When people compare watches, the conversation usually starts with price, brand and design. The movement — the engine that drives the hands — gets less airtime, which is a shame because it's often the single biggest factor in how a watch behaves over a decade of wear. This guide is about the three movement types Mondaine builds with: quartz, solar and automatic. What each one does well, where each one falls short, and which Mondaine watches sit in each camp.
A quick frame: what a movement actually is
A watch's movement is the assembly inside the case that keeps time. Two big families exist: quartz, which uses a battery and a vibrating quartz crystal to keep time electronically, and mechanical, which uses a wound mainspring and a system of gears to do it without any electronics. Solar watches sit inside the quartz family but replace the battery with a small photovoltaic cell that charges from light. Automatic watches sit inside the mechanical family but wind themselves from the natural motion of the wearer's wrist — no daily winding required.
There's no ‘best' movement type in the abstract. There's only the one that fits how you actually use a watch.
Quartz: the everyday workhorse
Quartz is the most common movement in modern watchmaking and for good reason. A small battery sends a steady current through a vibrating quartz crystal, which produces an extremely consistent oscillation — 32,768 times per second. That oscillation is what drives the hands, and it's the reason a good quartz watch gains or loses only a few seconds per month. Compared to a mechanical watch, quartz is more accurate, less expensive to make, and almost maintenance-free until the battery runs out (usually every two to four years).
The Doppio Black Stainless Steel 41mm is a good example of where quartz makes the most sense — a daily watch that needs to keep accurate time without ceremony. You wear it, you check the time, you ignore it the rest of the day. That's the contract a quartz movement is built for.
Solar: quartz without the battery problem
Solar movements solve the one real downside of quartz: the battery. A solar watch uses the same quartz oscillator and the same electronics, but it charges from light — sunlight, office light, ambient light from a window — rather than running off a button cell that eventually dies. A fully charged solar watch can hold its charge for months in the dark, which means the battery question essentially disappears.
The Doppio Solar Black Leather 41mm is one of our most-loved solar pieces. Same accuracy as a quartz watch, none of the periodic battery changes, and a meaningful sustainability win: no batteries to dispose of over the watch's lifetime. For anyone who wants quartz reliability without the e-waste, solar is the obvious upgrade.
Automatic: the mechanical option
An automatic watch is mechanical — no battery, no electronics, no quartz crystal. A small weighted rotor inside the case spins as you move your wrist, winding the mainspring; the spring slowly unwinds through a regulated train of gears and that's what drives the hands. The whole assembly is small-scale engineering at its most elegant, and the reason serious watch collectors tend to gravitate toward mechanical pieces.
The evo2 Automatic Watch 35mm is the automatic piece in our line. Swiss made, sapphire crystal, a 35mm stainless steel case. Automatics are less accurate than quartz on paper — they tend to gain or lose a few seconds a day rather than per month — but the trade-off is the connection to traditional watchmaking, the absence of any battery or electronics, and a piece that, with periodic servicing, can outlive its owner.
One thing worth noting: an automatic that isn't worn for a few days will stop. Many enthusiasts use a watch winder to keep automatics running between wears. Others just enjoy the small ritual of setting the time again.
A clean-design quartz alternative
The Essence Watch 41mm is worth mentioning here as a different take on quartz. The Essence family runs on quartz movements, but the entire watch is designed around minimalist proportions — the kind of dial that doesn't lean on the movement choice for character. It's a useful illustration that movement type matters most for behaviour, not aesthetics. Two watches with the same quartz movement can read entirely differently depending on case, dial and strap.
So which one should you buy?
The framing we keep coming back to: if you wear a watch every day and you want it to be the most accurate, lowest-maintenance piece on your wrist, quartz or solar is the answer. If you also care about avoiding battery waste, solar is the clear pick. If you collect watches, or you want a piece with a clear connection to traditional watchmaking and don't mind a small ritual of servicing every few years, automatic is the more romantic choice.
None of these is universally ‘better'. They're answers to different questions about how a watch fits into your life.
Browse the Watches collection if you'd like to see the full range by movement type, or visit our Design & Technology page for more on how Mondaine's Swiss-made pieces are built — from the original 1944 Hilfiker design through to today's solar engineering.