How a quartz watch works
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- Опубликовано: 13 дек 2010
- The amazing everyday wristwatch: We never think about it, but only because engineers have made it so reliable and durable that we don't
need to. At its heart lies a tiny tuning fork made of the mineral quartz. In this video Bill takes apart a cheap watch and shows extreme
close-ups of the actually tunings fork. He explains how the piezoelectric effect of quartz lies at the heart of the watch's
operation. 
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I was struck by the seemingly odd specificity of 32,768 Hz. So, I looked it up and it turns out that it's the overflow of a 15 bit binary digital counter. 2^15 = 32768. So, each time the counter reaches 32768, it sends an output. Effectively, the 16th bit changes state at 1Hz and you get your seconds. Thank you for the pleasant diversion.
Wouldn't that make a frequency of 2 Hz? Assuming you measure the MSB of a 16 bit counter, it would toggle at a rate of 2Hz (since a 16 bit counter would count to 2^16 = 65.536). This would make its overflow flag toggle at a rate of 1 Hz.
I think I clouded things by calling it "the 16th bit" (it seemed to make more sense in my head, than how I wrote it down). A 15 bit counter driven at 32,768 Hz will overflow once per second. That digital pulse-per-second drives the seconds counter at 1 Hz.
It is interesting they used 32ki, when 64ki would be more fitting, with 16 bits also being a power of 2.
Though if you're programming, a 16-bit signed integer would wrap around after 32767. So maybe they use that?
Or hell, they could just be incrementing the counter, and when it is positive, they turn on the delimiter dots, and when it's negative, they turn them off. Idk. it's just fun to think about.
If it jittered +/- one count, as would be displayed on a frequency counter, your reasoning would be correct. But that's not how the circuit works. These crystals, electrically, look like an LC circuit. L for inductor, or coil, and C for capacitance. An LC circuit has a unique resonant frequency. An LC circuit is placed in an oscillator circuit. But a crystal is much more precise, as mentioned in the video. It runs constantly. Its not gated, as would be done on a frequency counter circuit, so there is no +/- one count (lsb) jitter. When divided by 2^15, in a simple counter chain, the output 1Hz, is still as precise as the original 32,768Hz. No lost counts. Though the one error, in this video, is the crystal precision. You can get crystals with 1ppm precision, but the ones used on the really cheap watches are nominally 20ppm, or off just under a minute per month. Those 1ppm xtals are much more expensive, and would only be found in better watches.
I have no idea what you wrote but i feel smarter after reading them.
The inexpensiveness of items with such marvelous technologies in them just shows the true power of mass production and well thought out delivery routes.
And almost slave labor
No it's not slave labor, it's industrial development and your ancestors subjected themselves to the same thing for better tomorrows.
It's also a great example of the market at work.
@@Krontok or if u eg.kongolese - your ancestors (and probably you) getting ripped for gold. and having a shit life just so we western folks can have 30+ electro equipment in every home, and getting enslaved by algorithm while destroying nature. Lets build high walls
And the raping of our planet
This man was absolutely ahead of his time In making quality, youtube content. Screw it, I'm gonna go buy his book.
Thank you.
It's amazing how accurate and inexpensive quartz timer technology is. I remember the pre-quartz years when the first Computer Watch came to stores costing $100 in the late 1970s and they were not as accurate at all but it was a blast seeing someone check the time in the movie theatre. Now at the $ store a quarts watch, guess how much!
This show makes me appreciate so much of the stuff I normally take for granted. Thank you!
It isn't a show it is?
@engineerguyvideo Yes! Piezo devices are so fascinating and could be the subject of 100's of videos.
I've also read that crystals can be tuned by electrochemical etching / plating. Oscillating piezos are used in evaporation equipment to determine the thickness of the film being deposited, because the frequency changes as material builds up on it's surface.
I work with some Anodizing, black oxide, and zinc plating suppliers. Your statement drew new interest to the processes and now I'm curious to any of them knowing about this.
Best channel ever!
Thanks.
So you got a gold watch for $9.99? Pretty spiffy.
tohopes most of the tiny amounts at the beginning are melted off
Well its not a gold watch. There is only gold in the watch.
You have any idea what my father had to go through for that watch?? I dont have time to get into it now...
if you will collect everyone's useless quartz watch in your neighborhood, you will soon produce a gold bar
Retired Roman soldiers (not sure from what rank up) got a wooden sword. No gold, no jewels. SALary was SALt. They would have killed you for this watch ... maybe not, maybe if it had Roman numerals. Now there's an Arduiino project!
Hey Bill, I'm on page 50 of your book. Gotta' say I love it. Thank you and your team for creating such an insightful and entertaining piece of literature. I often read sections twice because the information although clear, can be complicated to someone who is not usually exposed to such studies. My brain is thoroughly worked and I thank you for that.
