Omega Electroquartz

It was the collaboration of 20 Swiss watch companies and the movement was utilised by Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Omega amongst others.

The first production watches were introduced to the market in 1970 very shortly after the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch, the Seiko-Quartz Astron 35SQ in December 1969.

[citation needed] In late 1969 a few hundred beta 21 units were produced to exhibit from a range of the agreed manufacturers at the 1970 Basel Fair.

The movement was a modular design and components were manufactured by individual companies (such as Omega who made the micro motor) and then assembled at three workshops.

[4] The beta 21 watches had a sweeping second hand, which moved smoothly round the dial and ‘hummed’ thanks to the Omega vibrating micro motor.

Omega's version of the beta 21 wristwatch came in the form of the Electroquartz, the case design was larger at the top than the bottom and as such it gained the nickname 'pupitre' after the French word for writing desk.

According to records between 1972 and 1974 50,000 beta 22s were produced [8] (Omega's calibres were 1301 and 1302), although only a tiny number of these appear to have ever made it to production watches based on the availability of used examples now.

Rolex and Patek Philippe as well as IWC and Piaget (amongst others in the original group) produced very small numbers of beta 21/22 watches and towards the mid part of the 1970s all were moving away from the beta 21/22 movement (because of their cost, including the massive R&D costs) and towards more modern quartz technology, including Rolex developing their own in house Oysterquartz movement, which remained in production from 1977 until 2001.

It features time and date and has a lever for manually trimming the seconds without interfering with the operation of the watch.

Technology had developed so quickly that quartz movements had become smaller, thinner, more accurate and more reliable whilst being significantly cheaper to manufacture.

The influx of cheap, well-made and reliable quartz watches from non Swiss manufacturers mixed with the lack of progress made by the majority of the Swiss watch making industry led to the demise of numerous manufacturers and nearly toppled giants like Omega.

These early quartz watches are proving a sound investment for collectors and are without doubt one of the more important developments in wristwatch technology of the 20th century.