A quartz clock is a clock that uses an electronic oscillator that is regulated by a

quartz crystal to keep time. This crystal oscillator creates a signal with very precise
frequency, so that quartz clocks are at least an order of magnitude more accurate
than mechanical clocks. Generally, some form of digital logic counts the cycles of
this signal and provides a numeric time display, usually in units of hours, minutes,
and seconds. The first quartz clock was built in 1927 by Warren Marrison and J.W.
Horton at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Since the 1980s when the advent of solid
state digital electronics allowed them to be made compact and inexpensive, quartz
timekeepers have become the world's most widely used timekeeping technology,
used in most clocks and watches, as well as computers and other appliances that
keep time.
Chemically, quartz is a compound called silicon dioxide. Many materials can be
formed into plates that will resonate. However, quartz is also a piezoelectric
material: that is, when a quartz crystal is subject to mechanical stress, such as
bending, it accumulates electrical charge across some planes. In a reverse effect, if
charges are placed across the crystal plane, quartz crystals will bend. Since quartz
can be directly driven (to flex) by an electric signal, no additional speaker or
microphone is required to use it in a resonator. Similar crystals are used in low-end
phonograph cartridges: The movement of the stylus (needle) flexes a quartz crystal,
which produces a small voltage, which is amplified and played through speakers.
Quartz microphones are still available, though not common.

Quartz has a further advantage in that its size does not change much as
temperature fluctuates. Fused quartz is often used for laboratory equipment that
must not change shape along with the temperature. A quartz plate's resonance
frequency, based on its size, will not significantly rise or fall. Similarly, since its
resonator does not change shape, a quartz clock will remain relatively accurate as
the temperature changes.

In the early 20th century, radio engineers sought a precise, stable source of radio
frequencies, and started at first with steel resonators. However, when Walter
Guyton Cady found that quartz can resonate with less equipment and better
temperature stability, steel resonators disappeared within a few years. Later,
scientists at NIST (Then the U.S. National Bureau of Standards) discovered that a
crystal oscillator could be more accurate than a pendulum clock.

The electronic circuit is an oscillator, an amplifier whose output passes through the
quartz resonator. The resonator acts as an electronic filter, eliminating all but the
single frequency of interest. The output of the resonator feeds back to the input of

the amplifier, and the resonator assures that the oscillator "howls" with the exact
frequency of interest. When the circuit starts up, even a single shot can cascade to
bringing the oscillator at the desired frequency. If the amplifier is too perfect, the
oscillator will not start.

The frequency at which the crystal oscillates depends on its shape, size, and the
crystal plane on which the quartz is cut. The positions at which electrodes are
placed can slightly change the tuning, as well. If the crystal is accurately shaped
and positioned, it will oscillate at a desired frequency. In nearly all quartz watches,
the frequency is 32,768 Hz,[1] and the crystal is cut in a small tuning fork shape on
a particular crystal plane. This frequency is a power of two (32,768 = 215), just high
enough so most people cannot hear it, yet low enough to permit inexpensive
counters to derive a 1-second pulse. A 15-bit binary digital counter driven by the
frequency will overflow once per second, creating a digital pulse once per second.
The pulse-per-second output can be used to drive many kinds of clocks.

Although quartz has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion, temperature

changes are the major cause of frequency variation in crystal oscillators. The most
obvious way of reducing the effect of temperature on oscillation rate is to keep the
crystal at a constant temperature. For laboratory grade oscillators an OvenControlled Crystal Oscillator is used, in which the crystal is kept in a very small oven
that is held at a constant temperature. This method is however impractical for
consumer quartz clock and wrist watch movements.

The crystal planes and tuning of a consumer grade clock crystal are designed for
minimal temperature sensitivity in terms of their effect on frequency and operate
best at about 25 to 28 C (77 to 82 F). At that temperature the crystal oscillates at
its fastest. A higher or lower temperature will result in a -0.035 parts per million/C2
(slower) oscillation rate. So a 1 C temperature deviation will account for a (1)2 x
-0.035 = -0.035 parts per million (ppm) rate, which is equivalent to -1.1 seconds per
year. If, instead, the crystal experiences a 10 C temperature deviation, then the
rate change will be (10)2 x -0.035 ppm = 100 x -0.035 ppm = -3.5 ppm, which is
equivalent to -110 seconds per year.

Quartz watch manufacturers use a simplified version of the Oven-Controlled Crystal

Oscillator method by recommending that their watches be worn regularly to ensure
best performance. Regular wearing of a quartz watch significantly reduces the
magnitude of environmental temperature swings, since a correctly designed watch

case forms an expedient crystal oven that uses the stable temperature of the
human body to keep the crystal in its most accurate temperature range.
In modern quartz clocks, the quartz crystal resonator or oscillator is in the shape of
a small tuning fork, laser-trimmed or precision lapped to vibrate at 32,768 Hz. This
frequency is equal to 215 cycles per second. A power of 2 is chosen so a simple
chain of digital divide-by-2 stages can derive the 1 Hz signal needed to drive the
watch's second hand. In most clocks, the resonator is in a small can or flat package,
about 4 mm long. The reason the 32,768 Hz resonator has become so common is
due to a compromise between the large physical size of low frequency crystals for
watches and the large current drain of high frequency crystals, which reduces the
life of the watch battery. During the 1970s, the introduction of metaloxide
semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuits allowed a 12-month battery life from a
single coin cell when driving either a mechanical Lavet type stepping motor or a
liquid crystal display (in an LCD digital watch). Light-emitting diode (LED) displays
for watches have become rare due to their comparatively high battery consumption.

