Where have all the pin-levers gone?
In the 21st Century, common everyday watches are invariably quartz-driven. A mechanical watch is always purchased as a luxury item; albeit often a very affordable luxury. By contrast, pin-lever is inherently a ‘good enough’ technology designed to enable the manufacture of the most basic watch at the lowest possible cost; a role now filled by quartz watches. Consequentially there are no surviving pin-lever movement manufacturers anywhere in the world. Most mechanical watch manufacturers currently building in the sub-$1000 category are those who were already making mid-grade fully-jewelled, jewelled-lever watches back before quartz became the norm. This includes all current Chinese mechanical movement makers. The last survivors In recent years, some European brands known to be selling Chinese manufactured watches (e.g. Trias and Chevenard) have offered ‘Swiss Movement’ watches which have been found to contain recently refurbished vintage Swiss Ronda RL-series movements. Some are fully je
