Electric watch

In horology, the term electric watch is used for the first generation electrically-powered wristwatches which were first publicly displayed by both Elgin National Watch Company and Lip on March 19, 1952, with working laboratory examples in Chicago and Paris.

The Hamilton Watch Company would be the first to produce and retail an electric watch beginning in 1957,[1] before the commercial introduction of the quartz wristwatch in 1969 by Seiko with the Astron.

Their timekeeping element was either a traditional balance wheel or a tuning fork, driven electromagnetically by a solenoid powered by a battery.

They were superseded by quartz watches, which had greater accuracy and durability due to their lower parts count.

[3] Later designs used electromagnetic sensing, with a transistor in the circuit to turn the solenoid on.