The basic formula for calculating the fundamental frequency (f) of vibration of a
cantilever as a function of its dimensions (quadratic cross-section) is:[2]

f = \frac{1.875^2}{2\pi} \frac{a}{l^2} \sqrt \frac{E}{12 \rho}

where

1.875 the smallest positive solution of cos(x)cosh(x) = -1 [3]

l is the length of the cantilever
a is its thickness along the direction of motion
E is its Young's modulus
and is its density
A cantilever made of quartz (E = 1011 Nm2 = 100 GPa and = 2634 kgm3 [4])
with a length of 3 mm and a thickness of 0.3 mm has thus a fundamental frequency
of around 33 kHz. The crystal is tuned to exactly 215 = 32,768 Hz or runs at a
slightly higher frequency with inhibition compensation (see below).

Accuracy[edit]

The relative stability of the resonator and its driving circuit is much better than its
absolute accuracy. Standard-quality resonators of this type are warranted to have a
long-term accuracy of about 6 parts per million (0.0006%) at 31 C (87.8 F): that is,
a typical quartz clock or wristwatch will gain or lose 15 seconds per 30 days (within
a normal temperature range of 5 C/41 F to 35 C/95 F) or less than a half second
clock drift per day when worn near the body.

Inhibition compensation[edit]
Many inexpensive quartz clocks and watches use a technique known as inhibition
compensation.[1] The crystal is deliberately made to run somewhat fast, and after
manufacture each module is adjusted to keep accurate time by programming the
digital logic to skip a small number of crystal cycles at regular intervals such as 10
seconds or 1 minute. For a typical quartz movement this allows programmed
adjustments in 7.91 seconds per 30 days increments for 10 second intervals (on a
10-second measurement gate) or programmed adjustments in 1.32 seconds per 30
days increments for 60 seconds intervals (on a 60-second measurement gate). The
advantage of this method is that after measuring the frequency of each chip with a
precision timer at the factory, storing the number of pulses to suppress in a nonvolatile memory register on the chip is less expensive than the older technique of
trimming the quartz tuning fork frequency. The inhibition compensation logic of
some quartz movements can be regulated by service centers with the help of a
precision timer and adjustment terminal after leaving the factory, though many
inexpensive quartz watch movements do not offer this functionality.

Internal adjustment[edit]
Some premium movement designs self-rate and self-regulate. That is, rather than
just counting vibrations, their computer program takes the simple count, and scales
it using a ratio calculated between an epoch set at the factory, and the most recent
time the clock was set. These clocks usually have special instructions for changing
the battery (the counter must not be permitted to stop), and become more accurate
as they age.[citation needed]

It is possible for a computerized high accuracy quartz movement to measure its

temperature, and adjust for that as well. Both analog and digital temperature
compensation have been used in high-end quartz watches. In more expensive high
end quartz watches, thermal compensation can be implemented by varying the
number of cycles to inhibit depending on the output from a temperature sensor. The
COSC average daily rate standard for officially certified COSC quartz chronometers

is 25.55 seconds per year. Thermo compensated quartz movements, even in wrist
watches, can be accurate to within 5 to 25 seconds per year and can be used
as marine chronometers to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation.[5]
[6][7]

External adjustment[edit]
If a quartz movement is "rated" by measuring its timekeeping characteristics
against a radio clock's time broadcast, to determine how much time the watch gains
or loses per day, and adjustments are made to the circuitry to "regulate" the
timekeeping, then the corrected time will easily be accurate within 10 seconds
per year. This is more than adequate to perform celestial navigation.

Chronometers[edit]
Quartz chronometers designed as time standards often include a crystal oven, to
keep the crystal at a constant temperature. Some self-rate and include "crystal
farms," so that the clock can take the average of a set of time measurements.
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.[8][9] 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 variations in the rotation
rate of the Earth over periods as short as a few weeks.[10] In Japan in 1932, Issac
Koga developed a crystal cut that gave an oscillation frequency independent of
temperature variation.[11][12][13] The National Bureau of Standards (now NIST)
based the time standard of the US on quartz clocks between the 1930s and the
1960s, then it went to atomic clocks, but actually, in 2014, they used a quartz clock
that was so accurate, they simply use an atomic clock to update it every 24 hours.
[14] The wider use of quartz clock technology had to await the development of
cheap semiconductor digital logic in the 1960s. The revised 14th edition of
Encyclopedia Britannica[when?] stated that quartz clocks would probably never be
affordable enough to be used domestically.

The world's first prototype analog quartz wristwatches were revealed in 1967: the
Beta 1 revealed by the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchtel

Switzerland,[15][16] and the prototype of the Astron revealed by Seiko in Japan.

(Seiko had been working on quartz clocks since 1958).[15]

In 1969, Seiko produced the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch, the Astron.,
[17] this watch was released just prior to the introduction of the Swiss Beta21,
which was developed by 16 Swiss Watch manufactures and used by Rolex, Patek
and famously Omega in their electroquartz models. The Beta 21 watches had an
accuracy of 5 seconds per month but were swiftly overtaken by the introduction of
more economical and accurate quartz watches. 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, an upheaval known in
watchmaking as the quartz crisis.

Quartz timepieces have dominated the wristwatch and clock market since the
1980s, Because of the high Q factor and low temperature coefficient of the quartz
crystal they are more accurate than the best mechanical timepieces, and the
elimination of all moving parts makes them more rugged and eliminates the need
for periodic maintenance.

