# Question about Cartier quartz movements



## elapsed

Looking at the Cartier Tank line of watches I see that they use a variety of quartz movements, which I assume to be ETA? What are the key differences between these movement numbers? I'm much more familiar with automatic/manual movements, so please excuse my ignorance if this has already been discussed ad-infinitum

- Tank Francaise small: Cartier Caliber 057
- Tank Francaise medium: Cartier Caliber 175 A
- Tank Solo small: Cartier Caliber 157
- Tank Solo large: Cartier Caliber 690
- Tank Louis Cartier small: Cartier Caliber 057
- Tank Louis Cartier large: Cartier Caliber 688
- Tank Americaine small: Cartier Caliber 157

Are these considered to be on the higher end of quartz movements?

cheers,
elapsed


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## RPF

They are inhouse calibres, unfortunately. Ebel uses a couple of them too, under a Ebel calibre designation. 

To my knowledge, the parts/movements are only available from them. 

Accuracy wise, they're normal, meaning +-15s/month, like 99+% of quartz watches.


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## South Pender

Although the Cartier quartz movements do not, in general, produce the kind of accuracy that we have tended to associate with HEQ (± 20 sec./year seems to be our unwritten standard), these movements are, from pictures I've seen, beautifully finished--like the watches themselves. I have one Cartier quartz (a _must de Cartier_ from around 1990) that has stayed within about 4 seconds a month for years. Although one can't infer much from a sample of one, the Cartier quartz movements, although not thermocompensated, _may_, as a group, beat the usual ± 15 sec./month standard because of more careful set-up and calibration, and better quality materials and assembly. Perhaps others have looked into this in more detail.

Have you tried corresponding with Cartier aboout their movements? A quick stop at the Cartier boutique on Howe Street might get you the name of a contact person who could answer your questions. The Otto Friedl shop in the Hotel Vancouver service Cartier watches and might have some answers.


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## Catalin

South Pender said:


> ...
> I have one Cartier quartz (a _must de Cartier_ from around 1990) that has stayed within about 4 seconds a month for years. Although one can't infer much from a sample of one, the Cartier quartz movements, although not thermocompensated, _may_, as a group, beat the usual ± 15 sec./month standard because of more careful set-up and calibration, and better quality materials and assembly. Perhaps others have looked into this in more detail.
> ...


All the decent quartz models will beat the 15s/month when kept in a rather controlled temperature interval - the 15s/month is for good manufacturers just a more secure limit for more unusual temperatures! Pretty much all my quartz models are somewhere under 10s/month (except Casio models which are lame without radio reception), and a sensible percentage of them are even under 5s/month!

Generally I find more elegant and same/better finished some of the JDM high-quality models where you also have the advantage of a real HEQ with certain 8N / 8J / 0330 calibers ...


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## elapsed

RPF said:


> They are inhouse calibres, unfortunately. Ebel uses a couple of them too, under a Ebel calibre designation.
> 
> To my knowledge, the parts/movements are only available from them.
> 
> Accuracy wise, they're normal, meaning +-15s/month, like 99+% of quartz watches.


So with quartz movements, inhouse is not necessarily a good thing? This has always been a strong selling point to me when purchasing a mechanical watch! From pictures I've seen of Cartier quartz movements, they appear to be very well finished.

Though I wouldn't expect Cartier to be +/-20s/year, I would have thought they would have a higher accuracy than $100 department store watches. Then again, I'm not really purchasing a watch for accuracy, I travel so often between timezones that I would never see the watch gain or lose more than 20 seconds.

cheers,
elapsed


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## Catalin

elapsed said:


> ...
> Though I wouldn't expect Cartier to be +/-20s/year, I would have thought they would have a higher accuracy than $100 department store watches. Then again, I'm not really purchasing a watch for accuracy, I travel so often between timezones that I would never see the watch gain or lose more than 20 seconds.


Many of the really interesting HEQ models have the feature to adjust in steps of 1 hour without stopping the seconds - very handy on DST change and obviously on certain trips!


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## RPF

South Pender said:


> Although the Cartier quartz movements do not, in general, produce the kind of accuracy that we have tended to associate with HEQ (± 20 sec./year seems to be our unwritten standard), these movements are, from pictures I've seen, beautifully finished--like the watches themselves. I have one Cartier quartz (a _must de Cartier_ from around 1990) that has stayed within about 4 seconds a month for years. Although one can't infer much from a sample of one, the Cartier quartz movements, although not thermocompensated, _may_, as a group, beat the usual ± 15 sec./month standard because of more careful set-up and calibration, and better quality materials and assembly. Perhaps others have looked into this in more detail.


I have neglected to quote the spec properly. It's +-15s/month between 15-35 C or a suitable 20C band. There is a temperature band associated with accuracy of any timepiece, quartz or mechanical. This is a concise description of quartz resonance with temperature.

I do agree the more expensive watches, like Omega and Cartier, appear to be factory calibrated to better than 5s/month. But my statement is anecdotal at best.

Some Swiss quartz lose time, contrary to Japanese quartz, which I have found to be consistently fast.

On a side note, that footer ad is huge overkill. Chrono24 must have spent big bucks to have its name plastered all over. Bit of a poor taste eh?


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## Eeeb

RPF said:


> ...
> 
> On a side note, that footer ad is huge overkill. Chrono24 must have spent big bucks to have its name plastered all over. Bit of a poor taste eh?


It is a reciprocal link. They will soon link back to WUS on every page.

There is a thread in Public discussing the details. I would not assume they will stay around but Ernie makes the decisions.


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## Watchman Dan

FYI:

Cartier shares movements designed and made by sister company Piaget. They are decorated and signed differently, but otherwise are identical. IE: the Cartier cal. 690 is the same as the Piaget 690P. They are very expensive movements, but probably about the same quality as a standard ETA. They are not HAQ, as these buyers probably place more importance on the fine finish and style of these timepieces. If they fail they must be returned to the factory, and usually you are looking at $1,000 USD minimum for a movement swap. These are about the only ultra luxury Swiss brands left making their own quartz movements, likely more to differentiate them from lower priced brands and justify their high prices. Most others just use ETA. I believe Breitling uses a modified ETA, rather than a true in-house movement for their Super Quartz models. Omega and Longines, once in-house, now also use modified ETA Standard TC Quartz calibers for their top models.


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## ronalddheld

No need to have bumped this thread.


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