“Mission impossible, the adventure of the quartz watch”

A technological mutation initiated by the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH), Neuchâtel
Exhibition from 7th March to 20th October 2002

Introduction
In 1998 the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) of Neuchâtel, Switzerland closed its doors after 36 years of existence.
Initiator of the wristwatch with quartz, this laboratory independent from the State financially is backed by its shareholders (watchmakers). Its work in low power microelectronics, applied more particularly to watchmaking, is renowned worldwide. It has allowed the creation of the Centre Suisse d'Electronique et Microtechnique (CSEM) which pursues work in this field.
In 1967, after less than 5 years of research, the movements put forward by the CEH (without the knowledge of its Board of Directors !) in the Chronometric competition of the Neuchâtel Observatory obtained the first ten prizes, the results being about 10 x better than those reached by mechanical watches.
They are the calibres Beta 1 and Beta 2. The quartz watch is born.
Thanks to their performances in this competition and to the resulting publicity, the CEH works again on calibre Beta 2 with a view to realising an industrial product :

Beta 21 (below) is the industrial prototype which comes on the market in April 1970.


Since this date the CEH has continued its research with an aim to improving still more the performances of the quartz movements, as well as their miniaturisation. It has also exploited a new microelectronic technology (CMOS) allowing a drastic reduction of electrical consumption.

In all its years of activity, the CEH has generated more than 350 technical reports and is at the origin of more than 75 groups of registered patents in the whole world.

The quartz watch and the Swiss watchmaking industrial production today
Statistics and figures of the production of the Swiss watchmaking industry in 2000 taken from the website of the FÉdÉration de l'industrie horlogère suisse.
The Swiss manufacturers produced approx. 31 million finished watches in 2000.
PIECES (in millions)VALUE (in millions of francs)Mechanical 2,7Mechanical4826Quartz analogue27,9Quartz analogue5248Quartz digital0,8Quartz digital64Total31,4Total10138

This chart shows the current importance of the quartz watch in the Swiss production.


Organisation of the exhibition
Organisation MusÉe international d'horlogerie

Exhibition from 7th March to 20th October 2002

Opening hours : 10 - 17 Closed on Mondays
Guided visits on request

The book L'aventure de la montre à quartz, Mutation technologique initiÉe par le Centre Electronique Horloger, Neuchâtel [Authors : Max Forrer, RenÉ Le Coultre, AndrÉ Beyner, Henri Oguey] is on sale at the MusÉe international d'horlogerie shop.

Source: MusÉe International d'Horlogerie press release
March 2002