A quartz clock hung on wall.

Commercial analog and digital wall clocks became available in 2014 that utilize a
double oven quartz oscillator, accurate to 0.2 ppb. These clocks are factory
synchronized with the atomic time standard and typically do not require any further
time adjustments for the life of the clock.

Quartz Crisis
The Quartz Crisis (also known as the Quartz Revolution)[1][2] is a term used in the
watchmaking industry to refer to the economic upheavals caused by the advent of
quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, which largely replaced mechanical
watches.

It caused a decline of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which chose to remain

focused on traditional mechanical watches, while the majority of world watch
production shifted to Asian companies that embraced the new technology.
During World War II, Swiss neutrality permitted the watch industry to continue
making consumer time keeping apparatus while the major nations of the world
shifted timing apparatus production to timing devices for military ordnance. As a
result, the Swiss watch industry enjoyed an effective monopoly. The industry
prospered in the absence of any real competition. Thus, prior to the 1970s, the
Swiss watch industry had 50% of the world watch market.[3]

In the early 1950s a joint venture between the Elgin Watch Company in the United
States and Lip of France to produce an electromechanical watch one powered by a
small battery rather than an unwinding spring laid the groundwork for the quartz
watch.[4] Although the Lip-Elgin enterprise produced only prototypes, in 1957 the
first battery-driven watch in production was the American-made Hamilton 500.

In 1954, Swiss engineer Max Hetzel developed an electronic wristwatch that used
an electrically charged tuning fork powered by a 1.35 volt battery. The tuning fork
resonated at precisely 360 Hz and it powered the hands of the watch through an
electro-mechanical gear train. This watch was called the Accutron and was
marketed by Bulova, starting in 1960. Although Bulova did not have the first battery
powered wristwatch, the Accutron was a powerful catalyst, as by that time the Swiss
watch manufacturing industry was a mature industry with a centuries-old global
market and deeply entrenched patterns of manufacturing, marketing and sales.

In 1962, the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) was established in Neuchtel to

develop a Swiss-made quartz wristwatch, while simultaneously in Japan, Seiko was
also working on an electric watch and developing quartz technology.[5]
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, both Seiko and a consortium of Switzerland's top
firms competed to develop the first quartz wristwatch. One of the first successes
was a portable quartz clock called the Seiko Crystal Chronometer QC-951. This
portable clock was used as a backup timer for marathon events in the 1964
Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In 1966 prototypes of the world's first quartz
pocketwatch were unveiled by Seiko and Longines in the Neuchtel Observatory's
1966 competition.[6]

On 25 December 1969, Seiko unveiled the quartz Astron, the world's first quartz
watch.[6][7] The first Swiss quartz analog watchthe Ebauches SA Beta 21
containing the Beta 1 movementarrived at the 1970 Basel Fair.[6][8] The Beta 21
was released by numerous manufacturers including the Omega Electroquartz.

On 6 May 1970, Hamilton introduced the Pulsar - the world's first electronic digital
watch.[9]

In 1974 Omega introduced the Omega Marine Chronometer, the first watch ever to
be certified as a Marine Chronometer, accurate to 12 seconds per year using a
quartz circuit that produces 2,400,000 vibrations per second.

In 1976 Omega introduced the Omega Chrono-Quartz, the world's first

analogue/digital chronograph, which was succeeded within 12 months by the
Calibre 1620, the company's first completely LCD chronograph wristwatch.
Despite these dramatic advancements, the Swiss hesitated in embracing quartz
watches. At the time, Swiss mechanical watches dominated world markets. In
addition, excellence in watchmaking was a large component of Swiss national
identity. From their position of market strength, and with a national watch industry
organized broadly and deeply to foster mechanical watches, many in Switzerland
thought that moving into electronic watches was unnecessary. Others outside of
Switzerland, however, saw the advantage and further developed the technology,
[10] and by 1978 quartz watches overtook mechanical watches in popularity,
plunging the Swiss watch industry into crisis while at the same time strengthening
both the Japanese and American watch industries. This period of time was marked
by a lack of innovation in Switzerland at the same time that the watch-making
industries of other nations were taking full advantage of emerging technologies,
specifically quartz watch technology, hence the term Quartz Crisis.

As a result of the economic turmoil that ensued, many once-profitable and famous
Swiss watch houses became insolvent or disappeared. This period of time
completely upset the Swiss watch industry both economically and psychologically.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, technological upheavals, i.e. the appearance of
the quartz technology, and an otherwise difficult economic situation resulted in a
reduction in the size of the Swiss watch industry. Between 1970 and 1988, Swiss
watch employment fell from 90,000 to 28,000.[6]

Outside of Switzerland, the crisis is often referred to as the Quartz Revolution,

particularly in the United States where many American companies had gone out of
business or had been bought out by foreign interests by the 1960s. When the first
quartz watches were introduced in 1969, the United States promptly took a
technological lead in part due to microelectronics research for military and space
programs. It was American companies like Texas Instruments, Fairchild, and National
Semiconductor, who started the mass production of digital quartz watches and
made them affordable.[1] It did not remain so forever; by 1978 Hong Kong exported
the largest number of electronic watches worldwide, and US semiconductor
companies came to pull out of the watch market entirely. With the sole exception of
Timex, the remaining traditional American watch companies, including Hamilton,
went out of business and sold their brand names to foreign competitors.[11]
By 1983, the crisis reached a critical point. The Swiss watch industry, which had
1,600 watchmakers in 1970, had now declined to 600.[12] A research consortium,
the Swiss ASUAG group (Socit Gnrale de l'Horlogerie Suisse SA), was formed to
save the industry and the result was launched in March 1983 the Swatch. The
Swatch would be instrumental in reviving the Swiss watch industry giving a new bill
of health to all brands concerned and gave rise to what would become the Swatch
Group the largest watch manufacturer in the world.[13] The Swatch was sealed in
a plastic case, sold as a disposable commodity with little probability of repair, and
had a small number of moving parts (51) compared to about 91 for mechanical
watches. Furthermore, production was essentially automated, which resulted in a
higher profitability.[14] The Swatch was a huge success; in less than two years,
more than 2.5 million Swatches were sold.[5]

The larger global market still largely reflected other trends, however. In the US
domestic market, for example, the Swatch was something of a 1980s fad resting
largely on variety of colors and patterns, and the bulk of production still came from
offshore sites such as China and Japan, in digitally-dominated or hybrid brands like
Casio, Timex, and Armitron. Paradoxically, the quartz revolution drove many Swiss
manufacturers to seek refuge in (or be winnowed out to) the higher end of the
market, such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, and the like. A few brands[examples needed]
aimed further up in the midrange toward prices of hundreds of dollars but still
avoided the realm of the high end mechanicals, which might run from several
thousand dollars into the hundreds of thousands dollars.[citation needed]

First-Hand:The First Quartz Wrist Watch

Contributed by: Armin H. Frei, LSMFormer Research Staff Member Centre
Electronique Horloger

Introduction
In July 1967, somewhat more than 40 years ago, the world's first quartz wrist watch
had been created by a group of researchers at the Centre Electronique Horloger in
Neuchtel, Switzerland, assembled and successfully tested for proper operation.
The watch baptized Beta 1 with the identification number CEH-1020 was fully
meeting the regulatory requirements concerning men's wrist watches as postulated
by the established Observatory of Neuchtel and its famous yearly "Concours
Chronomtrique".

In view of the fact that the history of the invention of the quartz wrist watch has
been extensively neglected and/or mistreated in the past causing
misunderstandings and confusion I have investigated on "Who contributed what, at
what time and what was the relevance of this contribution" restricted to the event
of the creation of the world's first quartz wrist watch.
Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH), Neuchtel
Foundation

BULOVA Accutron Prototype

The foundation of Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in 1962 was a consequence of
the growing threat due to the appearance of certain kinds of wrist watches in the
late 50'ies which were powered by small batteries rather then by the usual springs.
Such watches had been announced by Lip (France), Hamilton (USA) and Ebauches
SA (Switzerland). The introduction of Max Hetzel's Accutron, the famous tuning fork
watch (picture) in 1960, accelerated this process remarkably. Hetzel was a Swiss
engineer, who started his investigations with Bulova in Bienne, Switzerland and
later on was transferred to U.S. to direct the production of the Accutron watch. The
fear to lose leading positions on the international market assembled the Swiss
watchmakers under the leadership of Ebauches SA and the Swiss Horological
Federation (FH) to join in a common joint stock company called CEH. The goal was
simply to invent anything which was superior in at least one count of what was
available on the market. This to improve the Swiss position in possible licence
negociations, a rather poor vision indeed. Luckily, they found Roger Wellinger, a U.S.
bound Swiss engineer, teacher and researcher, for the challenging job to create a
new research laboratory in a field which was not common at all in Switzerland.
Wellinger had courage, enthusiasm and farsightedness.
Goal and Strategy

The goal set up by the Swiss watch industry was to develop electronic wrist watches
with at least one advantage compared to existing products (e.g. Accutron). A fairly
modest goal indeed, reflecting business and legal aspects predominantly. - The
strategy to reach that goal had been set up by Roger Wellinger and consisted
mainly of three elements: i) recruiting and hiring Swiss scientists, who had spent a
certain time in the U.S. and were willing to come back with the intention of
importing technical and scientific know-how from the U.S. to Switzerland, especially
in the area of semiconductors and circuits and ii) investigating all kinds of possible
subsystems and later on developing new kinds of solutions similar to the
morphology developed by Prof. Fritz Zwicky, Caltec. Especially in the area of
acoustic resonators, frequency dividers and displays there had been a great number
of various investigations resulting in a fairly complete catalogue of possibilities and
iii) building up semiconductor expertise in Switzerland. However, none of the
projects until 1965 incorporated a quartz wrist watch.[1] There was neither a
strategy nor a project addressing a high frequency, say 10 kHz quartz wrist watch,
simply because such an enterprise was considered impossible by experts and
industry leaders due to the high frequencies involved and for other reasons.[2] Even
worse, in 1966, when the quartz wrist watch project was already established, the
president of the governing board informed the two initiators of the quartz wrist
watch project that the Swiss watch industry was not interested in this new kind of a
quartz wrist watch!Since the very beginning Roger Wellinger recognized the
importance of an own semiconductor laboratory. That was the only way to become
independent from foreign suppliers and at the same time allowed to investigate into
dedicated research. Kurt Hbner and his group started quickly and very successfully
developing integrated circuits (IC) capability and competence in bipolar transistor
technology and double diffused, high impedance resistors. With this it was already
possible in 1965 to produce the first complex IC's. CEH was certainly in a favoured
position as compared to Seiko, which equipped their first quartz wrist watch calibre
1967 with discrete transistors, resistors and capacitors, about 200 of them.
Unfortunately, since Spring 1965 the CEH and its management had been
confronted for more then a full year with the CISSA project. CISSA stands for
"Communaut Industrielle Suisse SA", a consortium of a number of Swiss firms
together with Philips, Netherlands. The purpose of this was an unfriendly buy-out of
CEH's successful semiconductor department. It was above all Roger Wellinger who
fought against this fatal attempts and provided for continuous fruitful cooperation
between the semiconductor department and the rest of the laboratory.

