North Field Quartz Solar

The North Field Quartz Solar is a 41mm brushed stainless field-sport watch built around a solar-powered quartz movement. A photovoltaic cell laid behind the dial converts ambient light into stored energy, charging a rechargeable cell that drives the movement for up to ten months on a full charge. Water resistance is rated to 50m for daily wear, swims, and weather, and the day-date complication sits at three with a clean cyclops-free window.

This watch uses a solar quartz movement instead of an automatic, and the difference is worth understanding. An automatic — like the one in our Expedition 42 or Trail GMT — is driven by a mainspring wound by the motion of your wrist, with a balance wheel oscillating at 4Hz to regulate time. It has the mechanical depth, the sweeping seconds hand, and the long service life that mechanical owners value, but it also drifts a few seconds a day, requires a service every five to seven years, and stops if it's left undisturbed for a few days. A quartz movement, by contrast, uses a battery-or-light-powered crystal oscillator vibrating at 32,768Hz, which keeps the watch accurate to within a few seconds per month and demands almost no maintenance. The solar variant North Field uses pushes the battery-replacement cycle out by a decade or more. Quartz is lighter, cheaper to own over a decade, and effectively set-and-forget — at the cost of the mechanical character that draws people to automatics in the first place.

The Quartz Solar is the watch North Field hands to crew members, second-shift wearers, and travelers who want a working watch they don't have to think about. Mounted on a brushed three-link bracelet with a folding clasp.