One high road to quartz

[Huertecilla]

In the beginning there was ... only Patek.
As early as 1948 Patek Philipe founded a dedicated R&D department under the leadership of George Delessert, the stephbrother of the main share holder Henri Stern.
Henri Stern was véry interested in and fascinated by the performance possibilities of the quartz cristal oscilator and favorised the department whenever he could.
Despite the great accuracy and relative success of the PP master clocks and marine chronometers, the product group was not very profitable and as Henri´s son Philipe Stern became more involved, he made no effort to break ground in wristwatches.
When the profitable mechanical fashion invented by Biver and Hayek became evident*, Philipe decided to concentrate on mechanical movements entirely per 1988.
In 1990 50% of the quartz R&D was sold and it continued as Diem SA. In 1996 all of it was sold to Moser Baer.

There were eight different routes taken to arrive at a quartz controlled wristwatch and Patek did not walk one. Although the foremost important Swiss quartz clóck pioneers, for the wristwatch pioneering PP were thus not of any importance.
The joint venture under CEH was!
As follow up on the first initiatives at Omega in 1955, a joint venture of 14 share holding partners was started under the name CEH in januari 1960 which was to develop the Beta project. This group was extended with 7 more share holding holding companies in 1973.
Some confusion has arisen here and there about the participants as some manufacturers did buy and fitted a Beta caliber without having been involved or share holding.
This high tech project in the end lead to the yet unequalled Omega Marine chronometer. Omega however killed off the caliber and shot the whole heq in the foot by dumping their stock.

Anyway, the CEH - > Omega story is another one than I want to relate here. One of the participant of the first CEH joint venture was Jeager LeCoultre. This important main stay manufacture of high quality mechanics realised the importance of this new technology for more accurate measuring of time and they signed on for 5 of the 480 shares, just as Rolex. Later they even took over the bulk of the consignment of Tissot.
Since they were thé manufacture for third parties, they had meanwhile been contacted by Girard Perregaux who were developing their own quartz caliber along a different route and who had at that time no production capacity to produce the mechanical bit of it themselves.
JLC made a great deal to produce all of the mechanical parts the GP350 to -4 and obtained the right to use the calibers in watches under their own branding.

Girard Perregaux had in 1966 contracted Vuffray to develop a quartz caliber for them.
As a freshly doctorated electronics engineer without family background in the watch industry he was not hampered by horologic preconceptions. He realised that the quartz caliber had three main areas to tackle; the quartz cristal oscilator, the divider and the stepper motor.
He also quickly realsised that is was all about energy efficiency.

We need to maintain perspective to understand what metal leap he and the other the engineers working on the quartz wristwatch faced:
Like with balance springs, the higher the oscilating frequency of the quartz cristal, the greater the performance potential.
Like with balance springs, the higher the oscilating frequency of the quartz cristal, the higher the energy consumption.
The at that time for a balance spring relatively high frequency of 28.800 bpm is 4 Hz. The first quartz oscilators operating at some 4 KíloHertz are thus vibrating a factor one thoúsand faster.
As the quartz cristals could be made to operate at like 4 MégaHz. like in the Citizen Cristron Mega, the sky was the limit in thát area with the energy consumption being the real world limitation.

As a state of the art electronics engineer Vuffray started on the path of CMOS integrated circuitry for the frequency divider and as there was no stepper motor tech at that time, he started inventing his own max energy efficient one. For the qco frequency he needed to find the same way as the rest.

- For the quartz cristal he had visited Statec early 1971 but it was at that moment still in the prototype phase in a californian garage and GP did not have the deep pockets of Seiko to remain involved. He thus went to Reeves-Hoffman for gold tuned, gold wired block cristals individually diamond cut out of natural cristal!!!



For the GP354 he would obtain the photolitographically produced units from Statec.
He started with 8KHz for the Elcon 1, went to 16kHz for the Elcron 2 and to 32.768 Hertz with a very efficient devider and miserly stepper motor having over two years of pr from a single 1.5V button battery.

