# Why quartz clock with sweeping seconds hands is so cheap?



## vietnam92 (Jul 18, 2020)

My home has 2 quartz clocks that have sweeping seconds hands. And they're just about 7-10$.
About quartz wrist watches that have sweeping seconds hands, they must be expensive, high-beat and high-end watches. And I am really curious about how cheap quartz clock could have sweeping seconds hands.
Could somebody share me the reasons?
thanks.


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## lvt (Sep 15, 2009)

For $10 a piece it's still expensive. If you order 5,000 pieces from a Chinese manufacturer your price would be something like $3 a piece.


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## MX793 (Dec 7, 2017)

Smooth sweep movements like that consume a lot of power. Many are designed to plug into an outlet. Battery operated examples use much larger batteries than will fit in a watch and often require new batteries annually.

The smooth sweeping quartz watches Bulova sells in the Precisionist line use batteries that would last 10 years in a regular quartz, but only last maybe 3 in the Bulova.


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## Tsujigiri (Nov 28, 2008)

Right, it's not hard to incorporate sweep seconds into quartz; most of the early examples had that. But most people wouldn't be happy with the battery life. The Precisionists need to use huge batteries to make up for that.


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## MissileExpert (Mar 18, 2018)

One of the companies that provides clock kits to woodworkers sells a continuous sweeping quartz movement for $9. It runs off a single AA battery. I've seen quartz continuous sweep second hand movements as cheap as $3 if you buy 100. These are prices of just the movement with the hands.


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## TimoTellsTime (Aug 4, 2020)

Everything, for the most part, can be made cheaply. That doesn't mean it is the best but it can most certainly be done. This is especially true in horology. You can get an automatic watch for $15 when one cannot usually buy a movement, even the movement in that same $15 watch, for that amount if purchasing it separately. 

Consider that every clock in every classroom in my grade school growing up had a sweeping second hand. Power consumption was a major factor and it wasn't uncommon to find clocks in the building that had just stopped working even though they claimed to be replacing batteries whenever they went through to change the clocks for DST.


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## plohmann (Jan 7, 2007)

MX793 said:


> Smooth sweep movements like that consume a lot of power. Many are designed to plug into an outlet. Battery operated examples use much larger batteries than will fit in a watch and often require new batteries annually.
> 
> The smooth sweeping quartz watches Bulova sells in the Precisionist line use batteries that would last 10 years in a regular quartz, but only last maybe 3 in the Bulova.


Thanks for the answer. I always did wonder about that.


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## vietnam92 (Jul 18, 2020)

MX793 said:


> Smooth sweep movements like that consume a lot of power. Many are designed to plug into an outlet. Battery operated examples use much larger batteries than will fit in a watch and often require new batteries annually.





Tsujigiri said:


> Right, it's not hard to incorporate sweep seconds into quartz; most of the early examples had that. But most people wouldn't be happy with the battery life. The Precisionists need to use huge batteries to make up for that.


Thank you two guys. That's the answer. Thus, almost guys want a thin quartz watch, so that why it's hard to put CR2016 or CR2020 battery inside, instead of small battery Renata 371....


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## TimoTellsTime (Aug 4, 2020)

Though, to be honest, I'm kind of surprised (and someone correct me if this exists) someone hasn't made a Quartz dive watch with a sweeping second hand since they can get away with making those things beefy anyway. For all of the Submariner homages it would be relatively easy to pull off and would mean you could ignore other, more expensive (and meaningful) features since it would be highly visible.


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## John MS (Mar 17, 2006)

Earlier thread has a link to some quartz clock choices and another thread.








Quartz Clock - Sweeping Second Hand


I work in a hospital. I’m baffled about a cheap quartz wall clock that has a second hand sweeping across the dial with perfect smoothness. Does anyone know how this is possible?




www.watchuseek.com


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## Falling Up (May 8, 2021)

TimoTellsTime said:


> Though, to be honest, I'm kind of surprised (and someone correct me if this exists) someone hasn't made a Quartz dive watch with a sweeping second hand since they can get away with making those things beefy anyway.


It could be practical with a solar powered watch.


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## CoramDeoSC412 (Oct 29, 2018)

I always wondered this as well! Battery life makes sense...


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