Originally posted by: Don_Vito
Originally posted by: Capone
what does quartz-kinetic mean? Is that a sweep hand? and I found a really nice one but its a little out of my price range
here. I'm gonna check out a couple of these Citizens now.
A quartz-kinetic movement is an electronic quartz movement that is powered by the movement of the wearer, rather than a battery (they actually have a rechargeable battery that is recharged by movement). Their strengths are that they are as accurate as any other quartz watch, and do not require replaceable batteries. On the other hand, they are as lifeless as other quartz watches (this is an intangible, but somehow quartz watches leave me cold), and will stop if you leave them in a drawer for an extended period, like an automatic watch (on the other hand, they have MUCH longer lives, and will run for months on a full charge - an automatic watch is only good for a couple of days at most). The second hand skips like any other quartz watch.
For my part, I strongly prefer mechanical watches (either automatic or handwound). Seiko, Citizen, Invicta, and others make inexpensive automatic watches with reasonably precise Japanese movements (and the second hand sweeps!).