- For the devider he knew that the CMOS ic was the only way and he turned to the French electronics specialists Thomson(-CSF). Although the prototype divider/repeater needed a hefty 3V battery, the coöperation was primairily cut short by politics. Thomson was an important electronics supplier for the French military and recieved a lot of State support. The French watch industry objected that a firm supported by French tax payers money should share their technology to help Swiss competition to the French watch industry. Exit coöperation with Thomson.
Vuffray switly switched to Motorola who were very keen to assist and developed a divider for 32KHz. with integrated repeater.
The protoptypes baptised ´Elcron´ shown in 1970 at the Basel fair, had a 16KHz cristal but Vuffray had realised that 32KHz. was the optimum between accuracy and power consumption. The 32.768 Hertz arrived at was easy to devide into steps of one steering the stepping motor. This choice, thus the Motorola divider, was to become the industry standard for quartz watches.

- It was with the stepper motor though that Vuffray showed the most of his ingenuity and strive for perfection. He rejected the Lavet motor because of the not ideal energy efficiency thus ´unneccesary´ high power consumption. He developed his own using Samarium-Cobalt which he named Laplace motor, thus honouring the electromagnetism Law of Laplace. For those interested I can write a detailed technical explanation but it goes a bit beyond the general scope of this article.
Although this in house GP motor was of véry high quality, very reliable and had a higher efficiency than those of Lavet type, when the heq lost footing, the already meagre margins all but disappeared and the calibers had to become cheaper to produce. Thus GP was forced to abandon their superior motor for the Lavet motor in later calibers too.
Very sad and the GP35x calibers are all the more desireable for it.

A last, nice to know, detail is that the ceramic variable resistor fitted to fine regulate the frequency of the qco was bought in from Kyocera. Yes the same Kyocera that today has the ceramic knife market cornered.

The finshed production caliber was;




It was two year warranted at 1 minute per year accurate:



and Girard Perregaux had at least 1800 calibers tested at the Neuchatel observatory:




Like with the first automatic mechanical chronograph there is a, imo likewise deliberately creáted, muddle about the first quartz wristwatch.
To cut the crap about ´the first quartz wristwatch´ first some clear language:
Several companies show/showed prototypes at the Basel shows. These do not realy count as milestones or feats as there is no way to determain how far or realistic these were/are, so there is no yard stick to judge/ compare those.
At the 1970 Basel fair the GP Elcron per example was nothing more than fotos of a non operational proto-type. The final version illustrated below was shown in 1971 but was not released for sale untill 1972 and full production got underway in 1973.

Now ´the first quartz wristwatch´ facts:
The first quartz watch that went on sále was released by Seiko.
The first quartz watches on sale that were produced in serie were those with the Beta21 caliber.
When the Girard Perregaux quartz wristwatch was sold it was the first caliber with an achitecture which was to become thé dominant way to produce an analogue quartz watch.
Soon after Seiko was the first to incorporate the Statek artificial quartz cristal.
The GP35x was also the first Swiss quartz caliber with a design concieved for cost effective ´mass´ production in larger numbers. In all 50.000 were produced in five variants for mainly GP and JLC.



End of part one.

[Huertecilla]

Jaeger LeCoultre swiftly abandoned the Beta calibers as those were FAR more expensive to produce, less accurate and proving to be far less reliable.
Some of their 35x engined watch designs are easily recogniseable as both high end and seventies:



The above also has a Faraday cage as anti magnetic design feature:



They produced them too in 18k gold cases and that cost 8500 Sfr. in 1973:



and offered custom cases even (see the ´filled up´ spaces between the lug horns and the strap):



I lóve the high end quality perspective of this 1973 32.786Hz. quartz in a custom 18k gold case*.

As Favre Leuba and Jaeger LeCoultre were both owned by the Saphir group, the GP35x was fitted to a small number of FL watches too, among which in one of thé coolest case designs ever.




Breitling did not have the financial depth to be involved in ány development but they did need a quartz caliber in their model range so they bought the GP35x. They were simply a customer buying in a caliber. Just ike some manufactures bought and fitted the Beta22.

