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Html Version	:	<html> <head><title>Inside Quartz Watches</title></head> <body> <p>Inside Quartz Watches <br>By <a target="_blank" href="http://www.affsphere.com/author_details.phpaid=1281">coration</a></p> <p> <p>Yes, Quartz Watches do contain quartz crystals …what a surprise. In this article I’ll try to explain how it works, and how it interacts with the crystal.<br /> Way back before the crystal watches, you had those fancy wind-up watches.Basic components are of course an enumerated dial on the face of the watch. A spring to provide the power, which you have to wind up (dueh). An oscillating mass to provide a time base and tiny gears to slow down the rate of the oscillating mass, and to connect every piece inside and eventually make the two hands move.</p> <p>At the end of the ’60s, the oscillating mass was replaced by a transistor oscillator. Of course the up march of the computer, and it components (a transistor) had its deal in that evolution.So instead of ticking, the transistor hums at a rate of 100 Hz. That “zooming” was converted by mechanical components, so it still held some mechanical components.The new watch was provided with a battery, so no need to wind up your watch every day.</p> <p>At that time, transistors and circuits were hot and new material. It found its way to the “time industry”. Very simple explanation for this phenomenon, a computer does nothing else but counting, and that’s just what a watch needs. So every new circuit or invention in the computer world was used in every other electronic niche of the market, including watches.<br /> The tuning fork, the component that moves along with the humming transistor wasn’t accurate enough so scientists had to find something else……the quartz crystal.<br /> It’s around a 1000 times better than a tuning fork. Easily said, but now “all” they had to do is choose the type of crystal, and the frequency of it. Also, building an integrated circuit for it wasn’t that easy. You have to keep in mind; the integrated circuits are still being born.<br /> <br /> </p> <p>So what’s so special about the quartz crystal…?</p> <p>When the quartz crystal is bend in a special way, it produces a certain voltage. Now very important about this crystal is that no matter what the temperature is, it’ll always keep its frequency. And on top of that the energy in the crystal before and after it produces its voltage, is negligible.</p> <p>Modern quartz watches use a low-frequency bar shaped crystal. Its frequency is about 32 KHz, so it does 32000 cycles a second.</p> <p>“If you think that’s alot…your<br /> CPU in your computer is factorized in GHz, so if you have a 2.66 GHz processor, it generates 2 660 000 000 pulses per second …”</p> <p>The electronics in the watch amplifies the noise at the crystal frequency. This causes oscillation, the crystal start ringing. The output of the oscillation is converted into pulses suitable for the integrated circuit. The circuit divides or breaks the frequency further down, and translates it into a proper format for your display.</p> </p> <p>Article Source: <a href="http://www.affsphere.com/Fashion-and-Apparel/Watches/Inside-Quartz-Watches.html" target="_blank">http://www.affsphere.com/Fashion-and-Apparel/Watches/Inside-Quartz-Watches.html</a></p> </body> </html>

Plain Text Version	:	Inside Quartz Watches By [http://www.affsphere.com/author_details.phpaid=1281]coration Yes, Quartz Watches do contain quartz crystals …what a surprise. In this article I’ll try to explain how it works, and how it interacts with the crystal. Way back before the crystal watches, you had those fancy wind-up watches.Basic components are of course an enumerated dial on the face of the watch. A spring to provide the power, which you have to wind up (dueh). An oscillating mass to provide a time base and tiny gears to slow down the rate of the oscillating mass, and to connect every piece inside and eventually make the two hands move. At the end of the ’60s, the oscillating mass was replaced by a transistor oscillator. Of course the up march of the computer, and it components (a transistor) had its deal in that evolution.So instead of ticking, the transistor hums at a rate of 100 Hz. That “zooming” was converted by mechanical components, so it still held some mechanical components.The new watch was provided with a battery, so no need to wind up your watch every day. At that time, transistors and circuits were hot and new material. It found its way to the “time industry”. Very simple explanation for this phenomenon, a computer does nothing else but counting, and that’s just what a watch needs. So every new circuit or invention in the computer world was used in every other electronic niche of the market, including watches. The tuning fork, the component that moves along with the humming transistor wasn’t accurate enough so scientists had to find something else……the quartz crystal. It’s around a 1000 times better than a tuning fork. Easily said, but now “all” they had to do is choose the type of crystal, and the frequency of it. Also, building an integrated circuit for it wasn’t that easy. You have to keep in mind; the integrated circuits are still being born. So what’s so special about the quartz crystal…? When the quartz crystal is bend in a special way, it produces a certain voltage. Now very important about this crystal is that no matter what the temperature is, it’ll always keep its frequency. And on top of that the energy in the crystal before and after it produces its voltage, is negligible. Modern quartz watches use a low-frequency bar shaped crystal. Its frequency is about 32 KHz, so it does 32000 cycles a second. “If you think that’s alot…your CPU in your computer is factorized in GHz, so if you have a 2.66 GHz processor, it generates 2 660 000 000 pulses per second …” The electronics in the watch amplifies the noise at the crystal frequency. This causes oscillation, the crystal start ringing. The output of the oscillation is converted into pulses suitable for the integrated circuit. The circuit divides or breaks the frequency further down, and translates it into a proper format for your display. Article Source: [http://www.affsphere.com/Fashion-and-Apparel/Watches/Inside-Quartz-Watches.html]

Summary	:	Article about how quartz watches work, with a little eplanation of how they got from wind up watches to quartz watches

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