As the technological advances for watches increases the demand for watches without batteries is increasing also. When the quartz technology and batteries first appeared on the seen people rushed to them to get away from wind-up watches, now we are seeing the same thing with the introduction in recent years of watches that do not require batteries such as solar powered watches like the Citizen Eco Drive and the Seiko Kinetic line.



Citizen is one of the watchmakers that has now gone high-tech with a new line of solar powered wristwatches. These new Eco-Drive watches will never need to have the battery replaced. And they come in a wide variety of styles for both men and women.

The Eco-Drive watches will run on any light source whether natural or artificial and the watch takes the light and transforms it into electricity instead of using a conventional battery. The Eco-Drive line is available in many different styles for men and women and also available in aviation and diving models.

There are other companies such as Pulsar who have forayed into this technology but none of the quality of the Citizen.

Another "batteries not required" type of watch is the Kinetic line of watches introduced by Seiko in Germany in the late 1980's and now a very popular line of watch all over the world. Seiko was first to introduce the technology of a quartz watch powered by human movement which is an innovation so significant that it has resulted in over fifty patents. The cool thing about a kinetic watch that most guys love is that it is very low maintenance. It never needs winding, never needs a battery and it is environmentally friendly.

The Kinetic watch features many technological advancements such as the Kinetic Auto Relay which sends the watch into a sort of suspended animation if it is stationary for more than 72 hours. It also features the Kinetic Perpetual combining Kinetic technology, auto relay, and a calendar that remains accurate to the year 2100.

The Kinetic watch builds power through the use of a rotating pendulum connected to a large gear which is then meshed to a smaller pinion. The movement of the wearer makes the pendulum turn causing the pinion to spin very fast which gives the mini generator power to charge the capacitors which store the energy for up to six months.

There is no doubt that in today's society with more and more emphasis placed on conservation and environmentally friendly products we will continue to see new innovations in watches.