that make mechanical watches. Whatever else,
don't ever believe that any kind of watch can make anyone a better
person than they are. Why be saddled with the need to support a
watchmaker while you own and inferior timekeeper, when a less
expensive technological approach to the best timekeeping can be had?
Buy watches that make your life easier. Buy watches that make your
life easier. Watchking
_________________
「蛛絲馬跡皆學問，落花流水皆文章。」