One VERY notable detail of the GP3x calibers is that the JLC gearbox has non lubricated teflon bearings; it is a no-jewel caliber. Today, 40 years later, these telfon bearing are proving to be totally up to the job: Durable, maintenance free, non shattering, non chipping. One can only wonder why main stream manufacture JLC has ignored this. Personally I blaim the marketing value of the ´jewels´- Whereas ´NO jewels!!!!´ should have been a great unique selling point, the market was so used to jewels being best that we are STILL stuck with them....



* to illustrate how thing have changed because of the reïnvention of the mechanical as a luxury, have a look at this 1972 advert in a magazine:



In the seventies quartz was highly appereciated high tech that was very desireable in high end watches. These watches were produed at the highest standards by the most reputable brands. By JLC even in 18k gold custom cases!

All in all the GP35x is a real mile stone in horology with several véry high quality design features.

[Huertecilla]

From the start of the design phase it was a deliberate choice to construct the caliber in a modular way which could be serviced and repaired by traditional watchmakers using traditional tools like screwdriver and pincers.
When the caliber was released there also was extensive information provided for both the watchmakers and the buyers in a complete set.
I have used some of these documents as background for my watches in the fotos.

According to thé modern watch experts Trueb/ Wenzig/ Ramm in their book ´Die Elektrifizierung der Armbanduhr´ written in 2011, Girard Perregaux still stocks parts and offers service for these calibers.

Fellow member Keith is an adress for service closer to home.

[WatchScout]

Very informative & interesting.
Thanks for taking the time to post.
BTW really like those square quarz jobs pictured.

[Itsguy]

Teflon instead of jewels - excellent! It appeals to the scientist in me, though it has to be admitted that the frying pan associations are less romantic than Geneva striped micro-machines made from precious gems.

[Huertecilla]

Teflon instead of jewels - excellent! It appeals to the scientist in me,

Like so many things in this caliber it makes perfect sense since the gearbox is in effect freewheeling as only once per second it is moved exactly measured steps ahead without any load. The teflon has no surface pressure and can thus be safely used to minimise friction, minimising energy loss.

[GavinD]

Really interesting read. Thanks.

[Karl]

Petrus. Good post, enjoyed reading this, thanks

[markosgr28]

Very very very , did I say very? informative! Thanks for sharing!

[Malcolm68]

Really good read, many thanks for posting

Malc

[Mjolnir]

I enjoyed reading that. Thanks.
I always loved the style of those older quartz watches and the technology behind them is impressive.

[keitht]

Very informative Petrus, much of that information was unknown to me.
Surprised, don't be.....Despite the fact I find the early quartz fascinating, I am more of a hands on type of enthusiast and am very ignorant of the technology, history and politics that fashioned the path of the modern quartz wristwatch.

I would be interesting in the almost parallel development of the Ronda Quartz calibre if you ever find the time. Although launched a little later, its importance is recognised even less so than that of the Girard Perregaux ones.




he

Tor

[Caruso]

An excellent and interesting post. It's intriguing how a new technology came along that was better in every measurable way, yet many of the innovators are now casting it aside in favour of mechanical only calibres. I'm sure there's a lesson in human nature there.

[MMC]

Now you see how this Petrus chap (clearly a pusher if not a crown) has got me hooked on quartz. Great article and absolutely fascinating. Going to settle down to read it properly with a glass of red.

Thanks, Petrus!

[Huertecilla]

An excellent and interesting post. It's intriguing how a new technology came along that was better in every measurable way, yet many of the innovators are now casting it aside in favour of mechanical only calibres.

No they are not. The bean counters are.
Those many of the innovators have been taken overtaken by normal business development and bought by investor groups. As the margins on mechanicals are ludicrously large, the sensible business decisions are cristal clear and they follow the example of Patek whom as a smaller niche manufacturer could do this earlier.

I'm sure there's a lesson in human nature there.

