How Does Quartz Technology Work in Watches?
The Pendulum For hundreds of years before the invention of quartz clocks, timepieces were driven by pendulums. Pendulums are useful for timekeeping because of their accuracy. Whether it swings in a big arc or a small one, a pendulum takes the same amount of time to make one trip. That means that, even as the spring system driving the pendulum winds down, the clock will continue to keep accurate time. The Quartz Crystal Pendulums are not a practical way to drive watches because they need to hang from a fixed point. Instead, many modern watches use small quartz crystals that function in similar ways to pendulums. Instead of swinging back and forth, a quartz crystal vibrates. When an electric field is applied to a quartz crystal, it bends. When the crystal bends back into place, it releases its own electric charge. Just as a pendulum is driven by a spring mechanism, the quartz crystal is driven by an oscillator circuit that provides the energy for it to bend and release thousands of times