New Strategy: Montre-bracelet Quartz

Status
The strategy and plan in the field of electronic wrist watches for the year 1965[3]
concentrated on two topics: i) the Alpha calibre, a wrist watch incorporating a figure

8-shaped metallic resonator with reduced gravitational disturbances by Heinz

Waldburger, otherwise similar to the Accutron and ii) the Beta project incorporating
a metallic tuning fork like the Accutron, but newly with a small chain of frequency
dividers to drive a separate motor. The Beta project at that time was the only one
incorporating two electro mechanical transducers, the second transducer being an
electro magnetic or a piezoelectric vibrating motor. The Beta project by Max Forrer
was the most elaborate project concerning time and resources and further was the
only one which never reached the status of a working calibre. - Max Forrer's Beta
project must not be confused with the later Beta 1, Beta 2 calibers under the
direction of Roger Welinger and the later Beta 21 caliber, which were all high
frequency quartz wrist watches.

Initiative
On May 7, 1965, it was the last day of our managers three weeks trip to America, I
contacted my friend Rolf Lochinger to inform him on the negative results of my
research with respect to all combinations of piezoelectric ceramics or crystals with
metallic resonators, say for oscillators as well as for vibrating motors. This as a
consequence of the very different physical parameters and their mismatch. The only
possibility to increase the quality of the oscillator seemed to me a single crystal
quartz for the oscillator. At the same time we were reviewing Max Forrer's Beta
project and its technical and qualitative limitations and came up with the
proposition to investigate into wrist watches which were driven by an increased
frequency quartz oscillator, rather then low frequency metallic tuning forks.

Based on previous experience with quartz, my proposal was to use a single crystal
quartz oscillator at acoustic frequency, say in the range of 10 kHz, miniaturize it by
orders of magnitude down to dimensions required for wrist watches. The reqirement
of size and power consumption was here predominant. Lochinger proposed to
investigate into integrated electronic circuits suited to master increased divisional
ratios. Here the requirements of power consumtion was predominant. This was a
true alternative to the existing Beta project, see above. True, the new project was
risky and definitely not to the mind of our cautious department head but would
certainly have a great impact on the watch industry if successful. Frei and Lochinger
started their initiative immediately and agreed mutually to investigate into a new
project.
New Strategy
Prototyp 27 mm.jpg

In November, 1965 Roger Wellinger, director CEH and responsible for the yearly
strategy and plan, declared the "montre-bracelet quartz" to become the primary
strategic goal for the year 1966.[4] This was a direct consequence of Armin Frei
having designed, built and operated successfully a miniaturized quartz oscillator
prototype showing feasibility of a quartz wrist watch in the 10 kHz range in 4Q65. In
1Q66 Frei disposed already of a miniaturized quartz oscillator prototype with an
8192 Hz quartz resonator (picture), a novel fully integrated driver circuit running at
less than four microamps current consumption (black epoxy covered IC with red dot)
and a frequency adjustment set up (upper black epoxy covered IC without a dot), all
these components survived till and including the industrial phase with minor
improvements only. At that time the term "montre-bracelet quartz" appeared the
first time officially in CEH's documents, and it had to be defended against the many
internal and external opponents of this new direction. Never mind the rest of the
quartz wrist watch was still not worked out yet or decided upon, Wellinger requested
that a general systems invention disclosures on the "Montre-bracelet lectronique
quartz" had to be worked out.[5] To be conform with the Swiss watch industry and
to warrant his carreer oportunities the head of the circuits department, Max Forrer
refused to take on the new quartz wrist watch project. This in turn forced Wellinger
to assume full responsibility on Frei's quartz wrist watch project, caused substantial
agonies within management and eventually terminated Forrer's low frequencies
Beta project with the metallic tuning fork and electromagnetic and piezoelectric
actuators. The situation at Seiko, the Japanese competitor, had been much
different. They could rely on the experience with quartz clocks and electronic time
keeping which they collected since 1956 (Olympics). They were developing their
own quartz technology since 1958 and gradually developed quartz resonators for
clocks, pocket watches and then for men's wrist watches successively.

The first Quartz Wrist Watch: Beta 1

World first

Beta 1
The first quartz wrist watch was Beta 1 and it had been built at the Centre
Electronique Horloger. The first unit of a series of five was assembled and tested at
the CEH in July 1967. Since Seiko does not communicate any details about their first
quartz wrist watch, we can firmly conclude that Beta 1 was the world's first quartz
wrist watch world wide. The new watch was packed into a standard square case
(picture), this was necessary because the quartz case itself was straight with a
length of 27 mm. However, the overall dimensions satisfied perfectly the
requirements set by the watch industry to qualify for a men's wrist watch. The
watch with the identification number CEH-1020 was tested at the Observatory in

Neuchtel as of August 13, 1967,[6] and reached a classification of 0.189, which

means an improvement of about one order of magnitude as compared to classical
chronometers.[7] The classification was also much better than the one which was
reached by tuning fork watches during the same period. Beta 1 was equipped with a
stepping motor activating the seconds hand step by step. The alternative and later
model Beta 2 was equipped with the same quartz oscillator like Beta 1, but the
second hand was actuated by a 56 Hz vibrating motor and a ratchet wheel.