Actually there nature in the broadest sense is.
Post modern watches are for 95% or so fitted with quartz tech. You can see these as the generalists.
The luxury niche is almost exclusively filled with mechanicals. You can see those as the specialists. They replaced the high end quartz calibers after B&H changed the nature of the niche.
Húman nature is the basis for the nature of the niche. Early seventies it was the early adopters, the avant garde technique lovers who defined the parameters of the high end niche. After B&H the luxury of the atavism became the status thing that defined the niche.
Human nature was also dríving the marketing creating this change, is currently driving this fashion; there are far, fár higher profits on the mechanicals. The high end quartz calibers demand huge investments in frightfully expensive resources and technology, only returned by sufficient production numbers and these numbers are per definition low in the high end sector.

What I find illuminating is that an horological purist as Herni Stern would be fascinated by quartz as it offered/offers way more accurate measurement of time and that more búsiness oriented decisions went mechanical for the wristwatches. As a quartz tech pioneer Patek was aware of the cost versus return way earlier than most and their return was limited by the small numbers of their luxury segment.
For accurate time keeping instruments they went quartz, for profit they had to stay away from it.

GP and JLC learned this the hard way. Their high end quartz watches were barely profitable. GP just about survived but JLC went under and had to be reorganised several times before it was restored to fame by Richement marketing.

Anyway; the GP35x is one of those high quality early quartz calibers when this was the purists high end of horology because of the superior performance. From before the lesson of the conflict between high end niche limited production numbers and the R&D cost of this high tech was experienced.

@Keith; I have quite a bit of info on the earliest Rondas. That story would be titled; ´the back road to quartz´ and is straightforward. I would be happy to do a write up on it. It is almost the inverse of the high end quartz and it is a perfect illustration of what I write above as it dírectly developed Ronda to be the óther currently most important european caliber producer.

[RaulGonzalez]

Great post.

I'm actually fixing a calibre 352 at the moment :-)

[dutchgray]

Very informative, thanks for taking the time to write this up, I find HEQ and early quartz development very interesting because the modern world is built on quartz timing.

[Carlton-Browne]

Many thanks for posting this, Petrus. There is material spread variously over the web about these calibres and I think your piece is probably the best that I've read. As the owner of 2 JLC GP calibre watches I have a distinct interest.

Is the 18k watch above the recent acquisition that you were leading up to?

[Huertecilla]

There is a wealth of info both vintage and recent in french and german publications.
The Doensen book is an english language source and there is talk that the Trueb/Ramm/Wenzig one may be released in english too.
The two books by Trueb with an 800 page treasure of interviews with the key people wil likely remain ´foreign´. A pity as the ´now it can be told´ insights from just about any side and angle is valuable perspective for today too.

Yes, the custom 18k JLC is my latest adquisition.
I would lóve a GP with ´ic-circuit dial´




but I have come to the conclusion that this was never sold as such.

[mindforge]

Interesting, thanks for posting, enjoyed that.

[Omegary]

Fantastic and very educational thread Petrus, thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together. Some of it I knew but a lot is new information to me, so it's a fascinating read.

I remember reading an interview with Georges Vuffrey in which stated that Girard Perregaux simple couldn't afford join the CEH cartel behind the Beta 21. As the worlds oldest and arguably most prestigious watch maker I find it very informative that GP couldn't afford it, it's a good indication of just how much it cost to develop the Beta 21.

The GP cal.352 was effectively the first quartz movement to use a frequency of 32.768 Hz which is now the industry standard. It also was the first Swiss movement to use a stepping motor, supplied by Socrem in France if I remember rightly. Another interesting fact is the chip was developed and supplied by Motorola and the first 2 numbers on the last line off the chip are the date of manufacture.

This is my example.



Which dates from 1972.


As you've said the jewels were replaced with teflon which, in theory, means no lubrication is required.




And a period ad from Girard Perregaux.


I'd love to get this example and the ic circuit dial one too, like you though I've never seen one outside of printed materials.

Cheers,
Gary

[WatchScout]

This is my example.




Gary

That is one good looking watch.

[Michael_Mcr]

What a great read this post is. Thank you!

[Huertecilla]

Thanks for sharing Gary!

