H-SPOT - Quartz Watches

Quartz Watches

A-Z A complete listing of all watches shown in alphabetical order.

Mechanical Watches powered by a traditional, mechanical movement.

Quartz Watches with battery-powered quartz movements.

Electric/Electronic Battery-powered watches with electro-mechanical, electric or electronic movements.

British Watches made in Great Britain.

Chinese Watches made in China.

Russian Watches made in the Soviet Union or modern-day Russia.

Japanese Watches made in Japan.

American Watches made in the USA or by/for American companies.

Military/Space Military and Space related watches including homage and commemorative pieces.

Pilot/Aviator Watches intended for pilots or with some aviation connection.

Sport/Diver Watches associated with a sport or a particular sporting event or personality.

Pocket Pocket watches.

Movements For those interested in what makes watches tick! A selection of watch movement pictures.

Links A selection of links to the interesting websites of other collectors.

121Time Race Chronograph:
121Time have a really neat online configurator program that allows you to design your own watch by selecting from their extensive range of components and colour schemes. You can save your designs to your personal "safe" for future reference and, when you choose to buy, they'll assemble your watch at their workshop in Switzerland and ship it to you in around ten days. Here, I've selected an ETA quartz chronograph movement with Titanium-Carbide coated stainless steel case, red aluminium tachymeter bezel, waterproofing to 30M., mineral crystal, "race" style dial and hands with yellow subdial/rehaut markers, red chronograph and sweep seconds hands and a red Hirsch Carbon strap. One for the Tifosi perhaps?

Aquanautic Bara Cuda:
I'm rather lost for words when it comes to describing this wonderful watch, so I'll let Aquanautic do it for me: "Aquanautic, inspired by water, is located in the Molard Square Clock Tower in Geneva. Aquanautic watches define themselves by their pioneer spirit and totally steel nature." Now we've got that out of the way, what I can tell you is that this watch weighs a ton, is beautifully made and that the bezel and strap are changeable for a wide range of alternatives by unscrewing the allen bolts that secure them with the specially provided screwdriver. The back of the watch is as spectacular as the front! All in all, it's a wonderful piece of kit and I love it!

Avia quartz:
An Avia quartz I bought in the early 1980's. This watch now has a replacement 5 jewel Swiss movement after I accidentally smashed the original whilst at work.

Camel Adventure Trophy quartz chronograph:
The 12 jewel Japanese Miyota quartz movement in this watch provides a multitude of functions including a chronograph that measures 1/50th seconds up to a total of 12 hours, an alarm, quick-set date and battery end-of-life indication. A tough watch with uni-directional rotating bezel, screw-down crown, water resistant to 100M and pictured here on a grey NATO strap.

Casio Wave Ceptor WVQ200:
Casio's "Wave Ceptor" watches are radio controlled. They contain radio receivers which pick up time signals broadcast from various transmitters around the globe. On receiving the time signal, the watch automatically adjusts itself so it is always telling precisely the right time. This watch is "quad band", and can automatically set itself to the correct time upon receiving signals from either the UK, Germany, Japan or USA. I've changed the supplied metal bracelet on this watch for a green NATO strap.

Casio Wave Ceptor WVQ600:
This is a "dual band" Wave Ceptor which can receive radio signals from both the UK and German transmitters. It's a multi-function watch which includes a chronograph, dual time, 24-hour hand and alarm. The ace up its sleeve though is that it is solar-powered, so this watch not only never needs adjusting, it also never needs winding or the battery changing. I've changed the supplied metal bracelet for a grey NATO style strap.

Citizen Eco-Drive:
Citizen's "Eco-Drive" watches feature quartz movements that are constantly recharged when exposed to natural or artificial light so that they never require winding or battery replacement. Unlike early solar-powered watches, the solar panels in Eco-Drive watches are almost invisible! Can you spot the solar panels mounted in dial of this Eco-Drive watch? No, neither can I :-)

Constant Analogue/Digital quartz:
A very cheap watch (£14) purchased from the Argos Catalogue in 1993, I wore this watch at an altitude of 17,000ft. in the Himalayas. Smashed against rocks, exposed to sub-zero temperatures and immersed in freezing glacial rivers, it still works perfectly today :-) The LCD module allows the watch to display a second time zone and has all the usual chronograph and alarm features. I loath the faux rotating bezel though!

Cosmopolitan:
Presumably this watch would once have been considered to be a very trendy item by fashion conscious females. It was marketed by Cosmopolitan magazine but was given to me free by a bloke in a pub! It has an enormous display for seconds, a miniscule display for hours and minutes and a kind of mirror-finish background making it almost impossible to see what time it is. It also features an irritating hourly alarm that seems impossible to deactivate. I can understand why the bloke in the pub was keen to be rid of it, but I wonder if his girlfriend knows what became of it :-)

CWC Royal Navy Diver:
Water resistant to 300M, this is the current issue Royal Navy divers watch which replaced the Rolex Submariner in the 1980's.

CWC G10:
This is a quartz British general service watch which was standard army issue up until 1999. From the markings on the back of the watch, I think this one was issued to a soldier in the British Army in 1997.

Elektronika:
Big old Russian LCD! I don't know much about this watch, but the design, lack of any functions and twin-battery movement suggest to me that it's an early LCD, maybe from the early 1980's or possibly even late 1970's!