Beta 1 and its Components

Beta 1
Beta 1 became the code name of the first quartz wrist watch. The miniaturized
quartz oscillator was developed 1965/66 by Armin Frei. The same setup was used
for Beta 2, a current saving alternative quartz wrist watch and later on with minor
improvements in the industrial version Beta 21. The first working prototype of Beta
1, CEH 1020 had been assembled by Jean Hermann and Franois Nikls in July 1967.
[8] The main elements of the watch and their primary contributors, including parts
and as well as concepts are described below:

Quartz Resonator

Quartz Encapsulation
While the size of commercial quartz standards of those days was as big as radio
tubes, we had to strive for physical dimensions to be small enough to allow the
device to be mounted inside a men's wrist watch case. To keep the electronics
simple, the frequency had to be 2 to the power of n (n being an integer) in Hertz in
order to produce pulses with a period of one second at the end of the divider chain.
Requirements, which are very much contradictory, because if the dimensions are
reduced the frequency goes up and vice versa. Further we learned from
experiments that quartz resonators with the shape of a tuning fork and fabricated
with the technology of those days exhibit a much inferior factor of quality Q as
compared to straight quartz bars. The solution to all these requirements was an x-y
cut quartz bar with a length of 24 mm and with an eigenfrequency of 213 = 8192 Hz
(picture). The small dimensions of the quartz in its metal case as well as the
extremely stringent requirements of mechanical precision, stability and life time
required special attention with regards to most of the physical parameters: Leakage
rates of the case and its feeds through had to be inferior to 5 10-12 Torr ltr/s,
organic and anorganic deposition on the surface had to be less than 20 Angstrom
thick, metallurgy and soldering of wires onto the quartz surfaces had to be free from

any unwanted inclusion, high precision soldering within a fraction of one millimeter
was required to reach high quality factors of the resonator and many others. The
quartz on the picture was developed and tested by Armin Frei in 1965, Oscilloquartz
in Neuchtel provided for the raw material and Richard Challandes was responsible
for the assembly. X-Y cut bar quartz, similar to the one on the picture but with
increased frequency, had been produced in Switzerland for watches until 1977. As
of 1979 the Swiss watch industry produced their 32 kHz quartz tuning fork
resonators in Grenchen, Solothurn licensing Jrgen Staudte's patent on etching
quartz tuning forks (USA Patent Jrgen Staudte, 1972).

Driver Circuit

Oscillator Circuit
A number a different circuits for driving quartz oscillators were available at the time
(Clapp oscillator, etc.), none of them fulfilled the necessary requirements for our
quartz wrist watch: Say no coupling capacitances, low total resistors value on the
chip, tolerance to the integrated circuits fabrication process and its deviations, rigid
operational stability and low power consumption. This for bipolar IC's, as well as for
low battery voltages. The newly developed, symmetric cross coupled driver circuit
as shown on the picture incorporates a minimum of four resistors with pair wise
equal values Rc and Re as well as two transistors Tr1 and Tr2 and fullfils the above
requirements extremely well. The emitter resistors serve as current sources and the
collector resistors provide for the negative impedances to drive the quartz. The
circuit exhibits a negative impedance of -2Rc approximately measured between the
contacts 1 and 2. The circuit was very tolerant to various applications and
conditions, and easy to fabricate. It took our specialists of the semiconductor pilot
line, Raymond Guye and his colleges, less than two months to ship the first fully
integrated properly working chips. The circuit was developed and tested by Armin
Frei in 1965 and 1966.

Frequency Adjustment

Frequency Adjustment Circuit

The first step in the process of adjusting the frequency to the desired value was
carefully grinding off surplus material and weight at the ends of the quartz bar until
a frequency was reached which, after evacuation of the case, resulted in exactly
213 Hz . A very difficult and tedious job indeed. A fourteen stage divider chain

would bring this frequency down to exactly one half of one Hz required to drive the
stepping motor. What about aging and other disturbing effects afterwards and
during wear? To take care of this a fine tuning mechanism was needed. A stepwise
variable capacitor was hooked up in series with the quartz to change the oscillating
frequency of the quartz assembly by 0.2 sec/day upward or downward (picture). At
that time Fritz Leuenberger of the semiconductor department started his research
on MOS transistors, an excellent chance to integrate on a single chip a series of
discrete MOS capacitors, high value and small volume, exactly what we wanted. The
design and layout was made in 1966 by Armin Frei, the semiconductor department
delivered the MOS capacitor chip and the watch maker technician Claude
Challandes designed the miniature switch.

Temperature Compensation

Temperature Compensation
The irregularities in time keeping of quartz wrist watches are due to the
temperature sensitivity of the various physical parameters of the quartz crystal
itself and are not due to the electronics attached to it. The deviation in time is
measured in seconds per day as a function of temperature. The resulting plot,
usually displayed between 4 C and 36 C is a complicated function of the cutting
angles relative to the axes of the quartz crystal itself. At the time it was well known,
that the x-y cut quartz crystals exhibit parabolic curvees according to the curve a)
in the picture. We were very much aware that the manufacturers of the current
mechanical watches were keen to keep the temperature deviation as small as
possible, so we engaged strongly in the disciplines of temperature compensation.
First investigations using temperature sensitive resistors and capacitors were not
very successful. Jean Hermann proposed in 1967, shortly before the very first quartz
wrist watch was operating, a scheme using the parabolic behavior twice and a
switch to connect a compensating capacitor at 12C according to curve b). This
scheme was easy to implement, produced favorable results with the observatory
tests and was effective during daily usage. Yet it required extensive interventions by
the laboratory director on behalf of the department head in order not to drop the
brilliant idea. The resulting Thermo Compensation Module (TCM) was developed by
Jean Hermann and was implemented using MOS technology by Fritz Leuenberger
and his group in 1967.

