The First Electric Watch: A Flawed And Transitional Innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Hamilton’s Electric 500 was announced in a press release January 4, 1957. It was the world’s first<\/a> watch to be powered by a battery, and also never needed to be wound. Despite being first, Hamilton’s 500 wasn’t necessarily the best. It wasn’t as reliable as a traditional mechanical watch, needed frequent battery changes, and was prone to failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Research to produce the first electric watch actually started as far back as 1946. Apparently<\/a> there were rumors that Hamilton’s rival Elgin was working on an electric watch at the time as well, but Hamilton was first – despite taking over a decade to bring its first electric watch to market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Production of Hamilton electric watches stopped around 1969, though. By then, it was likely already accepted that quartz was the technology of the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LIP produced the world\u2019s<\/a> second electric movement, the R 27, in 1958, roughly a year after Hamilton.<\/p>\n\n\n It was also arguably the first \u201celectronic\u201d movement, because it contained a tiny diode to reduce sparking on the contacts, according to electric-watches.co.uk. The unit itself was bulky and required two batteries. Only about 7,000 units were produced, so to find one today is rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many other brands and manufacturers wanted to be progressive and modern enough to introduce electric watches to the marketplace. Interestingly enough, this is most likely why US-based Timex ended up purchasing<\/a> the German watchmaker Laco in 1959.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ludwig Hummel sold Laco-DUROW to US Time Corporation (better known as Timex today) in February of 1959. This brought it under American ownership. Laco was developing electric watches at the time, something Timex was obviously very interested in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Laco-electric was introduced in 1961. Timex introduced its first electric watch, the model 67, in 1962. Shortly thereafter in 1965, Timex inevitably sold Laco-DUROWE, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seiko’s Quartz Astron 35SQ triggered the “Quartz Revolution” according to Seiko<\/a> themselves. I guess one brand’s crisis is another brand’s revolution. The Quartz Astron went on sale December 25, 1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roughly a decade later, quartz was in, and almost everything else was on its way out.<\/p>\n\n\n Seiko actually shut down its tuning fork project in 1968. This program was running parallel to its quartz project, but the company saw the writing on the wall early and wanted to bring the first quartz watch to market within a year. The name “Astron” was chosen to resonate with modern (at the time) space age language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many brands had taken a detour with tuning fork technology. Seiko abandoned it, but other brands kept it going through the 1970s. The most famous, and first, tuning fork wristwatch was created by Bulova. It first sold its Accutron watches in 1960, but it appears that Bulova stopped producing them by the mid-to-late 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n The Bulova Accutron’s movement utilized<\/a> a 360 Hz tuning fork (instead of a balance wheel) as the timekeeping element. A Swiss engineer named Max Hetzel was responsible for miniaturizing a tuning fork movement for Bulova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Accutron, as well as other tuning fork movements<\/a>, such as the one illustrated in the below 1970s Baume and Mercier advertisement, would eventually be made obsolete by quartz movements. <\/p>\n\n\n Quartz movements also technically<\/a> utilize a tuning fork, but it’s a microscopic tuning-fork-shaped quartz crystal. They also utilize a different frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seiko fired the first shot of the Quartz Crisis (or Revolution, depending on who you ask). It released the first quartz watch in 1969, ironically the same year that iconic Omega Speedmaster would be worn on the moon. That was also the same year Zenith would debut the El Primero<\/a>, arguably the first (Swiss at least) fully integrated automatic chronograph movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At what you could say was one of the high points of Swiss watchmaking – with the release of the first automatic chronograph – the quartz watch was quietly sowing the seeds of disruption with Seiko’s Astron. Ironically, Seiko would also release an automatic chronograph at this time as well. While it abandoned tuning fork technology, Seiko did continue to produce mechanical watches as well. It just really hopped on the quartz train and rode it all the way to market dominance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"the](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1957-Hamilton-ad.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLIP: Second Place In The First Electric Watch Race<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"second](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vintage-Lip-Advertisement.jpg?resize=640%2C853&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nTimex Enters The Race<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
And Then Came Quartz Along…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"1972](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1972-Seiko-ad.jpg?resize=640%2C944&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nTuning Fork Technology: A Fork In The Road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Bulova-Accutron-advertisement.jpg?resize=640%2C853&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Vintage](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Vintage-Baume-Mercier-Advertisement.jpg?resize=640%2C853&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nConclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n