What Is the Principle of a Quartz Dress Watch?

1. The origin of quartz dress watches

Pierre Curie was the first person to notice the vibration of quartz, which led to the production of quartz dress watches. In the 1930s, it attracted the interest of an engineer named Morrison. Finally, he created the first quartz clock and proved the accuracy of quartz as a timekeeping reference.

The original clock was very accurate, but it was about the size of a room and required a lot of electricity. How to miniaturize parts and create suitable batteries was still an unsolvable problem.

In 1958, SEIKO had designed a quartz clock for radio stations and in 1963, the first nautical observatory timepiece was produced. Although its volume has gradually become smaller, it was still impossible to wear a quartz clock on the hand.

On December 25, 1969, Seiko Instruments Inc in Japan (SEIKO) launched the world's first mass-produced quartz dress watch "Astron" and launched the quartz revolution.

2. The principle of quartz dress watches

When quartz is subjected to an externally applied voltage, it will produce regular vibrations. On the contrary, if the quartz is compressed, electricity will be generated at both ends of the quartz; this property is also visible in many crystals, which is called the "piezoelectric effect". Quartz dress watches use quartz that periodically "vibrates" to bring us accurate time.

When the quartz plate in the quartz dress watch is powered on, the crystal will vibrate appropriately at a frequency of 32768hz; then this frequency band must be converted into a signal current cycle of 1Hz (a change in the amount of current per second). Then increase the amplitude of the data signal (because the amount of current caused by the vibration is weak), follow these signal currents and then start the rotor gear. Finally, the second hand on the watch will start.

After that, the beating of the minute hand and the hour hand is related to the principle of the mechanical structure. For example, if the second hand jumps 60 times, the minute hand will jump once.

Each quartz dress watch is equipped with a battery. It provides energy for an integrated circuit and a quartz resonator, vibrating 32768 times per second. The integrated circuit chip is the "brain" of the watch. It manipulates the vibration of the quartz dress watch resonator and acts as a frequency divider. The 32768 vibrations are divided in half 15 times to generate more than one pulse per second. With the "raw material" of one second, it can drive the watch.