Watch Quartz - quartz watch

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The most common watches in recent years are electromechanical products on the wall or on the arm, in which electronics and mechanics are combined. A mechanism with arrows has been preserved from ordinary mechanical watches, but the impulse to rotate the arrows is given not by a compressed spring with a pendulum wheel, but by a quartz crystal through which an electric current is passed.

Invention of the quartz watch

The first watch based on the mechanism of vibrations of a quartz crystal was created in the late 20s of the last century by Canadian engineer W. A. Morrison. But mass production began only at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. It is based on the ability of a quartz crystal to change its geometry under the influence of an electric current, to oscillate. In this case, oscillations occur with a constant amplitude, which is required to ensure the accuracy and stability of the watch.

Quartz clocks can be wall, wrist and table. The latter are usually alarm clocks. According to the method of presenting information, watches are:

• electromechanical;
• electronic;
• mixed.

Electromechanical look like regular mechanical, with arrows. In electronic watches, instead of arrows on the front surface, there is an electronica board that displays information provided by the device. This could be the current time, a calendar, or something else, depending on the complexity of the model. In mixed watches, a small window with an electronic display is placed within the dial, on which the time is duplicated by default. By switching the modes with the buttons, you can display the ambient temperature on the display, turn on the stopwatch, set an alarm clock … In principle, any fantasy can be realized by Quartz watches. A photo of one of the many is posted below.

In some models, the arrows also serve as a compass.

Experiments

In 1982, the Japanese company Seiko released the Quartz watch with a built-in TV. In 1985, the Japanese Casio also began selling watches with a calculator, and two years later - powered by solar cells. Then there were watches from several manufacturers with alarm clocks that played various melodies. The next step was to create a clock with a notebook, an MP3 player and even a TV remote control. For travelers, there were watches with GPS navigation and displaying a map of the area on the screen, there were models with a mini-walkie-talkie. For athletes - a watch with a heart rate monitor, for fishermen - with an echo sounder to determine the places where the fish are. Even watches were produced - mobile phones and watches with a video camera.

Mass production

Simple, fairly cheap, but at the same time, the precise mechanism allowed the production of Quartz watches for various purposes. At the same time, the production of this accessory can be adjustedany company even without a watchmaker on staff. The main thing is to buy ready-made quartz movements in bulk and insert them into any suitable case with a dial. I remember an old Soviet joke about a grandmother who came to the store to buy a wall clock with a cuckoo, and asked for change "there are those little ones that lie under glass." Only now, for change, you can buy any Quartz wall clock you like with a dial designed in the form of berries or vegetables - for summer cottages, or in the form of a plate with arrows-knives - for the kitchen …

The wrist watch market also allows you to purchase cheap options from unknown manufacturers, and expensive ones from world-famous Swiss or Japanese companies.

Quartz movement

The wall clock adopts the mass standard circuit powered by AA battery. The difference can only be caused by the way information is presented, through the arrows or the electronic scoreboard.

Usually they are used to decorate the interior of a kitchen in a house, country house or office, so that you can find out the current time just by glancing. Therefore, watch manufacturers usually do not overload products with functions that are unnecessary in such cases. Although there are exceptions when a thermometer and a barometer are built into the watch.

The mechanism of watches from different manufacturers may differ more. It depends on the size of the case, and on the option - with arrows or a scoreboard.

It could be a watch witha simple mechanism for displaying time, or they can be with a thermometer, with a compass, with a barometer, a stopwatch. There are options where there is "all in one".