First the Japanese, then the Swiss

The Japanese were the first to produce quartz watches, followed two to three months later by the Swiss Beta 21 calibre movement. Magnets are used in all watch motors, yet the energy contained in a magnet has increased nearly tenfold since the early days of electronic watches. This progress is due mainly to the development of rare earth cobalt magnets.

At this stage of its progress, the quartz watch has already come on in leaps and bounds. The paradigm of this watch now seems well-established: an electrochemical battery supplying a 32 kHz quartz resonator, a CMOS integrated circuit and a stepping motor operating once per second or more slowly, now appears to be the norm. Autonomy and reliability are the two parameters on which the most recent efforts have focused. It should not be assumed from this that it has stopped evolving. Until now, all the functions provided by a watch had of course been displayed by hands or discs by means of a well-defined movement. The same no longer applies to stepping motors because electronics can, as it were, programme their speed and direction. This provides additional scope which has so far been little exploited but is liable to change the way traditional watches are used.