Elektronika:
Another old Russian LCD from the Elektronika stable. Purchased from the Ukraine like the red one above and obviously from a similar period. The seller of this watch believed it to be from the late 70's. The movement is very similar to the one above as well.

Girard-Perregaux cal. 352 quartz:
In 1969 Girard-Perregaux created a quartz movement with a frequency of 32,768 Hz which became the accepted standard for all quartz movements, even those made in the far east. As far as I can gather, their first manufactured quartz movement was the cal. 352 which went into production around 1970 which must make this one of the first ever quartz watches - outside of the laboratory anyway! The cal. 352 movement was also used by Le Coultre and Favre-Leuba.

Limit Emergency:
A bizarre quartz watch that has the usual gamut of features but also includes markings on the dial which seem to refer to some kind of "all day drinking" exercise! Well, I did get it in a pub :-)

Luch "Calendar":
A modern Luch quartz watch similar in concept to the Raketa "Calendar". This was a nice gift from one of the RLT forum members who had been on a trip to Belarus. Shown here on a green NATO strap which I think suits it rather well.

Marathon Navigator 46374G Type III:
The Marathon Navigator is a quartz-powered US military watch intended for pilots and paratroopers. Some sources suggest that it is also in use by various US Special Forces. It features a water, dust and impact resistant fibreshell case with hesalyte crystal which is supposed to resist the effects of excessive external pressure changes. Luminosity is provided by tritium vials in the dial and hands.

o.d.m. Mysterious I:
o.d.m. (Original Dynamic Minimal) watches are designed and manufactured in the Far East. Certainly minimal, the "Mysterious I" has no buttons. You can change between time and date on the reversed LCD display by rocking your wrist backwards or forwards.

o.d.m. Visionary:
Another beautiful design from o.d.m. I love the look of this watch, but here I think form has taken a little too much emphasis away from function. Although the digital display has several different modes (here it is showing seconds) it can only be changed by taking off the watch and operating a small recessed button on the back! Still, it certainly is a stunner!

Pulsar quartz:
A Pulsar quartz from the mid 1980's with a 2 jewel Japanese movement.

Raketa "Glasnost" quartz:
The Russians seem very fond of adorning their watches with military or political designs. This 8 jewel quartz watch from the early to mid 1990's has a hammer and sickle logo with the word "Glasnost" printed underneath! You can see a picture of the R2350 movement HERE.

Raymond Weil quartz:
I bought this watch to "celebrate" leaving British Telecom in 1995. It has a mutli-jewelled Swiss quartz movement housed in an 18ct. gold case.

ReBirth quartz:
"ReBirth" is a computer music software package by Propellerhead Software that emulates two Roland TB303 synthesizers and TR808 and TR909 drum machines. Been there, done that and bought the T-Shirt (and the watch!)

"Renault" quartz:
Well, they don't come any cheaper than this. This watch was given away free at Renault car showrooms as part of a promotional campaign. As I drive Renaults, I thought I'd have a free watch :-)

RLT Watch Co, RLT9-GMT:
The RLT9-GMT is similar to the standard RLT9 with a quartz Ronda 315 movement, but it features an additional inner 24hr. dial with independently adjustable GMT hand to provide a second time zone. This is the titanium version.

Roamer Stingray GMT:
A multi-function watch with ISA quartz movement incorporating alarm / battery power reserve, constant seconds and day subdials; date window and alarm time and GMT hands. The case is 100M water resistant and has a sapphire crystal. The watch is shown here on a Stingray strap custom made by Banda.

Tissot T-Touch:
This watch has it all: a barometer, altimeter, compass, alarm, chronograph and thermometer, all operated via a touch-sensitive screen. It even tells the time too! :-)

Trafalgar LED:
A typical LED watch from sometime in the 70's I guess. I missed out on these first time around, have always wanted to own one...
...and now I do :-)

Van Der Bauwede Chronorace 1:
Based on the VDB Magnum GT3, this special edition is number 183 of 300 commemorating the first Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix held on 4th. April 2004. It utilises a 27 jewel ETA quartz movement with four stepper motors to drive the seven hands displaying the time and split-second chronograph functions. Hardly a pretty watch, but a nice souvenir all the same. Click the following link to see the back of the watch.

Ventura v-tec Alpha:
Straight out of one of Gerry Anderson's wildest fantasies I reckon!! An awesome combination of retro-styling and modern technology, the v-tec Alpha features a scroll-wheel driven ultra-bright display that cycles between the time in two time-zones, date, alarm, chronograph and countdown timer. You can read my review and see more pictures of this watch HERE.

Yes Space:
Yes Watch is a Californian-based company that has used modern technology to develop a watch that tells time in a very traditional way. It has only one "Solar" hand that rotates about the dial once every 24 hours following the path of the sun. The background LCD display divides the dial into a light-coloured daytime area and dark-coloured night time area and incorporates a moon phase display and a standard digital read-out which can be switched off if you prefer. The watch is pre-programmed with data for 500 cities worldwide or can calculate the display based on Latitude and Longitude settings entered by the user. It has dual-time functionality, alarm and chronograph functions too! It's pictured here on an RLT Fleiger leather strap.

Avocet Vertech Alpine and Suunto X-Lander:
I decided to show these two together as they're less "watches" and more "wrist-top computers". As well as all the normal watch functions, these devices have altimeters, thermometers and barometers. The Suunto has a compass too. I use them whilst winter mountaineering and literally wouldn't know where I'd be without them!!