The quartz crisis (Swiss) or quartz revolution (American, Japan and other countries) was the upheaval in the watchmaking industry caused by the advent of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, that largely replaced mechanical watches around the world.[1][2] It caused a significant decline of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which chose to remain focused on traditional mechanical watches, while the majority of the world's watch production shifted to Japanese companies such as Seiko, Citizen and Casio which embraced the new electronic technology.[3][4][5]
The quartz crisis took place amid the postwar global Digital Revolution (or "Third Industrial Revolution").[6][7] The crisis started with the Astron, the world's first quartz watch, which was introduced by Seiko in December 1969.[3][4][8][9] The key advances included replacing the mechanical or electromechanical movement with a quartz clock movement as well as replacing analog displays with digital displays such as LED displays and later liquid-crystal displays (LCDs).[3][4][9] In general, quartz timepieces are much more accurate than mechanical timepieces, in addition to having a generally lower cost and therefore sales price.[3][4][10]
^Smithsonian: The quartz revolution revitalized the U.S. watch industry. Archived June 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^"Harvard Business Review: Seiko Watch Corporation: Moving Upmarket". Archived from the original on 2017-10-10. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
^ abcdThompson, Joe (October 10, 2017). "Four Revolutions: Part 1: A Concise History Of The Quartz Revolution". Hodinkee. Archived from the original on 2019-05-30. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
^ abcd"The Quartz Crisis and Recovery of Swiss Watches | Relation between Timepieces and Society". The Seiko Museum. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
^Twinam, Tate (2022). "Trade Competition and Migration: Evidence from the Quartz Crisis". Journal of International Economics. 138: 103653. doi:10.1016/j.jinteco.2022.103653. ISSN 0022-1996.
^"A Brief History of the Digital Revolution". UK Research and Innovation. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
^"A Tale Of Quartz | The Quartz Crisis and Revolution". Govberg Jewelers. 2015-07-08. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
^ ab"The Quartz Crisis". Crown & Caliber Blog. 2018-04-12. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
^"Reasons to Own an Inexpensive Quartz Watch | Bob's Watches Rolex Blog". Bob's Watches. 2018-08-02. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
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