Quartz System

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Historical Background

The beginning of the development of a Swiss quartz system for wrist watches must be credited to three different approaches, listed chronologically below:

The first starting to look at quartz for integrating it as an oscillator for wrist watch calibers was Battelle in Geneva. This American institution specialised in microelectronics was commissioned by Omega to find a technical solution for competing against the rise of electro-mechanical and electro-magnetic systems. After a meta-analysis of the existing developments, Battelle suggested to look into the miniaturisation of the quartz system starting from 1957. The development within Battelle for Omega will be discussed separately.

The second approach into the miniaturisation of the quartz system for wrist watches was done by Longines which contacted Golay SA in Lausanne in August 1964 to partner for the development of a first marine chronometers sized quartz system, which will be gradually miniaturised to reach wrist watch size. The development within Golay and Longines will also be discussed in a dedicated subsection.

The third approach was made by the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchâtel. The CEH started as a conglomerate of Swiss watch and parts manufacturers for competing mostly against the very successful ‘Accutron‘ system and thus investing at first in the development of a reliable electro-magnetic systems. The first mentioning of a quartz regulator at the CEH appears in an internal report in February 1965, when Armin Frei proposed a system with two low frequency quartz bars. Later, thanks to engineer Armin Frei and the director of the CEH, Roger Wellinger, the initial strategy optimising tuning fork systems was turned around in November 1965 to consecrate most research efforts towards the development of a quartz regulator system for wrist watches. The developments at the CEH are discussed in a specific section with corresponding subsections.

All approaches will be done independently from each other, even if Longines and Omega took part in the development of the calibers at the CEH. Not only will all the three mentioned approaches be successful, each approach will generate a different solution for the quartz miniaturisation. Of all Swiss and also international efforts for the development of a wrist watch sized quartz watch the CEH will be the first to present a working prototype, named Beta 1, in July 1967.

For more technical info, please consult electricwatchprototypes.com

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