Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchâtel Switzerland, and the prototype of the Astron revealed by Seiko in Japan (which was in development since 1958.History
The piezoelectric properties of quartz were discovered by Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880. The first quartz crystal oscillator was built by Walter G. Cady in 1921. In 1923, D. W. Dye at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK and Warren Marrison at Bell Telephone Laboratories produced sequences of precision time signals with quartz oscillators. In 1927 the first quartz clock was built by Warren Marrison and J.W. Horton at Bell Telephone Laboratories. The next 3 decades saw the development of quartz clocks as precision time standards in laboratory settings; the bulky delicate counting electronics, built with vacuum tubes, limited their use elsewhere. In 1932 a quartz clock was able to measure tiny weekly variations in the rotation rate of the Earth. The National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) based the time standard of the US on quartz clocks between the 1930s and the 1960s, when it went to atomic clocks. The wider use of quartz clock technology had to await the development of cheap semiconductor digital logic in the 60s.
In 1969, Seiko produced the world's first quartz wristwatch, the Astron. The inherent accuracy and low cost of production has resulted in the proliferation of quartz clocks and watches since that time. By the 1980s quartz technology had taken over applications such as kitchen timers, alarm clocks, bank vault time locks, and time fuzes on munitions, from earlier mechanical balance wheel movements.
Quartz timepiece production has emerged from Asia, notably Hong Kong and Japan. Many traditional European clockmakers, particularly in Switzerland, Germany, France and Russia have continued to produce the less-accurate but still-popular geared timepieces.
Quartz wristwatches are in high demand today as they are more accurate than their mechanical counterparts; they need neither winding nor much maintenance. Light-powered and motion-powered quartz watches represent two innovative types of timepieces. Light-powered quartz watches incorporate a solar cell that transforms the light into electricity. As for the motion-powered wristwatches, they have a tiny rotor spinning in response to motion and generating electricity.
The piezoelectric properties of quartz were discovered by Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880. The first quartz crystal oscillator was built by Walter G. Cady in 1921. In 1923, D. W. Dye at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK and Warren Marrison at Bell Telephone Laboratories produced sequences of precision time signals with quartz oscillators. In 1927 the first quartz clock was built by Warren Marrison and J.W. Horton at Bell Telephone Laboratories. The next 3 decades saw the development of quartz clocks as precision time standards in laboratory settings; the bulky delicate counting electronics, built with vacuum tubes, limited their use elsewhere. In 1932 a quartz clock was able to measure tiny weekly variations in the rotation rate of the Earth. The National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) based the time standard of the US on quartz clocks between the 1930s and the 1960s, when it went to atomic clocks. The wider use of quartz clock technology had to await the development of cheap semiconductor digital logic in the 60s.
In 1969, Seiko produced the world's first quartz wristwatch, the Astron. The inherent accuracy and low cost of production has resulted in the proliferation of quartz clocks and watches since that time. By the 1980s quartz technology had taken over applications such as kitchen timers, alarm clocks, bank vault time locks, and time fuzes on munitions, from earlier mechanical balance wheel movements.
Quartz timepiece production has emerged from Asia, notably Hong Kong and Japan. Many traditional European clockmakers, particularly in Switzerland, Germany, France and Russia have continued to produce the less-accurate but still-popular geared timepieces.
Quartz wristwatches are in high demand today as they are more accurate than their mechanical counterparts; they need neither winding nor much maintenance. Light-powered and motion-powered quartz watches represent two innovative types of timepieces. Light-powered quartz watches incorporate a solar cell that transforms the light into electricity. As for the motion-powered wristwatches, they have a tiny rotor spinning in response to motion and generating electricity.
