First-Hand:The First Quartz Wrist Watch: Difference between revisions
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== 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.<br><br><u>6.2 Wrong strategy:</u> == | == 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.<br><br><u>6.2 Wrong strategy:</u> == | ||
== 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 flip-flops 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. <br><br><br><u>7. Beta 21</u><br><br><u>7.1 Industrial Version:</u> | == 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 flip-flops 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. <br><br><br>'''<u>7. Beta 21</u>'''<br><br><u>7.1 Industrial Version:</u> == | ||
== 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 vue de l'expérience aquise sur les prototypes, seul le system Bêta 2 entre en ligne de compter pour assurer une durée de vie de la pile supérieur à 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 Bâle", four months after Seiko's Astron SQ35, some 20 Swiss firms launched their products all incorporating the Beta 21 movement. <br><br><u>7.1 Strategic error:</u> == | == 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 vue de l'expérience aquise sur les prototypes, seul le system Bêta 2 entre en ligne de compter pour assurer une durée de vie de la pile supérieur à 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 Bâle", four months after Seiko's Astron SQ35, some 20 Swiss firms launched their products all incorporating the Beta 21 movement. <br><br><u>7.1 Strategic error:</u> == |
Revision as of 07:36, 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