Quartz Movement

Specification

Technical parameters

Overview

A quartz movement has no balance wheel and no escapement. A small tuning-fork-shaped quartz crystal is driven into resonance at 32,768 Hz, a divider chain halves that frequency fifteen times to produce one pulse per second, and a stepper motor converts each pulse into a single rotation of the rotor, which drives the hands through a gear train.

Because the timebase is the crystal rather than a mechanical oscillator, rate is set by the crystal's cut and load capacitance, not by adjustment. There is no regulation in the mechanical sense — temperature compensation and a trimmer capacitor are the available controls, and on most sealed movements neither is accessible.

Service is therefore different. There is no oiling schedule in the horological sense; a quartz movement that stops is far more likely to have an electrical fault, a blocked train, a dead cell, or a leaking capacitor than a lubrication problem. Cleaning a quartz train is possible, but the failure mode that ends the movement is usually electronic.

What matters about it

• No balance wheel, hairspring or escapement to regulate
• Rate set by the crystal, not by mechanical adjustment
• Immune to position error in the mechanical sense
• Battery and coil are the dominant failure points
• Far fewer moving parts than any mechanical movement

Practical notes

• Replace the cell with the correct type; a cheap cell that leaks will destroy the movement outright.
• Check coil resistance before condemning a movement that will not step — an open coil is a common fault.
• A movement that runs but loses time badly usually has a drifting trimmer or a failing crystal, not a dirty train.
• Keep magnets away from the stepper rotor; it is a permanent magnet and can be weakened.

Compatible with