Mechanical vs Quartz Clocks — What's Worth Repairing?

How they differ

A mechanical clock stores energy in a spring or weight and releases it through a gear train regulated by a pendulum or balance. A quartz clock uses a battery and a vibrating crystal. One is a repairable machine with a service life measured in centuries; the other is a sealed module with a service life measured in years.

Accuracy is not the point

A quartz movement will out-perform almost any mechanical clock on raw accuracy. What a mechanical clock offers instead is repairability, craftsmanship, and the fact that it will still be running long after the quartz module is unobtainable.

When repair makes sense

Repair a mechanical clock almost always — the movement is the valuable part and virtually every fault is fixable. For quartz, repair is usually limited to replacing the module, which is inexpensive; the exception is a valuable case or dial worth retrofitting with a quality movement.

Converted clocks

We regularly see antiques whose original movement was pulled out and replaced with a battery module. In many cases the original movement is still in the bottom of the case, and returning the clock to its own mechanism is both possible and worth doing.