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Quartz watches became hugely popular in the 70's. Back then, they were priced at $500 and had LED displays. These watches have undergone drastic changes since then in their looks, price and several other things. Seiko 35 SQ Astron was the first quartz watch to be launched. Nowadays Quartz watches have a LCD display or they can also have the traditional mechanical movement (with the hour and minute hands). Their prices have come down considerably. In fact, they are given as free gifts with several products.
The new Quartz watches have a tuning fork shaped crystal or a low frequency bar. Thin sheets of quartz are used for preparing these crystals. The sheets are then plated in the similar manner as an integrated circuit board would be. A definite shape to these sheets is given with the help of chemicals. How accurate your quartz watch will depend upon its initial frequency accuracy. It will also depend on how accurately and precisely the angle of the quartz sheet has been cut in relation to the crystalline axis. Contamination of the crystal surface will also affect the accuracy of the watch. The noise is amplified at the crystal frequency by the electronics in the watch. The noise changes into oscillation which is thus responsible for the ringing of the crystal. The output that is generated by the crystal oscillator of the watch is then changed to pulses. This is particularly useful for the digital circuits. Proper formatting for display is done by these digital circuits. They do this by dividing the frequency of the crystal. One-second pulses are made by dividers for watches which have hands. The dividers have a small electric motor. The motor is connected to standard gears which is responsible for driving the hands. The power sources of these watches are many. They use different types of powers like battery power, kinetic power, solar power and many more powers. However battery power is the most commonly used power. Batteries are of several varieties, like the lithium and silver oxide batteries. The sunlight is used by the solar powered quartz watches. They may also use the kinetic power. To turn the rotating weight, the motion of the wearer's arm is used. The weight in turn leads to generation of power for the watch. There is also another power which is not used much and that is the temperature difference between the environment and the wearer's arm. Citizen Eco Drive Thermo uses this method.
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