Thx for the kind words. I have missed a lot of comments because RUclips redid their comments ... and I, uh, kinda missed it.
I watched 3 of these videos and already learned more science & engineering in the past 10 minutes than I did in 4 years of high school.
Great explanation. I love these videos about how everyday products work. I'm sure most people don't even realize how much engineering went into something so common as the digital watch.
As usual, I am agog with the stunning revelations about everyday science you make in your terrific videos. I hope you understand how much good you do, insofar as telling folks how they should appreciate the little technological miracles on their wrists.
I'm a watchmaker and i aprove this message! xD
Engineerguy is awesome in so many levels
Your videos are fantastic. Concise and with great commentary.
Thank you very much for this video! Were doing digital clocks in electronics and to see what's at the heart of it is rather fascinating.
Thank you for this informative video!
Great video, very informative! I already knew about the constant resonance of some measurement of the quartz but it was great to see this all put together in a way anybody can see. Also, I didn't know they actually shaped it like a fork, or used gold to perfect the timing.
I so appreciate your multitude of informative videos! Being a musician and unemployed at the moment, I unfortunately won't be purchasing your book anytime soon, but want to thank you for giving freely to those who are curious, instead of making "teaser" videos that just try and hook viewers into a sale so that they can really learn something. I just watched all your videos, learned a ton, and look forward to having enough spare money to explore in-depth with your book. Thanks again Bill :)
Of course this would have taken too much air time... but I'm assuming the reason it's tuned to exactly 32,768Hz is because it's a power of 2. It probably factored into the circuit design, and is probably yet another reason why quartz was chosen as a material.
+fisharmor that's what I assume too
yes. because you can make a "2 bit counter" from only a t-flipflop. adding them together in series lets you count in binary. If you count up to 32768 (by adding 15 tff`s together) and then you know that one second has passed.
dum s c u n t get job and dont be ranga
fully hectic numbers bud
yous just get a job
I knew roughly why quartz was used in watches like this, but I didn't know that it was a quartz fork, or tuned with gold--very interesting! It is, indeed, rather amazing that they're so cheap!
This guy is awesome. He actually shines new light on shit I didn't even think about anymore.
Thank you for this informative video! I have to write an article for why someone would want to buy quartz movement or automatic movement, and your diagrams and explanations helped me alot! It will make things so much easier to write this in terms people like me could understand!!!
After watching two tutorial videos, I am now subscribed. From Charleston AFB SC, thank you Mr. Hammack! You make every day apparatuses more understandable and enjoyable, one video at a time.
I feel like good teachers are excellent explainers like Bill Hammack!
I love watching these videos late at night because they put me to sleep. Not because they're boring, I love this channel, but because Bill's voice is so velvety smooth that I just feel safe.
On June 1st I have a book coming out ... www.engineerguy.com/airship ... it will have an audio version read by me! That should help you sleep for a month!
Wow. Sold.
very well explained and in a quick and accurate way.
so amazing, subscribed!
It's amazing to see you could explain a complex and boring thing for masses understand easily !!
This person teaches far better engineering than my teachers ever did.
Again an elemetary part of todays everyday life explained with passion. i like your vids more and more.
Excellent explanation, very clear and intuitive, thank you.
So chill. No unnecessary drawing or loud gimmicks! RUclips should have sent me to his channel sooner.
I've been on youtube actively since 2006, why is it in 2020 that I am getting your wonderful channel recommended to me finally? So many great videos, all now about a decade old! Thanks RUclips algorithm, another satisfied customer lol
We didn’t feel that you were ready until now.
@@engineerguyvideo Well I'm glad to be on board 😄😃
That said, thank you for these videos. They are well done and quite enlightening to watch!
Thank you, it is very well explained.
wicked! you even touched on the chemical stability.
awesome video. so simple and now I understand much better the technology behind the Quartz watches. nice vid. 🤘
Excellent explanation well paced - not silly. Thanks
This is the best advert for a quartz watch
I think every second of this video was valuable, thank you so much
I can't stop watching your videos! So awesome!
Thanks Bill, very informative. Amazing how we can take some things for granted!
Wow, fabulous breakdown and explanation, simplifying it. Thank you
This was very interesting! I'm not an engineer but I felt curious after I bought a watch, thanks for sharing with us!
This video was exactly what I spent half an hour searching for. This video was very well done.
The Accutron watches from the late 1950's used a tuning fork principle, in fact you could see it in the watch and it became the logo of the brand. Very accurate by 1960's standards, but batteries had to be changed often. The beauty of the Accutron was its fluid sweep second hand which moved smoothly around the dial, imitating the rotation of the earth itself. Gorgeous !!
