Quartz Movement

A quartz watch is one that measures time by means of a miroscopic piece of synthetic quartz.

 The quartz vibrates very quickly in response to an electric charge; it is these vibrations that

enable the watch to keep time. Quartz watches have either an analog dial, with rotating hands,

or a digital lcd display.

The tiny piece of quartz serves as the watch's "oscillator." All timepieces have an oscillator

of some sort- an object which, through its continuous, unvarying motions, "tells" a watch or

clock how much time has passed. The oscillator in a grandfather clock, for instance, is a

pendulum

Quartz is an ideal material to use as an oscillator. First of all, it loses very little energy as

it vibrates, so the vibrations are extremely steady. Secondly, it exhibits what scientists call the "piezoelectric effect," meaning that it vibrates in response to an electric charge and, conversely, generates voltage when it vibrates. This quality is central to the way a quartz watch operates.

Here's How It Works

1) The quartz oscillator receives an electrical charge from an integrated circuit, which gets its power from the watch battery.

2) The electricity makes the quartz vibrate, or oscillate, at the rate or 32,768 times per second.

3) As the quartz oscillates, it sends electrical pulses- at the same rate of 32,768 per second- back to the integrated circuit. A device called a "trimmer" regulates the quartz oscillations.

4) The intergrated circuit "divides the electrical pulses repeatedly until they have been reduced to a single pulse each second.

5) The circuit is, in effect, counting the pulses and returning to zero each time the count hits 32,768.

6) The one-second impulses are transmitted to a stepping motor, which transforms them into mechanical pulses that drive a chain of gears and, ultimately, the watch hands.