Bonus Question:Why Are Quartz Watches Battery Powered?
Time pieces in the past, from Big Ben to a grandfather clock to a Swiss watch, relied on an accurate mechanical mechanism to keep accurate time. For instance, the pendulum on a grandfather clock serves this exact purpose.
In 1969 the clever folks at Seiko unveiled a new way to keep time – instead of a mechanical method to keep time, they used the vibrations of a quartz crystal to keep time. Actually, they were the first to every do it in a watch; larger quartz clocks had been invented about 40 years earlier.
Quartz Crystal From Watch. It vibrates at a known frequency.
Power Source
That is great, but what makes the quartz vibrate? Electricity. This electricity is supplied by a battery.
Therefore, quartz watches all have batteries. No battery would mean no electricity and therefore no vibration in the quartz and then you wouldn’t have a timepiece.
Some newer quartz watches are sort of marketed as not having batteries. The watches, for example, have “no need for regular battery replacement”. These Eco-Drive watches are solar powered, and the solar energy is stored in a “power cell”. “Power Cell” = “Battery”. But it’s not the kind of watch battery that you need to replace.
My Citizen Eco Drive Quartz Watch
I happen to own a Citizen Eco-Drive watch and for day to day use it is the best watch I have ever owned. It is durable, simple, and never needs maintenance. Mine is 10 years old now; please see below for some very nice Eco-Drive watches available now:
