Precise, efficient, and highly controversial, electric movements have caused heated discussions in the watch world and changed the industry like no other innovation of the 20th century. But how does a quartz movement actually work? We take a look behind the scenes of this ingenious microtechnology, explore its history and explain how it works in an understandable way. You can read all about the quartz movement now.

Simply explained: The basic principle of quartz movement

How a mechanical movement works is familiar to most enthusiasts: Energy is stored in a mainspring and passed on via a gear train to the regulating organ (“assortment”), which uses the escape wheel, balance, hairspring and pallet anchor to generate the beat of the timepiece. The beauty is that a quartz movement works in exactly the same way in its basic structure – with the difference that other components are used. The task of storing energy is now no longer performed by a barrel, but by a battery. A gear train still exists. And where in the mechanical movement the assortment provides the correct second beat, quartz movements use a tiny crystal. This quartz crystal determines how much energy the battery is allowed to deliver to the gear train so that exact time measurement takes place. But how does a quartz movement work in detail? Before we clarify this question, we’ll first get to the bottom of how the electrical system came into being.

From the laboratory to the wrist: the birth of the quartz watch

The latter begins earlier than one would expect – namely in the 1920s. At that time, the quartz movement was not conceived in its function for wristwatches, but was used in the form of huge apparatus in American laboratories. The breakthrough came with the New York inventors Joseph W. Horton and Warren Alvin Marrison, who presented the world’s first quartz movement in 1927. It is already many times more precise than the mechanical movements of the time, but suffers from extreme fluctuations in precision depending on temperature. However, news of the new invention spreads around the globe like wildfire and leads to enormous technical advances. In 1932, researchers Adolf Scheibe and Udo Adelsberger in Berlin succeeded in ensuring an average daily rate deviation of just 0.002 seconds with the help of constant temperatures. A milestone in time measurement. In 1938, the first freely marketable quartz watch for industry and science appeared.

In the post-war period, quartz watches replaced the previously widespread precision pendulum clocks as the scientific standard and were rapidly optimized to more compact designs. The noble Geneva-based manufacturer Patek Philippe, known for its fine mechanical movements, made a decisive contribution to this development. In 1960, it launched the “Chronotome,” the first portable quartz timepiece. At that time, electrical technology was incredibly expensive, making even the best mechanical watches from Rolex, Omega and Co. seem affordable. It was not until 1969 that Seiko succeeded in building the world’s first quartz watch for the wrist, the Astron, which was ready for series production.

How does a quartz movement work in detail?

A look at the complexity of the technology reveals why it took decades to perfect it in miniature. We remember: The quartz crystal regulates how much energy is transferred from the battery to the gear train. But the fork-shaped crystal can’t do it alone: A stepper motor is connected between it and the battery, which offsets the pulses of the quartz crystal with the energy of the battery and transports the latter to the gear train in a throttled manner. The fact that the crystal can generate pulses at all is due to the piezoelectric effect. The latter, which we all know from the piezo igniter of a gas grill, means that certain metals and crystals change their shape under electrical voltage.

In the technical world, a deformation is referred to as an “oscillation”. How fast these oscillations occur depends on the size and shape of the crystal and influences how many pulses per second are passed from the battery to the stepper motor and ultimately to the gear train. Of course, we want exactly one pulse per second so that the second hand ticks exactly once per second. To ensure that the quartz movement fulfills this function, the entire industry has agreed on a standard value of 32,768 oscillations of the quartz crystal per second. Quite fast, this little tuning fork.

Quartz crisis: Mechanical watches on the precipice

Even with a fertile imagination, inventors Joseph W. Horton and Warren Alvin Marrison could probably not have foreseen the extent to which their technology would change the world of watches. After Seiko launched the first quartz wristwatch in 1969, a veritable storm of revolution swept through the watch world: in 1970, Junghans introduced the Astro-Quartz, the first German version for the wrist, followed by the legendary Hamilton Pulsar in 1972. With a retail price of over $2,000, it was more expensive than many a car in its day. But during the 1970s, quartz technology became so affordable that everyone could afford it, and mechanical watches lost their raison d’être for many people.

Because quartz was far more precise, far less expensive and often far more reliable than mechanical watches, sales of traditional timepieces plummeted dramatically. By the end of the quartz crisis in the mid-1980s, many traditional brands had gone bankrupt, and thousands of jobs in the traditional watch industry had been eliminated.

From bargain to luxury quartz watches: Today’s model spectrum is huge

We have to admit: Although we are passionate fans of mechanical movements, the speed and accuracy of the quartz movement hold a certain fascination for us. If you want to experience the unbeatable precision of electronic timekeeping, you’ll find it in all price ranges: While the traditional Swiss brand Tissot already offers high-quality quartz watches in the T-Classic and T-Trend collections below the 200-euro mark, Tag Heuer specializes in premium quartz watches with high-performance chronograph functions. The sporty Formula 1 collection, as well as the Tag Heuer Aquaracer, are excellent examples of the manufacturer’s electric expertise. If it should be more affordable, the top brands Hamilton, Junghans and Longines are strong favorites of our magazine besides Tissot.

