Lots of mechanical clocks have hands and seconds which ticks one unit at a time, and doesn't move in a smooth movement. But that's obviously done intentionally through the mechanics and requires extra effort to "implement", so it's not a sign of a "low" quality watch either.
I have one here in a clocks n' (stop) watches box that moves the second hand at a significantly higher rate than 60 per second, but I must admit I didn't know that was something special.
Not sure what Gruber is hinting at here honestly.