Fantastic video !Sir, You explained it so well . Amazing
I love this channel. You are doing great work to educate, enlighten and engage! Awesome I am glad to know there is someone else like me on the planet
Thank you, I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Very fascinating insight. I hope you keep making these!
Thanks Mate, great info, please keep them coming
This is my favorite Bill video
What a wonderful video, Thank you sir
Great explanation. Thank you.
This guy! You have changed everything about my homeschooling. Bless you!
The “tines move back and forth” .. reminds me of washing up with my father, who told me I have to clean between the fork tines. I love people who know the right words for things.
I've been searching on the internet for quartz watches and I couldn't understand at all...until i watched this video. Thanks!!
Really helpful...i have always wondered about this thing and now i am clear...thanks bro!!
Why do people dislike such a good video?
Another genius video, sir!
love your explanation, I often wondered how the quartz worked in a watch!
Wow, actually really changed my view on these watches vs the ones you wind
Thank you. Looking forward to more from you.
It's great to see someone stand up for the quartz movement.
Interesting, impressive and educational as always! Keep it up Bill.
really great video, it helps to understand electronics.
Excellent video, good information on quartz watch movements!!
Wow i just came across this channel and i love it already! very informative!
Thank You, TheEngineerGuy!
All this time I thought digital clocks worked using conductors. That each time a conductor was fully charged it discharges and we get "ticks" and a given number of these ticks gives us our seconds. Turns out it's much more elaborate.
I really love your videos. Thanks for making them!
So helpful for my assignment, subbed
I did not know about fine-tuning the frequency by removing bits of gold. That's really cool!
Great video. Interesting, understandable, but not dumbed down. Keep up the good work!
I've Always wanted to know this, but always forget to look it up on wikipedia!
This video is great! It saves a lot of time, since I don't read super fast.
Awesome video. Thanks for the explanation!
Great explanation!!! Now i love even more my watch!!!!
excellent video. thank you.
Now these are some videos I can watch all day.
Love how they make the crystal guess and check style. It's like dry walling time.
You got yourself a new suscriber!
WOW! Your videos are outstanding.
I thought that tiny cylinder like thing was a capacitor I was wrong like always
Don't be too hard on yourself! It is a capacitor! A varying voltage is applied between two plates with an insulator between. This causes mechanical deformation in any capacitor (opposite charges attract), the effect is usually undesirable and called ringing. Here it's desired and using a piezo material for the insulator enhances it.
Same bro
I knew the watches used a quartz crystal, but, being in radio, I thought that they would be shaped like a simple plate, which expands and contracts to set a radio transmitter frequency. This is extremely interesting. I have a tuning fork Bulova Accutron watch, that vibrates at 360 HZ, which can actually be seen and heard if you hold it to your ear. I also have a more modern Bulova watch which has a crystal that vibrates 8 times the frequency of a regular quartz watch. That is 262144 Hz. I also have a few "Atomic" watches made by Casio and G-Force. These watches are really crystal controlled watches with a tiny radio receiver that receives time signals from radio station WWVB. WWVB broadcasts its time signal at a frequency of 20 KHZ. The watch keeps good time with the crystal, but once a day, any it gets corrected by the radio signal.
I am tempted to get one of those cheap watches and open it up myself. But, I would not want to open up my Bulova, so my question is, does the Bulova also use a tuning fork shaped crystal at 262144? It would have to be extremely small.
excellent explanation thank you
thank you, exactly what i was looking for!
Thank You, I have been wondering about the details of quartz watches since I was a kid.
I like this video, short and educative :) thank you for making these! It's like a short episode of "how it's made" with the extra bit of science in it!
Do you plan on making any more videos? I think I speak for all the viewers when I say PLEASE! YOUR PASSION FOR ENGINEERING AND NATURAL SKILL WITH TEACHING AN INFORMATIVE LESSON IS TOO GREAT TO BE WASTED!
Always wondered what a "quartz" digital watch meant. Thanks for the informative video.
I was supposed to sleep an hour ago.....thank you Dr. Hammock for making such amazing videos! :D
Damn, Bill. Your videos are so interesting... I find myself doing nothing all day but learning!
Wow, explained so quickly and simply while making perfect sense of it. Meanwhile I just watched some other guy draw little diagrams for 15 minutes trying to explain it and all I got from that was being even more confused than when I started watching.
very informative. thank you
That was a very cool video. Thank you for this!
Very nice.
Love your Videos. Thank you!
BTW I really like your presentation style. I bet your lectures are quite interesting.
You Make complicated things easy to understand .... You are great sir 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I love your videos. If colleges around the world explain stuff with such simplicity, there will be many more engineers and inventions.
These videos are great introductions for outsiders and beginning students. The real stuff - teaching engineering students how to actually make these sorts of things - is much more complicated.
Amazing.. Thank you!
Great video thanks!
I'm enlightened, thank you sir.