How can quartz watch be so exact ? More broadly , what is a quartz watch ? come up out why quartz makes such a nifty prison term keeper .
During the 1970s , the " quartz watch " burst onto the scene as the newest high - technical school contrivance . Initially , these watches had redLEDdisplays and cost around $ 500 in the United States . Since then , the quartz sentry has evolved so that eitherLCD , or traditional mechanical horologe ( hour and min hand ) movement displays the time , and the price has fallen dramatically .
It is not uncommon to find quartz lookout given away for free in boxes of food grain ! You may seequartz.htm">rose quartzthe beautiful pink variety in inexpensive crystals and ravisher rollers around the supermarket .
Have you ever wondered why it is called a quartz lookout ? Or why a quartz clock so much more accurate than wind - up one ? In this edition of HowStuffWorks , you will get word all about the astonishing electronic phenomenon called the quartz lechatelierite and how it forms the heart of a lechatelierite watch !
Before Quartz Movements
The nothingness - up watch is an awe-inspiring piece of technology itself ! It is part of a uninterrupted research - and - development campaign that start at the conclusion of the 14th Century [ source : Galanti ] . Over the years , unlike initiation made mechanically skillful watches pocket-sized , thin , more reliable , more precise and even ego - winding !
The components that you find in today ’s wind - up watches have been around for century :
SeeHow Pendulum Clocks Workfor a description of these different function .
By the end of the 1960s , the Bulova watch company made the first step aside from the hover balance bike — it used a electronic transistor oscillator that hold a tuning fork [ source : Bulova ] . This sentinel hummed at some one C of Gustav Hertz ( Hz , Hz per second ) rather than mark ! sprocket and wheels still convert the mechanically skillful movement of the tuning fork to movement of the hands , but two major steps had been taken :
A watch - making company in the late 1960s was hold fast to look for the next footstep — a technology that would give even better time keeping than the tuning ramification . Integrated circuits were very new at the clock time , but the terms was dropping chop-chop and the number of transistors was growing .
LEDswere also novel on the scene . There were still a duad of problems to be solved : finding a new timing element and project an integrated circuit that would use very little power to allow the watch to run on a tiny internal battery .
Quartz Technology
There was no problem with the selection of a timing element . The quartz glass crystal is mayhap chiliad of times better for timing than the tuning fork , and quartz crystals had been around for many long time . Only the type and the frequency of the quartz glass need to be opt . The difficulty was in the selection of the integrated tour technology that would function at sufficiently low power .
Quartz crystals have been in regular utilisation for many years to give an accurate relative frequency for allradiotransmitters , radio liquidator andcomputers . Their accuracy come from an astonishing set of coincidences : Quartz — which is silicon dioxide like most sand — is unaffected by most solvents and remain crystalline to hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit .
The property that makes it an electronic miracle is the fact that , when compressed or crumpled , it generates a direction or voltage on its surface . This is a fairly vulgar phenomenon address the Piezoelectric effect . In the same way , if avoltageis apply , quartz will bend or change its figure very slightly .
If a bell were shaped by grinding a unmarried quartz glass of lechatelierite , it would band for minutes after being tapped . Almost no energy is lost in the cloth . A quartz toll — if shaped in the right direction to the lucid axis — will have an oscillating voltage on its aerofoil , and the rate of oscillation is unaffected by temperature . If the Earth’s surface voltage on the vitreous silica is blame off with plated electrode and amplified by a transistor or integrated tour , it can be re - utilise to the bell to keep it ringing .
A quartz bell could be made , but it is not the beneficial bod because too much vigour is couple up to the melody . The good form are a straight bar or a disk . A legal community has the advantage of keeping the same oftenness provide the proportion of length to width remain the same .
A quartz glass bar can be tiny and vibrate at a relatively low frequency — 32 kHz ( KHz ) is unremarkably take for vigil not only for size , but also because the circuits that separate down from the crystal frequency to the few pulse per second for the display need more power for gamy frequencies . mogul was a big job for former sentinel , and the Swiss spent millions seek to bring ahead integrated - circuit applied science to divide down from the 1 to 2 MHz the more static disk crystals generate .
Modern quartz glass horologe now apply a low - oftenness saloon or tuning - fork - shape crystal . Often , these crystals are made from fragile sheets of lechatelierite plot like an integrated circuit and etched chemically to mould .
The major difference between good and indifferent time keeping is the initial frequence accuracy and the preciseness of the slant of cutting of the quartz mainsheet with respect to the crystalline axis vertebra . The amount of contaminant that is allowed to get through the encapsulation to the crystal aerofoil inside the watch can also affect the accuracy .
The electronics of the quartz apparent motion ab initio magnify haphazardness at the crystal frequency . This builds or regenerates into oscillation — it start the crystal ringing . The output of the watch vitreous silica oscillator is then converted to pulse suitable for the digital circuits .
These divide the crystal ’s frequency down and then interpret it into the proper data formatting for the video display . ( SeeHow Digital Clocks Workfor a detailed discussion of dividers and video display driver . ) Or , in a quartz sentry with hand , the dividers create one - second gear pulse that drive a tinyelectric motor , and this motor is connect to standard train to ride the hand .
Always on Time
A quartz glass watch represent a noteworthy blend of precision , affordability , and durability that has revolutionized the watchmaking diligence since its origination . By harnessing the ordered oscillations of a quartz crystal to measure meter , quartz glass scout apparent movement offer unequaled truth when compared to a mechanical watch .
Their trust on bombardment index , and minimal move part not only makes them more reliable over farsighted periods but also significantly slim maintenance requirements . As technology go forward to germinate , crystal scout rest a testament to the innovational spirit of horology , combine the timeless appeal of traditional timepieces with the efficiency and prescience of advanced electronics .
Douglas Dwyer is the founder of Frequency Precision Ltd and provides consulting and invention services to the humanity - wide electronics industry . He has been involved in frequency control since the mid-1960s and has published article on crystallization oscillator , temperature - correct crystal oscillator , oven - controlled crystal oscillators , surface acoustic moving ridge oscillators , and industrial vitreous silica quartz fictionalisation technologies . The history of clocks and watches has been an interest of his since he got involved in the design of quartz watch .
