Watchlords

http://www.calibre11.com/heuer-quartz-revolution/

The subject of quartz came up recently in the new member thread and I found this brief history very interesting.

"Remarkably, Heuer aficionados may be aware that Seiko were also developing an automatic chronograph movement in the same period, narrowly missing out to the Heuer/Breitling/Büren/Dubois-Depraz consortium as related in Jeff Stein’s “Project 99” article- a busy time to be a Seiko engineer, the late 60s… "

Good read, except for a rewrite of history. Seiko was first to market, not Heuer.
This deliberate slight of hand makes me mistrust the writer and the company, which obviously suffers from penis envy.
Is having a product first - 50 years ago - going to sell watches today? Nope but faking the claim may make a broke dick dog feel better.

The Japanese had the first quartz watch on the market.
Although the Swiss were the first to make a quartz watch prototype, the Japanese Seiko 35SQ Astron was the first analog quartz watch to reach the market. Seiko had been a maker of mechanical watches since the end of the 19th century, introducing the first Japanese pocketwatch in 1895 and the first Japanese wristwatch, the Laurel, in 1913.


While continuing to produce mechanical watches, Seiko turned its attention to quartz timekeeping in 1958 with the development of a quartz crystal clock. A team was assembled in 1959 to develop a quartz watch. The primary objectives of the project were to reduce the size to that of conventional mechanical watches, and to achieve reasonable prices through volume production. The result of this project was the world's first quartz watch, the Seiko 35SQ Astron, introduced to the Japanese market on Christmas Day, 1969.


http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quartz/global/japan.html

http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quartz/coolwatches/seiko.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch

Nothing in the article is a rewrite of history. Clearly the quote Boscoe posted is about an automatic chronograph Seiko and the Swiss were developing simultaneously. The blog goes on to state in almost the exact same words what Koi posted above: That the race to get a wristwatch quartz movement on the market culminated with Seiko's release of the Astron on Christmas Day 1969.

Indeed correct, sir. Misread it.

A great article; Calibre 11 is a really decent site. No fluff or BS, just a lot of Tag Heuer fans and info. Really well done.

Thanks for posting. A very interesting read.

You are very welcome. I really enjoy technical articles and histories and I'm glad I could contribute. Ironically, the only Tag I own is a quartz F1 and all of my Seiko's are mechanical!