Omega Electroquartz
The Omega Electroquartz was introduced in 1969 as the first production Swiss quartz watch. It was the collaboration of 20 Swiss watch companies and the movement was utilised by Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Omega amongst others. The Beta 21 movement used in the Electroquartz was accurate to 5 seconds per month, far better than any automatic or manual wind movement of the day. Introduction The Omega Electroquartz was the first Swiss quartz watch produced as part of a range called beta 21 watches, the beta 21 was developed at CEH research laboratory by twenty Swiss watch manufacturers. The first production watches were introduced to the market in 1970 very shortly after the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch, the Seiko-Quartz Astron 35SQ in December 1969. The beta 21 is noteworthy and significantly important to the history of watch making as well as the Astron as it marked the first quartz watch produced on an industrial level and began the quartz crisis Numerous Swiss manufacturers released beta 21 watches, the first Rolex quartz model Texano used the beta 21 movement, Patek Philippe also produce a range of beta 21 models as did the International Watch Company including it in their first Davinci watch. By far the largest supplier of beta 21 and subsequent beta 22 watches was Omega SA, who produced circa 10,000 Electroquartz watches between 1970 and 1977 Early development In 1966 after six years of research at Centre Electronique Horloger laboratories in Neuchâtel (CEH), Switzerland the first prototype of a quartz wristwatch was produced, the beta-1, this was the first real quartz wristwatch and operated using an 8192 Hz quartz oscillator, which was mounted to an in-house integrated circuit. In 1967 the beta-2 was tested and was awarded 'Concours Chronométrique International de l'Observatoire de Neuchâtel' setting a new record for wristwatch accuracy over the test period of 0.003 seconds per day, by contrast even the best chronometers of the day were accurate to around 3–10 seconds per day. In 1969, two years after the beta-2 tests twenty Swiss watch companies agreed to manufacture 6000 of the beta 21 production watches produced on an industrial level. In late 1969 a few hundred beta 21 units were produced to exhibit from a range of the agreed manufacturers at the 1970 Basel Fair. These production watches were accurate to 5 seconds per month, far better than any automatic or manual wind chronometer at the time and an enormous leap in accurate time keeping. The movement was a modular design and components were manufactured by individual companies (such as Omega who made the micro motor) and then assembled at three workshops. The beta 21 watches had a sweeping second hand, which moved smoothly round the dial and ‘hummed’ thanks to the Omega vibrating micro motor. Production watches Although 20 watch companies were originally involved in the development of the beta 21 production watch under CEH, not all of these companies took this to production stage. It is indicated that 18 Swiss manufacturers showed beta