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More than just a killer Scrabble word, quartz happens to be one of the most abundant minerals on the planet, second only to feldspar. And, maybe the most useful. You’ll find quartz in your:
The chances are good that it’s also what keeps your watch accurate.
But what is quartz, and what does it have to do with telling time?
Quartz is a mineral composed of silica dioxide. In its purest form, quartz (also known as rock crystal) is a smooth, clear stone, but various impurities in quartz create other colors:
It’s a component of many less glamorous types of rock and is also commonly the main ingredient in sand, which is used in the manufacturing of glass. Quartz is:
But its versatility doesn’t stop there. Quartz features some unique properties that make it an ideal material for use in precision electronic equipment like radios, pressure gauges, optics and lenses, and--yes--as the movement inside clocks and watches.
Well, quartz is piezoelectric, to be more correct. This means that it produces an electrical current when mechanical stress is applied to it. What’s mechanical stress? A force, such as from bending, or an electric charge, such as the one from a battery. See where this is going?
When stressed, quartz emits a frequency. Don't we all? The frequency is highly stable, a desirable quality when it comes to keeping time or broadcasting signals via radio waves. In simple terms, a quartz watch functions like this:
In today’s quartz movement watches and other electronics, that sliver is typically made from synthetic quartz, which tends to be smoother and more uniform than naturally-occurring quartz and is cut to a precise shape to optimize the frequency.
Quiz: What other common watch material is also made synthetically? Click hereto read more.
Quartz watches are more accurate than their mechanical counterparts. While mechanical and automatic watches built today are accurate enough, gaining or losing a few seconds per day, a quartz watch can remain accurate within a few seconds per year. A few seconds a day might not seem like much but consider this: a difference of five seconds per day could equal a full half-hour during that year.
Why are quartz watches so popular?
Time for another Quiz: What are complications in the world of horology? Click on complications above to learn more.
Where is going? If you’d prefer to set your watch the day you receive it and never think about its inner workings again, a quartz watch is a timepiece for you. It also has a fraction of the moving pieces than a watch with gears and springs contains, meaning fewer things that can malfunction. If that isn’t the definition of reliable, what is?
Although quartz itself is as old as time, think billions of years, its use in time-keeping is much more recent. All timepieces function with an oscillator, that is, an object which, through its continuous, unvarying motion, “tells” a clock or watch how much time has passed.
The oscillator in a grandfather clock isn’t a quartz movement, of course, but a pendulum, which swings back and forth due to the gravitational pull being exerted on it. Pretty cool, and cool-looking, but not very practical for that guy or gal on the go. Wonder how TSA would react to travelers with a grandfather clock for a timepiece.
The Japanese revolution
The first quartz watch was created in 1969 by Japanese manufacturer Seiko. Known as the Astron, this watch was a gold-case limited-edition style with quartz movement technology. It was slick and convenient--but prohibitively expensive. The Astron cost roughly the same as a small car at the time. Therefore, it didn’t instantly set the watch industry on fire.
Japan took the lead in the watch world, leaving Switzerland, a nation so synonymous with watching making that mechanical watches constituted its third largest international export industry, in dire straits. By the early 1980s, the industry was forever altered.
Quartz wasn't an overnight sensation
The quartz movement started to take off in the 1970s with the invention of digital watches. Featuring LCD or LED screens, these new movements featured no moving parts at all and provided a bold, illuminated, and easy-to-read face.
Technology and economies of scale play their part
Eventually, manufacturing technology improved, and prices dropped, which in turn made quartz movements the oscillator of choice in analog watches for most consumers. The opportunity to wear a watch was transformed by the profound reduction in price made possible by quartz movements. Once a status symbol requiring a small fortune, watches became casual accessories that anyone could afford.
A Swiss disaster averted
A consortium of Swiss banks was forced to bail out that nation’s watch manufacturers after demand for mechanical movements plunged seemingly overnight. Ultimately, though, the story of Swiss watchmaking has a happy ending; the ubiquitous Swatch watch was created in direct response to the “quartz crisis” and put Switzerland back on top.
If you’ve ever wondered why the second-hand moves in jumpy little movements on some watches and sweeps gracefully and continuously on others, you may be interested in learning that the “ticking” watches are invariably quartz-powered.
Today, quartz movement watches make up 90% of the market, but mechanical watches have something of a cult following for a reason:
So, as you can see, this lightweight, versatile material is known as quartz has the power to keep things running and running on time. The choice between a quartz watch and a mechanical or automatic watch comes down to your personal preference.
Fortunately, there is no wrong choice here. A mechanical watch may be like a work of art inside, but a quartz watch is versatile, lightweight, more affordable, and more straightforward to use.
With the right attention to design, both types can look and feel great. And the next time you find yourself with a Q and a Z on your Scrabble rack, look no further than your wrist for inspiration.
