Overview of Quartz Watches

This is a watch with a quartz crystal as an oscillating system. They can be electro-mechanical with a pointer time indication and electronic with digital indication. How a quartz watch works The principle of operation is based on the chemical properties of quartz. This mineral is piezoelectric: under the influence of electricity in clock circuits, it vibrates (vibrates) with a frequency of 32,768 times per second. The microcircuit counts the number of vibrations and uses them to generate regular electrical impulses once a second. The pulses are fed to the liquid crystal display of an electronic clock or control the stepping motor of the clock circuit, converting electrical energy into mechanical energy. Further, the rotational movement is transferred to the wheel mechanism, and its gears set the clock hands in motion. The power source in a quartz watch is a battery. The wrist models use a button battery. What does a quartz watch look like? 1 - Battery 2 - Quartz generator block 3 - Stepper motor 4 - Wheel mechanism In order for the quartz to vibrate at the desired frequency under the action of the current, a U-shaped crystal of a certain size is placed in the circuits. The number of fluctuations is not a random number. If you use a 15-bit binary counter and apply a frequency of 32,768 oscillations to it, this is the number that will give a time interval of 1 second. A large number of bits of binary code is impractical from the point of view of resource allocation. A Few Facts About Quartz Watches The first wrist quartz watch was released by the Japanese company Seiko in 1969. Quartz crystal watches are quite accurate - they lag behind or go ahead by no more than 20 seconds per month. They don't need to be turned on every day. It is sufficient to check the accuracy once a year. Quartz wears out over time and the watch wears out. But the degradation of the crystal takes several decades - there are no exact figures yet. All wearing parts can be replaced.