Chapter 04 of 5
The Quartz Crisis
The watch that cost as much as a car, and the industry it nearly destroyed.
- 1967
A Watch Contest
At the 1967 chronometer competition run by the Neuchatel Observatory, experimental quartz watches took top places.
- The Swiss
Beta 21
A Swiss consortium, the Centre Electronique Horloger, developed the Beta 21 quartz movement, which launched in 1970.
- Japan
Seiko's Head Start
Seiko had worked on quartz timekeeping for years and used it to help time the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
17 more cards in this chapter
Could you answer this?
What triggered the 'quartz crisis' in the Swiss watch industry?
⌚ The Crystal That Counts Your Seconds
- 01Tick-Tock, BadlyHow mechanical watches kept time, and why they never quite could.
- 02The SqueezeThe Curie brothers, a crystal that makes electricity when pressed, and why it works in reverse.
- 03The Crystal ClockFrom a room-sized clock to a tuning fork the size of a grain of rice.
- 04The Quartz CrisisThe watch that cost as much as a car, and the industry it nearly destroyed.
- 05Crystals EverywherePhones, computers, atomic clocks and the tiny crystal on your wrist.