Christmas Day 1969: Richard Nixon is in power; the second manned Moon mission has just returned to Earth; and The Beatles are at number one in the albums chart with Abbey Road. Over in Tokyo, another historical event is taking place: the launch to market of the world’s very first wrist-worn timekeeper regulated not by spring-driven mechanics tick-tocking at a clunky 4Hz, but by a tiny, electrically charged quartz crystal vibrating precisely at 8,192Hz. Seiko’s Astron watch was produced in a limited edition of just 100 pieces and sold for 450,000 yen (£2,950) – then about the same price as a compact car.
The tiny crystal tends to vibrate four times faster these days, battery life is vastly improved and the pricetags are much, much lower, but what Seiko pioneered almost half a century ago has barely changed since. Even the extraordinary accuracy of quartz watches, gaining or losing just ten seconds a year (as opposed to mechanical watches’ five seconds a day) was firmly established way back then.
What has changed massively is the traditional way of things that came before – first, at the mercy of Seiko’s game-changing technology and the ensuing flood of cheap Far Eastern tickers (a period not-so-fondly referred to as Switzerland’s Quartz Crisis), then again in stubborn defiance of it; the purple patch of hand-crafted anachronism that we’ve enjoyed since mechanical watchmaking’s revival in the nineties, now rebranded as a luxury product.
Another somewhat less expected development has been the recent repatriation of quartz technology as an exciting and luxurious product in itself. Even the Swiss themselves are getting over the crisis and revelling in the tech.
Unsurprisingly though, it’s still Tokyo’s favourite son who rules the roost – we’re not only talking about the quartz pioneer here, but a brand that grows its own in-house quartz crystals in huge autoclaves. This year, the 25th anniversary of a crucial update to Seiko’s own technology is being celebrated by the £4,500 Caliber 9F. Outwardly paying homage to the original 1993 design, key innovations inside ensure it’s still the most precise and durable quartz movement on the market, thanks to a backlash auto-adjust mechanism to eliminate any shuddering of the second hand, plus a twin pulse control system to amp up the torque.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, “watchmaker’s watchmaker” François-Paul Journe has taken things even higher up the luxury scale, with his controversial, non-mechanical Élégante. Not only is the in-house movement hand-finished to high-end levels and made of red gold, but the tiny window at four o’clock reveals a mechanical motion detector; if the watch is still for 30 minutes, the power-saving mode is triggered and the hands stop ticking. Pick it up again and the hands remember where they should be. This means the battery lasts for ten years with typical daily wear.
Back in more affordable territory (one of the main advantages of quartz, let’s not forget) Longines is remembering a rare Swiss success story from the 70s and 80s, when it developed the country’s first mass-produced, latterly the most precise quartz movement – the Ultra-Quartz. This year’s Very High Precision (VHP) chronograph is equipped with newly developed electronics precise to plus or minus five seconds per year, with the ability to reset its hands after an impact or exposure to a magnetic field, using its clever gear position detection system.
Horological purists will sneer, but even they can’t argue with the practical benefits all of these watches offer – each of them backed up by the sort of boysy pub facts that tourbillon and chronometer bores like to brandish. The Quartz Crisis is over; long live Quartz v2.0.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
