Quartz or automatic watch: what you really wear on your wrist
This is the question every buyer should ask themselves before spending €200, €300, or €400 on a watch: what's beating inside? Two worlds coexist under sometimes identical dials, and the product page doesn't always highlight the right word.
Quartz: a battery and a circuit
A quartz watch runs on a battery that makes a small crystal vibrate. The result: excellent accuracy (a few seconds off per month), no maintenance other than changing the battery every two or three years, and a very low production cost — a standard quartz movement costs a few euros to produce. That's why the vast majority of fashion brands equip their watches with them, even those sold for €300-400: the difference goes into marketing and profit margin, not mechanics. We saw this in detail in our review of the Paul Rich Star Dust.
Automatic: a living mechanical engine
An automatic watch has no battery. A rotor rotates with the movements of your wrist and winds a spring; this spring releases its energy through a gear train regulated by a balance wheel that oscillates several times a second. The second hand doesn't jump from second to second: it glides. Put your ear to it, it beats. Turn some watches over — as above — a glass back lets you see the mechanism at work. An automatic can be set, repaired, passed down — it's a horological object in the true sense of the word.
The NH35, the game-changing movement
For a long time, automatic was reserved for expensive watches. The Japanese NH35 movement changed that: robust, accurate, repairable anywhere, with 48 hours of power reserve and manual winding possible. It is what allows independent workshops today to offer real automatic watches under €300 — provided you accept what the big fashion brands refuse: every movement must be placed, fitted, set, and controlled by hand. It cannot be infinitely industrialized.
So, which one to choose?
Let's be honest in both ways. Choose quartz if you want maximum accuracy without ever thinking about it, or a tight budget under €100. Choose automatic if you want a living mechanical object, without a battery, repairable, that has a value for passing down — and if the idea that a person set your movement by hand appeals to you. A sign that does not deceive: when asked by a major fashion watch brand what they should build next, more than half of their customers answered that an automatic movement was essential. Enthusiasts almost always end up coming to it.
At A★Star, the choice is made
All our watches — including those you compose yourself in the configurator — feature the automatic NH35, under sapphire glass, in a 316L steel case, with a glittery star dial whose pattern never exists twice. Assembled by hand in France, 2-year warranty, from €290. No battery. No series. Just yours.