Frequency Dvider

Flip-flop Circuit
Since the very beginning of the quartz wrist watch project Armin Frei decided that
the oscillating frequency of the quartz had to be to 213 = 8192 Hz. Consequently
for Beta 1 using a stepping motor to drive the second hand, see below, a total of 14
binary flip-flop stages were required to drive the motor of the watch with pulses of
half a Hertz repetition frequency. The flip-flops which were finally incorporated in the
Beta 1 prototypes (picture), were designed by Jean Fellrath and implemented in
integrated form by Raymond Guye and his group in bipolar technology. The circuits
were optimized for low power consumption of approximately one microamp per
stage and for high operational stability. While integrated counter stages at
microwatt level existed since before, the flip-flop shown exhibits a new type of
triggering circuits, one of them on each side, and it also uses direct coupling
between collectors and opposite base similar to the oscillator circuits, see above. In bipolar technology the divider chain with 14 stages represented a big load for the
battery, limiting its lifetime to less than one year, much to the concern of certain
members of the governing board. The immediate solution to that would have been a
reduction of the number of divider stages, say 5, reduce the frequency to 256 Hz
rather than half a Hz and use a vibrating motor rather then a stepping motor. This
was alternatively proposed with the Beta 2 and the Beta 21 projects 1967 and 1968
respectively. - However the real solution to the power consumption problem were
ultimately the Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon circuits (CMOS), which had been
invented in USA (Frank Wanlass, 1963) a couple of years before.

Stepping Motor

Stepping motor
All that was left was to convert the pulses appearing at the end of the divider chain
into step by step advancements of the second hand. Jean Hermann and Franois
Nikls proposed in 1967 a simple solution of such a stepping motor for Beta 1 as
seen in the picture. The setup incorporated an anchor wheel and an anchor which
were responsible for the go and stop of the second hand. Much different as in
mechanical watches, where the anchor and the anchor wheel act as escapement,
here the anchor drives the anchor wheel by wiggling forth and back. The anchor
was activated by means of a bobbin coil, which was attached to the anchor and
which was magnetized by bipolar electric pulses. The duration and the amplitude of
the pulses had to be well controlled to warrant proper operation and to save battery
power. The duration of the pulses were derived from the pulse pattern appearing
along the divider chain using boolean logic. The concept and the basics had been
worked out as early as 1966.

Beta 2
Autonomy
The office of the governing assembly had little sympathy for the new direction with
the quartz wrist watch. They were hoping for an electronic watch, exhibiting at least
one advantage compared with existing electronic watches, remember the strategy
and here was a watch with a battery life time of less than one year! One
representative of the office, not very familiar with electronics and its progress made
it a must: Life time had to be equal or longer than one year.

Current Saving Version

This in turn was the starting point of a fatal new strategic direction: A current saving
alternative project, called Beta 2, was proposed and initiated in November 1966 by
Max Forrer. Beta 2 was using the same oscillator like Beta 1, but had only five flipflops instead of fourteen as Beta 1. With five stages, a frequency of 256 Hz was
reached, just right to drive one of Henri Oguey's vibrating motors. Battery life time
was above one year. The first Beta 2 calibre was assembled in August 1967, one
month later than Beta 1.

Beta 21
Industrial Version
After the splendid celebration of the outstanding results reached with Beta 1 and
Beta 2 following the observatory tests, on February 15, 1968 investigations on how
to establish a technology transfer from the prototypes towards a product started
immediately. First it was decided to favor Beta 2, not Beta 1. This decision was
commented by Henri Oguey and Henri Schneider simply by: "Au vu de l'exprience
aquise sur les prototypes, seul le systme Bta 2 entre en ligne de compter pour
assurer une dure de vie de la pile suprieure un an." The industrial calibre was
named Beta 21, consisted of the 8192 Hz oscillator, a five stage binary divider chain
and the vibrating motor at 256 Hz. On April 10, 1970, during the "Foire Suisse de
Ble", four months after Seiko's Astron SQ35, some 20 Swiss firms launched their
products all incorporating the Beta 21 movement.

Industrial Flop

Beta 21 turned out to be a flop. Some 6000 units were sold, then the line with the
vibrating motor was discontinued. To solve an intermediate power problem
(autonomy) by pushing the vibrating motor version turned out to be a severe
strategic error with a number of consequences. Indeed, the power problem was not
a systems problem but a semiconductor problem. Using Complementary Metal
Oxide Semiconductors (CMOS) circuit technology instead of Bipolars (BIP) would
have saved exceeding amounts of energy by orders of magnitude. CMOS was
invented in 1963 and was applied later on throughout the watch industry. The CEH
started early on MOS, however produced stable CMOS with silicon gate technology
at a voltage level of 1.35 V only after 1972. Instead of pushing research after the
splendid success at the observatory CEH engaged excessively in technology
transfer and manufacturing, losing lead time and research competence. Not
enough of all that, with their Astron 35SC the Japanese proved feasibility of an
industrial watch with a stepping motor and battery lifetime of over one year.

