There are two main kinds of analog watches these days, mechanical and quartz. Mechanical watches rely on a complex series of gears and machinery to keep time, while a quartz watch relies on the vibration of a piece of quartz. The quartz is made to vibrate with electricity, therefore quartz watches require a battery.
There are two main types of mechanical watches as well: wind up and automatic.
Wind up watches need to be wound periodically to work.
Unlike the traditional wind-by-hand watches, automatic timepieces are wound automatically with the motion of the wearer’s wrist. Automatic watches are powered just by your arm and wrist moving.
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Are Automatic Watches Battery Operated?
The incredible thing about automatic wristwatches is that they need neither batteries to operate nor winding if worn daily. How do automatic watches work without batteries? They power themselves by using the kinetic energy generated by your wrist movement. It means whenever you are walking, working out, cooking, or doing anything at all, you literally are providing the power to keep your watch working.
What Happens If My Automatic Watch Runs Out Of Power?
The only real flaw to those non-batteries required timepieces is that if you don’t wear the watch regularly, it can’t stay activated all the time. But don’t worry – in case your automatic watch has not been worn within the last 36-72 hours, just wound it manually or with an automatic winder machine, and here it goes – your watch is ready to go.
In Conclusion
The difference between automatic and battery watches is that automatic watches are mechanical and don’t need to be wound, and battery watches are quartz and don’t need to be wound.
Automatic watches now outsell wind up watches by a large margin. In fact, nearly all luxury watches are automatic. One of the most important choices a person shopping for a watch needs to make is to decide between an automatic (mechanical) watch and a quartz watch.
Our Favorite Automatic Watches