I remember reading an interview with Georges Vuffrey in which stated that Girard Perregaux simple couldn't afford join the CEH cartel behind the Beta 21. As the worlds oldest and arguably most prestigious watch maker I find it very informative that GP couldn't afford it, it's a good indication of just how much it cost to develop the Beta 21.

It is a bit more nuanced.
The actual participation was not thát expensive and say 5 shares wouldn´t have broken the bank but;
- the net result was a very limited number of extremely expensive calibers which needed to be sold at astronomical amounts to still not generate money
- they would have had the exact same caliber as the competition
- GP was rather .... ´independant´ from the bulk of that competition
Added up it meant expensive calibers, putting them in line with the competition without generating money: The whole set up of CEH was not commercially viable for GP and thát was a price they could not afford.
This too was why JLC who at that time were very well off, got out too. Remember that Rolex later still also abandoned the project and had to restart on their own with years of disadvantage.

It also was the first Swiss movement to use a stepping motor, supplied by Socrem in France if I remember rightly.

No, the Socrem motor is totally different and has a lower efficency. The Socrem motor differs from the Lavet motor in having stators arranged in starshape.
Vuffray developed his own híghly efficient one which he baptise Laplace and they made it in house. Only the exteremely precise drilling of the brittle Samarium-Cobalt was outsourced. Because of the britlleness they then glued the rotor on the staff. The GP solution is the most elegant of the three. This type of motor sadly became extinct when they stopped using it.
The Lavet type won out because it is very simple to produce and the design also allows the coild to be arranged very flatly at the side. Despite the lower efficiency this proved to be decisive.

[Omegary]

No, the Socrem motor is totally different and has a lower efficency. The Socrem motor differs from the Lavet motor in having stators arranged in starshape...

I'm sure you're right Petrus but I've read several references to the cal.350 using a Socrem stepping motor including those written by Pieter Doensen.

Cheers,
Gary

[mylofitz]

Thank you for the interesting post. Those members who have you on their ignore list have missed out on an excellent read.

[Huertecilla]

As the owner of 2 JLC GP calibre watches I have a distinct interest.

Would be great if you could share fotos of them.

It appears that we have quite a GP35x owners group here, which is beyond impressive in the perspective of 40 y.o. watches of a pioneering design of budding technology.

[Daddelvirks]

That's quite an interesting piece of history, and with the migration to office 2010 at work not being very successfull, I did have plenty of time to read it..........

Cheers Huerty,

Daddel.

[Huertecilla]

I'm sure you're right Petrus but I've read several references to the cal.350 using a Socrem stepping motor including those written by Pieter Doensen.

Cheers,
Gary

Pieter Doensen is insufficiently praised for writing the first comprehensive book about modern horology. His research is awesome. He paved the way and as he hoped those following it up delved deeper.
It doesn´t come much deeper than the collective works of Trueb, Ramm and Wenzig and it is a great disadvantage for the english speaking watch enthusiasts that it is not (yet) available to them.

Anyway; it is not a Socrem motor. Georges Vuffray designed and developed his own more efficient motor and baptised it Loi de Laplace. The GP35x stepper motor is unique and made by themselves.

The four digit code on the Motorola ic is indeed the production date; ´7251´ means week 51 of 1972.
The brass colour ic on yours is the first generation metal/ceramic/metal which was soon followed by a black composite one with ´73xx´ production dates.

I personally find the Reeves-Hoffman crystal a fáscinating example of this pioneering phase. I am hoping that Keith can share a foto of an old one he opened up. Otherwise I will borrow a foto from Piotr ´Piglet´ Crazywatch.

[Fatpants]

All in all the GP35x is a real mile stone in horology with several véry high quality design features.

Great series of posts. Here's my GP from the era...

[Omegary]

For those that don't know what Petrus and I are blathering on about here's some pics of a dismantled cal.352 stepper motor, courtesy of Colin d over on NAWCC.





These are roughly 5mm wide in reality.

Cheers,
Gary

[Omegary]

The four digit code on the Motorola ic is indeed the production date; ´7251´ means week 51 of 1972.
The brass colour ic on yours is the first generation metal/ceramic/metal which was soon followed by a black composite one with ´73xx´ production dates.