Chronology of the First Quartz Wrist Watch

May 7, 1965: Armin Frei and Rolf Lochinger started the quartz wrist watch project.
Frei proposed to concentrate on quartz oscillators suitable for wrist watches and
Lochinger proposed to investigate into divider circuits and drivers. Although the
strategy did not plan for any such high frequency project Frei and Lochinger started
their investigations immediately. November 26, 1965: Roger Wellinger, director CEH
declared the "montre-bracelet quartz" to be a strategic goal. This was a
consequence of the availability of a miniaturized quartz oscillator with low energy
consumption and with a size smaller than 27 mm by Frei. This is the first time that
the "montre bracelet quartz" was mentioned in a strategic document at the CEH.
The task was formulated as: "Construction, mise au point et valuation du prototype
du calibre".[4] Max Forrer rejected to install the new quartz project in his
department, which forced Roger Wellinger to assume project responsibility of the
quartz works. July, 1967: The first fully operational and complete quartz wrist watch,
probably worldwide, had been assembled by Jean Hermann, Franois Nikls et al.
The watch Beta 1 consisted of a 8192 Hz quartz oscillator, a fourteen stage divider
stage and an electro dynamic stepping motor. Testing of the temperature
compensation module during five days demonstrated proper operation. With this
the CEH disposes of a reliable documentation of the priority of the first quartz wrist
watch worldwide.[8] August 13, 1967: About one month later, the first quartz wrist
watch Beta 1 with connotation CEH-1020 was delivered to the Observatory of
Neuchtel and was immediately submitted for tests in the category of
"Chronomtres-bracelet". The resulting number of classification was 0.189, a value
at least one order of magnitude better than the other mechanical competitors in the
same category. Later on, a total of ten other quartz wrist watches from CEH (Beta 1
and Beta 2) were delivered for tests. On November 11, 1967 a total of four quartz
wrist watches from Seiko, Japan were submitted. The average number of

classification of the four best watches of either CEH or Seiko were 0.166 and 0.873
respectively.[7] With this the CEH watches were winners in time and quality - at
least in 1967. The differences in the number of classification within the group of the
CEH watches result from the thermo compensation and its adjustments and not
from the difference of systems.August 1967: The first calibers Beta 2 were
completed. They were submitted for tests at the observatory on September 17,
1967. Beta 2 consists of the 8192 Hz oscillator, a five stage divider and a vibrating
motor. In 1968 it had been decided to start an industrial version based on the Beta
2 principle for reasons of battery lifetime. December 26, 1969: Introduction of
Seiko's Astron SQ35 on the market, the worldwide first commercial quartz wrist
watch. Seiko's watch was nice, had a battery lifetime of more than a year, even
though it had a stepping motor, and its electronics were based on a new hybrid
technology incorporating some 200 parts. April 10, 1970: Introduction of the Beta
21 caliber, the industrial version of Beta 2, marketed by some 20 Swiss watch
manufacturers during the "Foire Suisse de Ble".

Rectification
The world first quartz wrist watch was Beta 1 and not Beta 21, as postulated
incorrectly by the Swiss watch industry. Further, the first industrial quartz wrist
watch was not Beta 21 either, but Seiko's Astron 35SC. - Beta 1 was assembled in
July 1967 at the CEH. In the sequel the watch had been tested successfully by the
Observatory in Neuchtel, Switzerland. It had an 8192 Hz quartz, a long fourteen
stages frequency divider chain and a stepping motor. Beta 1 followed a concept
which later on proved successful by non Swiss manufacturers. - Unfortunately since
1968 the concept of Beta 1 had not been pursued any further by CEH management,
which in turn favored Beta 2, an alternative version introduced later by Max Forrer
and Henri Oguey in order to save power. However Beta 2 used the same 8192 Hz
quartz as Beta 1 but it had a frequency divider chain with five stages only and a
vibrating motor rather then a stepping motor. Beta 21 was based on Beta 2 and
unfortunately became the industrial version. Some 20 Swiss watch manufacturer
simultaneously launched Beta 21 on the market in 1970, some 4 months after Seiko
had announced their famous Astron 35SC. Beta 21 with its vibrating motor turned
out to be a misconception and was abandoned after a short period of time.

The previous Beta project by Max Forrer, manager of the circuits section consisted
of a metallic tuning fork, not a quartz, a small frequency divider and a vibrating
motor, not a stepping motor, and lasted from 1963 till YE65. - The new and
aggressive quartz wrist watch project initiated by Armin Frei and Rolf Lochinger in
May, 1965 changed the previous Beta strategy completely.

Before 1966 there was no quartz wrist watch strategy or project in the CEH plan.
The majority of the recognized Swiss experts denied the feasibility of a quartz wrist
watch and most of the industrial officials rejected the idea of a new market with
quartz wrist watches explicitly. All other claims are incorrect.

This investigations had been necessary in order to give proper recognition to the
contributors of the first quartz wrist watch and identify their contributions, some of
them were key. The policy of Max Forrer et al. through out the years to ignore key
contributors and play down important contributions is unfair and had to be
corrected. E.g. the text of the Smithonian Institution, NMAH, on "Inventors of the
First Quartz Wrist Watch" had to be corrected in 2003.[9] Further, an open door case
had to be conducted by the former laboratory director against Forrer in order to
correct the authorship of his IEEE conference paper "A Flexure Mode Quartz for an
Electronic Wrist-Watch" [10] and to denounce plagiarism. Other similar cases (Paris
1969) are pending.