Having very few, if any moving parts, electronic movements are cheaper to produce and more accurate than a purely mechanical watch. Almost every electronic movement is based upon the piezoelectric effect to be found in a small quartz crystal. The quartz will resonate at a high frequency, forming an oscillator; this can be used to keep the pace of time very accurately. This purely electronic movement will often be paired with an analogue display, giving the look of a mechanical watch with the accuracy of a quartz movement.
The very first quartz watches came out of the CEH research laboratory in Switzerland, as far back as 1962. The very first electronic watch to go into full production was the Seiko 35 SQ Astron, which was available in 1969. Now we see quartz movements mass produced extremely cheaply, almost every single wristwatch found in the cheaper price ranges will have a quartz movement.
A high quality quartz movement will be extremely accurate. Even the cheapest quartz movements will often be far more accurate than a mechanical watch. For example, a typical mechanical movement may be off by as much as several seconds each day, whilst the cheapest quartz movement found in a child’s toy watch may be accurate to within 500ms each day.
In 2005 we saw the introduction of a hybrid mechanical/electronic movement by Seiko named the Spring Drive. This uses a spring to power the mechanical movement but a quartz regulator controls the speed. It is said to give the accuracy of an electronic movement in a mainly mechanical watch.
The very first quartz watches came out of the CEH research laboratory in Switzerland, as far back as 1962. The very first electronic watch to go into full production was the Seiko 35 SQ Astron, which was available in 1969. Now we see quartz movements mass produced extremely cheaply, almost every single wristwatch found in the cheaper price ranges will have a quartz movement.
A high quality quartz movement will be extremely accurate. Even the cheapest quartz movements will often be far more accurate than a mechanical watch. For example, a typical mechanical movement may be off by as much as several seconds each day, whilst the cheapest quartz movement found in a child’s toy watch may be accurate to within 500ms each day.
In 2005 we saw the introduction of a hybrid mechanical/electronic movement by Seiko named the Spring Drive. This uses a spring to power the mechanical movement but a quartz regulator controls the speed. It is said to give the accuracy of an electronic movement in a mainly mechanical watch.