Great info Petrus, I didn't know the last two digits indicated the week of production, thanks for that

Cheers,
Gary

[Huertecilla]

For those that don't know what Petrus and I are blathering on about here's some pics of a dismantled cal.352 stepper motor, courtesy of Colin d over on NAWCC.

GREAT!!!

The coils rotate the Samarium-Cobalt core 180 degrees at a time and need reversed polarity for the next step. The ´gap between stators and rotor is minimal.

Here a picture of the Socrem motor which has several coils arranged in a star shape:




As you can see it is a totaly different concept.
I suspect that the confusion in many sources originates from the Elcron prototype phase when french partners were involved. The same sources also mention Thomson-CSF divider/repeater.
Although Vuffray already had his Laplace micro-motor sorted enough for a patent in the (slightly) larger scale test model he had finished in ´68 and in which the larger motor proved to use only a few microWatt, it was still a challenge to get the size about halved. It is thus very possible that to not slow down develoment as a stop gap the French Socrem was used. I only know that the GP35x motor is the Vuffray Loi de Laplace as shown by you in the photos.

p.s. here is a véry concise article in gpmagazine: http://www.qpmagazine.com/media/38202/Quartz.pdf
It just about solves the stepper motor subject; the Elcron-1 needed two batteries and 3 Volts at a quarter of the qco frequency! The GP35x was a léap in energy efficiëncy ahead. The Laplace motor and Motorola ic made this possible.

[Huertecilla]

Have a look at what the gP engineers came up with to homage their cal. 35x:



Modern ic, modern printed wiring, non natural quartz crystal, but the architecture is the same. Looks like they seriously tried to homage the Laplace motor and even incorporated a ceramic variable resistor in the repeater circuit. A pity they fitted retrograde jewels in the gearbox.
On the performance side it is not more accurate than the original nor has more pr, unlike the original does need service to lube the jewels. Thát is how góód their first quartz was!

[foselo]

Thank You very much for starting this thread. Very interesting read and a lot of good and, for me, new information.
regards
Terje

[WatchScout]

Certainly food for thought, that this fascinating technology fell by the wayside.

[Huertecilla]

Certainly food for thought, that this fascinating technology fell by the wayside.

Only for whom the ´w´ in wis has to do with that being an instrument to measure time.

It also needs to be observed that some 95% of watches made/sold dóes use this technology so it is just about all of the way and not by the wayside.

Only in higher end luxury watches that it is limited to true idiot savant territory. It has thus only fallen by the wayside of the ostentaious end of the market where its time keeping performance is all but irrelevant.

Most watch buyers do see the logic of a watch keeping more accurate time costing more.
Most wis are on a different track that no longer is about the instrument keeping time. Why else can the even 40 year ago only ´good enough´ COSC standard still be good enough??!!

Anyway.
The GP35x is a wónderfull milestone in horology and it is fascinating to compair the GP13500 with it. Cool to the power of cool that although only 50.000 were produced you can 40 years later easily find and afford a perfectly functioning one and that its time keeping performance is still as good as non tc comes.

I happily acknowledge that I find the inverse snobbism an added attraction, just like with the GS 9F.

[Omegary]

Quartz was considered the future of horology back in 1972 and was priced accordingly, i.e you paid more for the increased accuracy. Plus it was expensive and time consuming to develop so these costs had to be recouped.

I seem to recall that Girard Perregaux seriously considered becoming a quartz only brand after the success of the cal.352. It would have been interesting to see how they faired and if they carried on developing ground breaking quartz technology.

Cheers,
Gary

[WatchScout]

Only for whom the ´w´ in wis has to do with that being an instrument to measure time.

It also needs to be observed that some 95% of watches made/sold dóes use this technology so it is just about all of the way and not by the wayside.

Only in higher end luxury watches that it is limited to true idiot savant territory. It has thus only fallen by the wayside of the ostentaious end of the market where its time keeping performance is all but irrelevant.

