Mechanicals are "losing their allure..". Looking for examples of HEQ watches & watch companies

[ronsabbagh]

OK so I have been wearing a mechanical watch for many years. I am starting to get a bit disenchanted with all the little things needed to keep the time close to accurate...

"set it one minute early...cause it runs fast..."

"set it one minute late, cause it runs slow..."

"you can't adjust the date between 8 pm and 8 am"

"the second hand needs to "catch up" to the minute hand..."

etc.

I am starting to examine the HAQ watch world, only I am very limited in my knowledge of HAQ....

The only brand I am familiar with (for HAQ) is Breitling. What are some other brands for me to look at? I am looking to replace some nice mechanicals, so I am looking at the high-end of HAQ.
Any suggestions on which brands or specific models to examine? I have no specific "needs", i.e. I don't scuba dive or fly...I just wanna wear a superior quality watch that "excites" me...

Thanks in advance for your help.

[RPF]

Breitling is about it when it comes to high end Swiss HAQ, I'm afraid.

Otherwise, consider the Japanese. Grand Seiko and Citizen Chronomaster.

[Eeeb]

Take a look at the stickies. There are lots of 'vintage' HEQs.

[Sabresoft]

Sinn UX



While I know you aren't into diving, this is an exceptional dive watch (5000 metres) and HAQ.

At lower price points there are the Certina DS Master, Christopher Ward C70 COSC, and the Maurice Lacroix Miros Diver Chronograph (out of production, but a few can be found new in eBay and Chrono24).




Chopard also has a HAQ model, the Grand Prix de Monaco Time Attack MF (or something like that).

Krieger also has a HAQ model, but I don't recall the name right now.

Another type of high accuracy watch is the Radio Controlled watches from Seiko, Citizen and Casio that update daily based on radio signals from an Atomic clock.

Citizen Attesa ATD53-3081, Citizen Skyhawk and Casio G-Shock:





These last 3 are all solar powered.

[ronalddheld]

I do not recall a current Krieger HAQ. RC/GPS watches have no intrinsic high accuracy.

[artec]

The best of the "stickies" for your purposes, I think, is probably the one originally posted by hedrick and called "Thermocompensation, methods and movements". It was posted quite a while ago so there may be a number of additional models using HAQ movements and some new movements. One of the latter is the Citizen A010 movement that is also Eco-drive and shows up in 5 different models at the moment. You can find photos and some information on the site higuchi-inc.com, from whom I and many other HAQ addicts have bought watches.

The tightest specs are The Citizen (including the A 660 and A 010 movements) which are 5 seconds per year and the Quartz Grand Seiko, some of which are also 5 spy and the rest are 10 spy. The tightest European specs are those that are COSC certified chronometers, which are 25.5 spy. There are also Seiko Springdrive models, which, although specified to 15 seconds a month, often do much better than that. Their movements are hybrids of automatic power units but they use quartz regulation instead of conventional balance-wheels. Although they use quartz they don't have batteries. If you're used to automatics, these might appeal because they are similar in many ways. They need to be "wound" every three days.

Good luck.

[ronsabbagh]

Thanks for all the help.....the Spring Drive sounds different and interesting....

Ron

[Andrew McGregor]

Also, the non-atomic Citizen Skyhawks verge on HAQ; I don't know what the specs are, but mine stays well within 1s/month.

[Sabresoft]

I do not recall a current Krieger HAQ. RC/GPS watches have no intrinsic high accuracy.

Krieger HAQ watch, taken directly from their website:

As to RC/GPS, definitely no intrinsic high accuracy, but for all practical purposes in areas where syncing is feasible and regular, they do present a very viable accuracy proposition. I have 4 TC and 3 RC watches that I can grab and wear and know that they are within 7 seconds of correct time or better, and for 6 of them, within 4 seconds (based on setting the TC watches at DST change to -½ the expected deviation over the DST period).

[ronalddheld]

Maybe I blocked out that Kreiger due to dial?