Seiko VK64 Meca-Quartz Hybrid Movement

Meca-quartz movements have a love it or hate it reaction among “watch people”. For reasons that I don’t particularly understand, some feel that a quartz-mechanical hybrid takes away from the horological significance of a watch. Respectfully, I disagree.

If you read Mark’s worn&wound article, you’ll know that meca-quartz movements have been used in a variety of brands at many different price points. Even high-end Swiss brands like Omega have made watches using this type of movement.

On the First 42, when you press the chronograph pusher, it makes 5 stops per second. It looks like a mechanical chronograph should, and when paused/reset, it snaps back to the 12 o’clock position the same way that a traditional mechanical chronograph would. If you were never told that it wasn’t a mechanical, you wouldn’t know.

Of course, you might come to such suspicion when the power reserve lasted 3 years instead of 36 hours, and its accuracy remained to within a few seconds per month as opposed to per day.

I’ll leave it to you to come to your own conclusions regarding whether or not the VK64 meca-quartz is a true watch person’s watch movement. I suppose it comes down to what you value in a movement (and in a watch). In my mind, the meca-quartz is kind of like the electric motor inside a Tesla: it operates differently than you’re used to, but you can’t deny its capability or its practicality.