Quartz Crisis - Technological Revolution

Technological Revolution

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, both Seiko and a consortium of Switzerland's top firms competed to develop the first quartz watch. One of the first successes was a portable quartz clock called the Seiko Crystal Chronometer QC-951. This portable clock was used as a backup timer for marathon events in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In 1966 prototypes of the world's first quartz pocketwatch were unveiled by Seiko and Longines in the Neuchâtel Observatory's 1966 competition.

On 25 December 1969, Seiko unveiled the quartz Astron, the world's first quartz watch. The first Swiss quartz analog watch—the Ebauches SA Beta 21 containing the Beta 1 movement—arrived at the 1970 Basel Fair.

On 6 May 1970, Hamilton introduced the Pulsar - the world's first electronic digital watch.