Most watch buyers do see the logic of a watch keeping more accurate time costing more.
Most wis are on a different track that no longer is about the instrument keeping time. Why else can the even 40 year ago only ´good enough´ COSC standard still be good enough??!!

Anyway.
The GP35x is a wónderfull milestone in horology and it is fascinating to compair the GP13500 with it. Cool to the power of cool that although only 50.000 were produced you can 40 years later easily find and afford a perfectly functioning one and that its time keeping performance is still as good as non tc comes.

I happily acknowledge that I find the inverse snobbism an added attraction, just like with the GS 9F.

Yes, of course only in regards to high-end watches. Wearing a pretty accurate quarz as I write this



COSC? I scoff at COSC. I would never pay more for a COSC labelled watch.

[Huertecilla]

Quartz was considered the future of horology back in 1972 and was priced accordingly, i.e you paid more for the increased accuracy. Plus it was expensive and time consuming to develop so these costs had to be recouped.

I seem to recall that Girard Perregaux seriously considered becoming a quartz only brand after the success of the cal.352. It would have been interesting to see how they faired and if they carried on developing ground breaking quartz technology.

Cheers,
Gary

They díd go quite a bit further on the road of haute quartz.
In ´78 they bought the discarded machinery for the Valjoux 7750 production and this made them independant from JLC for the production of the mechanical parts.
As you obeserve their market seemd promising as the high end quartz was very much appreciated still and the brilliant B&H marketing coupe reïnventing the mechanical as representative of luxury. was still in the future.
They made high accuracy chronometer quartzes and the success motivated to develop haute quartz.
Their ´equation of time´ line is exactly that; haute quartz. They are justly displayed behind a rear window.
By then the coupe of B&H was proving to have changed the perception of the luxury watch buyers. They found that they could not sell haute quartz at the price they needed and had to go mechanical again as that is where ludicrous margins are for the taking.

As fashion swings like a pendulum, it seems inevitable that the segment of high end quertz will return. The success of the Seiko Spring Drive illustrates that a qco is not a problem persé anymore. All it needs is a stroke of marketing genius selling it as the top notch horlogery it ís.

[Huertecilla]

Yes, of course only in regards to high-end watches. Wearing a pretty accurate quarz as I write this

Thát one, not looking at it being solid state digital and rc, illustrates that the quartz technology has kept up with the development of modern tech. Just as the Spring Drive does.
Imagine the Spring Drive with current e-drive and low friction teflon bearings al least halving jewel friction. That would be the same wonderfull watch without the load of the main spring or need for a pr indicator as with an invisible solar cell it would run maintenance free for decénnia.
All it needs is a marketing angle which sells modern watch tech as the high end thing it can be.

Meanwhile I am chuffed with the GP35x ticking spot on the mark in my 18k custom JLC.
Actually, if heq would become fashionable again, it would float out of the price range I want to afford for a watch.
Maybe we should stop writing about it and enjoy it while it is not appreciated by the main stream.

[WatchScout]

Not a PP and slightly OT but speaking of high end quarz:

Never thought I should say this about a quarz movement, but WOW!

[Huertecilla]

Not a PP and slightly OT but speaking of high end quarz:

Never thought I should say this about a quarz movement, but WOW!

I have three 9F61s.

I will try make a foto of the 18k one together with the JLC.
Both under the radar styled heq in 18k, even the same 38 mm. on a brown strap, but sóóó different on the wrist.

[rmcsilva]

Very interesting. Thank you!

[mwurliinkomeg]

Fascinating reading Petrus. Reaaly enlightening and informative.

I bought an Omega Megaquartz 32 in about 1978 for about £120 and thought that I had the future of watches on my wrist.

I then bought an Omega Seamaster Quartz in about 1978. Very slim design dress watch.

I've been told that these are now virtually worthless - but they're both still going strong and keeping excellent time.

[PreacherCain]

I'm aware this is somewhat "necropost-ish" but this thread was linked from a post on SC and I missed it first time round. Absolutely fascinating, many thanks to Huertecilla for posting.