What is the performance of a quartz watch?

The application of quartz crystals in clocks is a modern invention.

The first quartz watch first appeared in 1969.

That year, a Japanese precision company discovered a method for manufacturing quartz tuning forks.

What is the working principle of a quartz watch?

Just like a tuning fork, when a quartz crystal is subjected to vibration, it will follow a certain pattern of vibration. 

When powered by a battery, it can also generate regular vibrations.

The vibration frequency of quartz crystal is as high as 32768 times per second. We can design a simple circuit to calculate the vibration frequency. When the count reaches 32768 times, the circuit will send a message, causing the second hand to move for one second.

Due to the regular vibration of quartz watches, even cheap quartz watches have an error rate of no more than 1 second per day.

Quartz crystal watches can be mass produced at a much faster speed than before, not just at a lower price.

Up to 500 million watches can be produced annually, enough to supply them for use worldwide.

Quartz watches can also be referred to as "crystal oscillator electronic watches" because they utilize the "hair vibration phenomenon" of chips.

When a crystal receives a strong external voltage, it undergoes deformation and expansion. On the contrary, if the crystal is compressed, electricity will be generated at both ends of the crystal;

This can also be seen in the "piezoelectric effect" characteristics of many crystals.

Quartz watches use the periodic "vibrations" of crystals to give us the correct time.

Firstly, by powering on the internal quartz crystal chip, the crystal will vibrate correctly at a frequency of 32768 Hz;

Then the current must be cyclically counted with a frequency of 1 Hz (current variation between one second) signal.

Add some signal amplitude (due to the weak current caused by vibration), then add some signal current and rotor gear, and the second hand on the watch will be pushed out. Then, the minute hand and hour hand will jump according to the principle of mechanical structure. For example, if the second hand jumps 60 times, the minute hand will jump. All quartz watches are equipped with batteries. It is an integrated circuit and a quartz resonator providing energy, vibrating 327678 times per second. Faster than this, integrated circuits are the "brain" of the watch.

It controls the vibration of the quartz resonator and acts as a frequency divider. 32768 vibrations are half divided 15 times, generating one pulse per second.