Quality of the Ronda 515?

[Eeeb]

While I have not objectively documented this, in my experience, the most vulnerable part of a quartz watch is the electronic circuitry, not necessarily the mechanical parts. An experienced watchmaker who has rescued a number of my watches told me that the main circuit boards in quartz watches can simply die without warning after a few years—as I discovered with a number of my watches by reputable brands. The circuitboard can't be repaired, and replacing it is probably not economical for most watches. I'd be very surprised if even today's high-end quartz watches are still around in 100 years. That's why I now prefer mechanical watches.

The main evil that can befall any electronic ICs is static electricity. Earlier quartz watches are less resistant than modern ones. Designs evidently changed to make them more immune.

One of the big sources of static is from watchmakers who do not do grounding of themselves and their work area. Few know much about these hazards... so working watches can 'die' in their hands, literally.

Theoretically the ICs can be replaced from donor watches. But the skills to do this are rarely found with watchmakers. Anything can be fixed... it's just a matter of cost.

[Time]

I agree. Worst case scenario you just change the chip for something more modern or if you can find the old one even better. It will still be more cost effective than a mechanical any way you look at it. Now, because the parts, oil, etc. for a mechanical will cost hundreds of dollars if company still carries it. May be you can find somebody to do it that is not the company, however, the cost it is not going to be cheap for a mechanical since they are the only ones that can do it and they know it and then your expensive mechanical is not worth anything because NOBODY is going to want to buy it with parts that are NOT ORIGINAL.

[Eeeb]

I agree. Worst case scenario you just change the chip for something more modern or if you can find the old one even better. It will still be more cost effective than a mechanical any way you look at it. Now, because the parts, oil, etc. for a mechanical will cost hundreds of dollars if company still carries it. May be you can find somebody to do it that is not the company, however, the cost it is not going to be cheap for a mechanical since they are the only ones that can do it and they know it and then your expensive mechanical is not worth anything because NOBODY is going to want to buy it with parts that are NOT ORIGINAL.

The ICs in watches are custom made. They are not off the shelf available. I suspect the best you could do is a small daughter board... but that probably would not fit. Donor watch movements would be your best source -- just like with mechanicals.

[Andrew McGregor]

Custom PCBs, even on that tiny scale, are much easier to make than custom chips (as in, if you own a laser printer, you have the expensive part covered already, the rest is tens of dollars in stuff and a reasonably simple manual process). So if you really, really wanted to revive a quartz, it would not be beyond the bounds of possibility to make a new PCB with some other chip on it. There are lots of generic programmable RTC chips that would do the job nicely.

[ronalddheld]

Far enough in the future, a programmable CPU might emulate the functions of an older watch, and fit in the case.

[Andrew McGregor]

Far enough in the future, a programmable CPU might emulate the functions of an older watch, and fit in the case.

That works right now, no need to look to the future.

[ronalddheld]

Do you have a example to show us?

[Andrew McGregor]

Do you have a example to show us?

Not as such, but given the existence of this it's clearly doable: Seeeduino Film [ARD129D2P] - $19.00 : Seeed Studio Bazaar, Boost ideas, extend the reach

The middle frame of that is about 10x the processing power required for any normal watch. Note the price, $19.

[John372]

Do jewels really make a difference in the accuracy of a quartz?

[dicioccio]

Eeeb in post #4 says "Not in the accuracy. Only in the longevity. A well treated zero jeweled quartz watch will probably only last a hundred or so years..." and I fully agree