First-Hand:The First Quartz Wrist Watch: Difference between revisions
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== In November, 1965 Roger Wellinger, director CEH and responsible for the yearly strategy and plan, declared the "montre-bracelet à quartz" to become the primary strategic goal for the year 1966.<sup>7)</sup> This was a direct consequence of Armin Frei having designed, built and operated successfully a miniturized 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 à 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 électronique à quartz" had to be worked out.<sup>8)</sup> == | == In November, 1965 Roger Wellinger, director CEH and responsible for the yearly strategy and plan, declared the "montre-bracelet à quartz" to become the primary strategic goal for the year 1966.<sup>7)</sup> This was a direct consequence of Armin Frei having designed, built and operated successfully a miniturized 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 à 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 électronique à quartz" had to be worked out.<sup>8)</sup> == | ||
== [[Image:Prototyp 27 mm.jpg|center|625x500px]]<br>With the change of the strategy Roger Wellinger terminated abruptly Max 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.<br><br><br><u>4. The first Quartz Wrist Watch: Beta 1</u><br><br><u>4.1 World first:</u> | == [[Image:Prototyp 27 mm.jpg|center|625x500px]]<br>With the change of the strategy Roger Wellinger terminated abruptly Max 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.<br><br><br>'''<u>4. The first Quartz Wrist Watch: Beta 1</u>'''<br><br><u>4.1 World first:</u> == | ||
== 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 [[Image:Image006.jpg|thumb|right]]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 Neuchâtel as of August 13, 1967,<sup>4) </sup> and reached a classification of 0.189, which means an improvement of about one order of magnitude as compared to classical chronometers.<sup>5)</sup> 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 256 Hz vibrating motor and a ratchet wheel. <br><br><br><u>5. Components of Beta 1</u><br><br><u>5.1 Beta 1:</u> == | == 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 [[Image:Image006.jpg|thumb|right]]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 Neuchâtel as of August 13, 1967,<sup>4) </sup> and reached a classification of 0.189, which means an improvement of about one order of magnitude as compared to classical chronometers.<sup>5)</sup> 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 256 Hz vibrating motor and a ratchet wheel. <br><br><br><u>5. Components of Beta 1</u><br><br><u>5.1 Beta 1:</u> == |
Revision as of 07:34, 15 March 2009
The First Quartz Wrist Watch
by Armin H. Frei, LSM
Former Research Staff Member Centre Electronique Horloger
Content:
1. Introduction
2. Centre Eléctronique Horloger (CEH), Neuchâtel
2.1 Foundation
2.2 Goal and Strategy
3. Change of Strategy: Montre-bracelet à Quartz
3.1 Status
3.2 Initiative
3.3 Change of Strategy
4. The First Quartz Wrist Watch: Beta 1
4.1 World First
5. Components of Beta 1
5.1 Beta 1
5.2 Quartz Resonator
5.3 Driver Circuit
5.4 Frequency Adjustment
5.5 Temperature Compensation
5.6 Frequency Divider
5.7 Stepping Motor
6. Beta 2
6.1 Autonomy
6.2 Wrong Strategy
7. Beta 21
7.1 Industrial Version
7.2 Phase-out Model
8. Chronology of the First Quartz Wrist Watch
9. Rectification
10. Bibliography