 The quartz clock was the invention of a Canadian engineer, Warren Marrison. He discovered he could use quartz crystals’ vibration in an electric circuit to be able to tell time. It became the normal timekeeping device from the 1930s and on.

 The earliest quartz clock was made in the 1927, but it was too bulky and costly.  Quartz clocks and watches were introduced for sale in 1969, when the technology to make transistors into micro-processors and button-cell batteries were developed.

 The motor makes one revolution every six seconds, getting rid of the need for one more gear. The long tube on the left has the quartz crystal.

 Quartz clocks work using the mineral quartz inside of a clock to keep time. Like mechanical clocks, quartz clocks still use gears to count time, but they are electrical generates a very small flow of electricity.  This also means that when electricity is passed through the quartz crystal, it vibrates. Quartz crystals all vibrate at the same flow, meaning they shake the same number of times each second. Quartz crystals vibrate exactly 32,768 times every second!

 All quartz clocks contain a battery to vibrate the quartz crystal and a circuit to count how many times the crystal has shaken. The circuit then uses this information to create regular pulses of electricity. It makes one pulse every second. These pulses then make the gears of the clock move or power a digital display.

 The micro-processor is barely able to be seen in the photo, but it was the most expensive tool in this clock. This kind of micro-processors would find their way into everything from electronics, microwaves, to computers, and many others

. The following clock was made around 1970, judging by its circuit board, and is the earliest example I have seen. And it still runs perfectly in 2009.