Everyone knows Quartz watches. The brand name is so famous and has been with us so long even the poorest people in the world have heard of them. They may of even owned one. They are possibly the most popular form of watch in the world. More than likely most of us have owned a Quartz at some point in our lives.
But do we really know the significance of these watches. How they have helped to revolutionize watch making. Very few people do understand this precisely because they have become so commonplace. Rather like mobile phones. So in this brief article I would just like to familiarize people with Quartz watches and what they have meant in the past. A Quartz is a crystal that has the power to keep time better than any other known method.
And you thought it was just any other wristwatch. In fact the discovery of Quartz is known to be the most important in watch making history, the crystal small enough to be used in wristwatches yet also incredibly powerful. They first came in to the marketplace in the seventies and were unsurprisingly expensive, retailing in the USA at $500. They originated as a digital watch and for a time were the most sought after consumer item. But it was only really businessmen that could afford them.
Nowadays of course the price of them has come right down and it is common to have one. It has even become untrendy with the introduction of kinetic watches and other innovations. The Quartz is of course a digital watch and very much unlike its mechanical counterpart. They usually have a number of buttons that can be pressed to change the display to a stopwatch, time or the date.
The original Quartz watches were a little different in the fact that there digits were a bright red, but they didn't have the features of today's modern watches. It was there newness that was attractive. Over time the LSD light displaying the time was toned down to what we know today as the black digits. It is easy today to disregard the Quartz watch as something that is just there.
Perhaps it is losing its significance with the introduction of mobile phones that not only tell the time, but can be used to ring friends, play games and send messages. At the same time Quartz watches is one of those inventions that was a major breakthrough in technology. Perhaps without them today's society just would not be the same. Remember this when you next see one and perhaps we can all help to reposition it as an item of significance, even if in the future it becomes merely a fashion accessory.
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as fine wrist watches at http://www.watchesplusmore.com
