Reflecting on Quartz Watches

I've had some time on my hands recently and reflected on my Quartz watches - Both Casios and both Edifices.

See, even if the mechanical watches have 'soul', or a heart beat, and needs attention to wind it up, set time, etc.. the quartz just ticks on and on and on. In the case of both of my Edifices, they last almost a lifetime of the watch themselves. (There was one instance where my EF-125 stopped which I thought was the battery running out, but a bit of tapping and adjusting the hands it has gone on working since.)

This is because the EF-125 has a 10-year battery, on which it is still ticking on, and the EQS-500DB is solar.

It's easy to see why quartz watches are so popular with the general populace - especially with long life batteries or solar watches - they are basically set once and forget. In the case of my EQS-500DB, it is also perpetual.

So, with the EQS-500DB, you get:

- Water resistance up to 100m
- Reliable and toughness to abuse
- world time, 1/100 chronograph, alarm, 24 hour indicator
- solar, never needing a battery change so often
- being a quartz, the time is always spot on
- perpetual calendar so you never need to set for months that skip the 31st or leap years
- essentially almost needing no service

...and all for about the same price as my Orient automatics that only just tell the time.

In essence, these two are essential to my time keeping for all my other watches - I set all my automatics to the Quartz watches (and sometimes my phone, if I could even be bothered to turn its screen on).

So if you're rational, all you need is just this one watch.


But, and this is irrational, because I like my automatics. It's like a little engine ticking away on my wrist. It's like jewellery and fine machinery combined into one. It's precision engineering. And it's a joy to watch the movement do its thing in a transparent caseback. Quartz itself is an engineering marvel in its own right when it first came out.. it's too good for its own good.

Oh well. Quartz is important - but don't let the mechanicals become obsolete (or become high-end curiosities only for the rich). I hope the likes of Seiko and Orient keep producing affordable, reliable, mechanical little spring driven engines for our wrists and I hope people keep buying them.

So Casio EF-125D-7AV Bracelet Broke After 7 Years..

My Casio EF-125D-7AV's bracelet broke. Luckily, it was a spring bar that broke and fell into pieces, and doubly luckily, it was not on my wrist when it did. A simple fix. However, the 7 years of hard use has not been kind to the bracelet and spring bars.

Yes, the EF-125D-7AV is by no means a watch meant to last the eons, especially the folded metal bracelet construction, but it does worry me a bit since it has the integrated bracelet which isn't changeable when the time comes, the bracelet has gotten very loose from stretching and rattly over the years.

The watch may have stopped once in the past but that was probably due to accidental bumping of the crown. It's almost been 7 years to this day and the 10-year battery has kept ticking non-stop, with essentially zero maintenance. That is pretty darn amazing. Also, I have dropped it once to a tile floor from arm height, standing up. Dented the case a bit, but no other damages.

If you didn't know, the EF-125D was my first 'proper' watch I got for myself, back in late 2008. It is the watch that got me into watches.

On a Cloudy Day..

Casio EF-125D-7AV

So My EF-125 10 Year Batteries Finally Needed Replacement (Updated)

 Alas, it had to happen sooner or later. The 10 year batteries in my EF-125 finally has weakened enough that it stops intermittently at random. I bought this watch in 2009, and it's been 5 years (2014 as I write this), so give or take heat, wear, and some time sitting in shops, it's time to replace the batteries in it soon.

 Meanwhile I'll just wear my other watches.

UPDATE: Actually, it works fine now for the past 24 hours. And first thing I did was to check that the crown is pulle out, it's not. So it's a sign that there is some battery low voltage, or some dust has gotten inside and stopped the gears. I will not replace the batts for now.

My Casio Edifice EF-125

The Casio Edifice EF-125D-7AV This is my 'beater' watch. Very simple design, a nice white "carbon" pattern face, very robust Quartz with a '10 year Battery'. Indeed, I had this watch for about 3 years now (as you can tell from all the scratches on this watch in the photo) and it still ticks reliably away on the original battery. I even dropped it once in the bathroom while handling it with soapy hands. Lesson learnt.


I forgot how much I got for it, but it doesn't cost very much. My main complaint is that the bracelet makes a lot of noise but otherwise it is acceptable for what this watch is meant for, at this price.

• Mineral Glass / Spherical Glass
• Screw Lock Back
• 100-meter water resistance
• Case / bezel material: Stainless steel
• Stainless Steel Band
• One-touch 3-fold Buckle
• Date display (at 4.30 position)
• Accuracy: ±20 seconds per month
• Approx. battery life: 10 years on CR2012
• Size of case/total weight: 48.6 X 40 X 9.9 mm/127.4 g

Personally, I think the white dial is the best looking of the bunch.

Casio's web site for this watch.