Quartz sounds exotic, but it’s actually one of the most common
minerals on Earth. It’s made from a chemical compound called silicon
dioxide (silicon is also the stuff from which computer chips are made),
and you can find it in sand and most types of rock. Perhaps the most
interesting thing about quartz is that it is piezoelectric: if you
squeeze a quartz crystal, it generates a tiny electric current. The
opposite is also true: if you pass electricity through quartz, it
vibrates at a precise frequency (it shakes about an exact number of
times each second). Inside a quartz clock or watch, the battery sends
electricity to the quartz crystal through an electronic circuit. The
quartz crystal oscillates (vibrates back and forth) at a precise
frequency: exactly 32768 times each second. The circuit counts the
number of vibrations and uses them to generate regular electric pulses,
one per second. These pulses can either power an LCD display (showing
the time numerically) or they can drive a small electric motor (a tiny
stepping motor, in fact), turning gear wheels that spin the clock’s
second, minute, and hour hands.
Quartz watches gain or lose seconds here and there. Quartz vibrates
at a slightly different frequency at different temperatures and
pressures so its timekeeping ability is affected to a tiny degree by the
warming, cooling, ever-changing world around us. In theory, if you keep
a watch on your wrist all the time (which is at more or less constant
temperature), it will keep time better than if you take it on and off
(causing quite a dramatic temperature change each time).
Quartz watches are independent and will function without our
attention. If we left it in a drawer for a year, it will still run. It
will still be accurate we can take it for granted, and it does not need
us. By nature, they are cool and aloof and so are our reactions, they
fail to touch our hearts in the deepest sense.see more montre copies and replica Patek Philippe
