Watches
A Concise History of the Quartz Watch Revolution
In the watch world, the 1970s changed everything.
Originally published by Joe Thompson on Hodinkee.
The first salvo of the quartz watch revolution was fired in the last week of the 1960s. On December 25, in Tokyo, Seiko introduced the Astron, the world’s first quartz wristwatch. It was a limited edition of 100 gold-case watches, priced at ¥450,000, equivalent then to the cost of a Toyota Corolla. Its battery-powered movement featured a quartz oscillator with a frequency of 8,192 Hz, accurate to within five seconds a day.