How a Quartz Watch Works

How a Quartz Watch Works 

In this video, the “engineer guy” from the University of Illinois takes apart a cheap quartz watch and shows how the piezoelectric effect lies at the heart of its operation. The piezoelectric effect means that when a material such as quartz is struck, it generates voltage.  The opposite is also true:  when a piezoelectric material is subjected to a voltage, it vibrates. In a quartz watch, a battery sends voltage to tiny quartz tuning fork, causing it to vibrate at precisely 32,768 times per second. The circuit counts the vibrations and generates regular electric pulses at a rate of one per second. The pulses drive the tiny motor that spins the hands on the watch.