Seiko Astron
The world’s first quartz wristwatch, which started the quartz revolution.
Seiko went on sale with the Astron on Christmas Day 1969. The watch cost as much as a mid-sized car, but it was out by only a few seconds a month.
Within ten years quartz watches became cheap. The Swiss watch industry, built on mechanical watches, lost large parts of the market – what is called the quartz crisis.
Materials: Gold, quartz crystal, electronics and battery
Manufacture: Made by Seiko in Japan; the quartz crystal vibrates 8,192 times a second.
A dial little different from that of a mechanical watch.
The seconds hand jumping once a second.
The battery hatch in the caseback.
The quartz crystal oscillates 8,192 times a second, and a small stepping motor drives the second hand. The case was of 18 carat gold.
The Astron showed that the quartz watch could become small enough for the wrist. The technology made accurate timekeeping cheap and changed the watch industry throughout the world.