Those who want to experience electronic technology from its most exclusive side will find a spectacular selection of luxury quartz watches at top brands like Omega and Breitling. The latter take electric timekeeping to the extreme with extreme temperature resistance, long battery life and even higher precision values than regular quartz movements. This shows that quartz does not have to be cheap. The technology has its full justification in the luxury class.

Der Beitrag How does a quartz movement work erschien zuerst auf Uhrinstinkt Magazine.

Roman numerals to mark the hour indices are very popular, especially on classic watch models. However, the Roman 4 on watches often causes irritation when only 4 dashes appear instead of the IV. We have looked into the matter and have investigated an interesting piece of watch history for our readers.

Roman numerals stand for tradition and classic elegance

For the design of the indices on the dial of a watch, in the course of watch history, various options have become established, each of which has a different visual effect. The simplest variant are simple line or dot indices without further lettering. They are mainly found on watches with a decidedly simple and businesslike design and make the dial look particularly calm and uncluttered.

If the indices are labeled with Arabic numerals, this can appear modern, but also playful or nostalgic, depending on the font design used. In many cases, however, Arabic numerals are perceived as easy and clear to read because they are also used in everyday life and thus suit our visual habits. Roman numerals are more difficult for many people to read because they hardly play a role in everyday life today and are mainly found in historical documents, on inscriptions on monuments and buildings, or even on clock faces. The latter is mainly due to the fact that Roman numerals go particularly well with a classic, elegant design, such as is very popular for dress watches.

“IV” or 4 dashes: the Roman 4 on watches

If you take a closer look at a watch with Roman numerals, you might be surprised to see that the number 4 is not represented as IV, as you would expect, but by 4 dashes: IIII. Although there are also clocks with a “real” Roman four, but in about 90 percent of all cases, the 4 dashes can be seen in its place. It is a fact that this way of representation has grown historically and is not an invention of the present. It can be found not only on wristwatches, pocket watches or wall clocks, but also on tower clocks that are already several centuries old. A widespread explanation for this is that in Roman antiquity the letter I also had the function of today’s letter J and the V also served as a U at the same time.

In Latin inscriptions on older buildings or on grave monuments, there is still countless evidence of this today. The “real” Roman four could therefore also have been read as “JU”. This would have been an abbreviation for the name of the Roman god Jupiter, who in Roman mythology played a similar role as supreme god as the “father of the gods” Zeus in Greek mythology. To simply place his name abbreviation JU between the other, “ordinary” numbers on a dial would have been blasphemy and was therefore virtually forbidden by itself, according to the explanation often heard.

Alternatives to the Jupiter Thesis

As plausible as the reasoning may sound, there are some reasons to doubt the Jupiter thesis. One of the most important counter-arguments is that the worship of Jupiter hardly played a role after the decline of the Roman Empire. In addition, the subtraction notation, in which smaller digits written to the left of a larger digit are to be subtracted from the latter, only became established during the Middle Ages and is, moreover, hardly common in inscriptions.

Partly it is also argued that it is a tradition that goes back to early tower clocks. In these, the 4 lines were used, and this representation was later adopted again and again for reasons of tradition. However, counterexamples can also be found among early clocks.

Just a preference of the Sun King or more readable?

Another explanation assumes that Louis XIV of France, who became known as the Sun King, preferred the four-stroke notation and therefore insisted that it be used by watchmakers in his sphere of influence. However, it is equally possible that it was not an individual preference of the French monarch, but quite practical reasons for this solution.

On the one hand, there’s less danger of confusion with the VI, which is relatively close to the four on the dial. Especially on dials where the lower numerals are slanted or upside down, it’s certainly easier to tell the four and six apart at a glance if the Roman 4 on watches is not also composed of an I and a V. In any case, the tradition of the four-dashed Roman four has persisted in well-known watch brands to this day: You can see this on the Rolex Datejust 31 as well as on the Pearlmaster or Chopard’s LUC 1937 Classic.

Frugality or aesthetics: two other possible reasons

Other historians believe that the use of a four consisting of four strokes had mainly economic reasons. This is because in order to cast hour indices for a dial with IIII, the I must be cast twenty times, while four each of V and X are needed. It is therefore sufficient to make a single mold with four I and one each of V and X, and use them four times in succession to produce a complete set of indexes. This would not be possible with three I’s less and one V more, as would be necessary for the “correct” spelling of the four. Furthermore, aesthetic reasons for the IIII are also brought into the field.

Representatives of this thesis point out that a Roman 4 formed from four I’s on watches appears more symmetrical and balanced as a counterpart to the VIII on the left side. Which of the above theses is actually correct will probably never be clarified with one hundred percent certainty. Possibly, in different cases, different reasons were decisive. However, the topic remains a fascinating piece of watch history.

Der Beitrag Why the Roman four on watches is usually written with four dashes erschien zuerst auf Uhrinstinkt Magazine.