What is a Quartz Wall Clock?

Quartz wall clocks are the most accurate home wall clocks today where the time is regulated by a quartz crystal oscillator inside the movement. The quartz crystal oscillator creates a signal at a precise frequency of 32768 times each second making it very accurate. Quartz movements found in these clocks can be made in a wide variety of quality. These quartz movements can cost 5.00 – 30.00 if they are time-only.

The better movements use better plastics, higher precision of construction and heavier copper in the coil. An inexpensive movement might last a few years where a higher quality movement we have seen last over 20 years. Your better wall clock brands like Howard Miller, Bulova, Seiko, and Rhythm will use better movements than the off-brands.

Quiet-Sweep Wall Clocks

A silent sweep wall clock uses a movement with a special design to eliminate the ticking sound found in most wall clocks.

The ticking sound in traditional wall clocks is caused by the movement moving the second hand from one second to the next. You would be able to hear it across a room in a quiet room and sometimes the material of the wall can actually amplify the ticking.

The Quiet Sweep movement is designed to break up each second into several parts and move it forward fractions of seconds at a time to eliminate the ticking every second. When you look at the second hand moving after the clock is installed you will see it moving in a continuous motion which is also visually pleasing as well as quiet. The cost of the movement is usually about 3 – 4 times that of your traditional square box wall clock movement. The quiet sweep movements mean none of that annoying ticking!

If you place your ear to the clock you can hear a quiet whirring sound, but from any distance, at all, you probably will not hear it.

They can only be used on clocks under 15″ or so because they are not of a high torque design. These are usually powered by a single AA battery which will power the clock for about a year at a time. You may view all of the non-ticking clocks here.

SOURCE: https://clocks-blog.theclockdepot.com/how-to-choose-a-quartz-wall-clock/