Welcome!
This web site is dedicated to that short period between 1957
and the mid 1970s when reigned!
By "electric", I mean they have a battery, either a balance wheel or a tuning fork and either
electrical contacts or a transistor. This was a
very short-lived transitional phase: transistors were just becoming available and mass-produced
quartz watches had not yet appeared. So there are no mechanical watches (manuals or automatics) on the site but
I have included one or two very early quartz watches.
really have died out. Quartz is king in the 21st century, but conventional
spring-driven manual and automatic mechanical watches are enjoying a revival both at the top end of the
market as well as at the bottom end. Not so with the electrics; the last
one was probably made in the mid 1970s.
In strict terms, "electric" watches are those without any electronic
components i.e. no resistors, diodes or transistors; just a coil, contact and battery such as the
Hamilton 500 and 505.
But this site also includes the early "electronic" watches. Some key facts:
- Hamilton : world's first electric watch
- LIP : world's first watch to employ an electronic component (a diode to reduce sparking on the contacts)
- Bulova Accutron : world's first watch to employ a transistor
- ESA Dynotron : world's first watch to employ a balance wheel and a transistor
Looking for information on
Richard Arbib? Visit the Hamilton
section under "Watch Makers"!
Servicing and Repairs:
Accutron repair?
Hamilton repair?
Other electric watch repair?
No problem! I offer a servicing and repair service for most
 . If you are interested in
getting your electric watch serviced or repaired,
then please either click one of these links above or use the link on the lefthand side.
I also work on mechanical watches, both manual wind
and automatics, so get in touch if you have one that needs some attention!
I've created an Electric Watches Community on . I'm still trying to understand
how this new Community and this website
will co-exist. I suspect the latter will continue to be my main reference place on all things to do with these interesting watches while
the Facebook Community will be a place where I post the occassional new photos, discuss things etc. We'll see how it goes, but
please feel free to try the Community (click below) and post some messages on how you think it should (or could) work; post some of your electric watch
photos as well!
In addition, I've added a new "Facebook Like" button at the bottom of each page on this website; if you like a particular watch or page, please tell
other Facebook users
by clicking it!
Virtually all the photographs of movements and watches on this site are photographs of my actual watches!
Please do not copy these photographs without my permission. Various other photographs and scans are shown
with full permission of the owner and this is usually acknowledged on the page but also
on the Acknowledgements page --- please don't copy these.
| Most site navigation is performed via the lefthand navigation menu but there are also
additional links in the main text as well as at the top of each page to more detailed information,
so look out for those.
|
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There are three main sections:
- "Watch Makers" shows
you the watch makers / assemblers and their watches that use electric/electronic movements; this section also covers
those movement makers whose name never, or very rarely, appeared on a dial e.g. ESA, Landeron.
- "Movement Gallery" helps you identify the electric or electronic movement in your watch and also
gives battery, year and movement type information.
- "Movement Types" goes into more detail about how each of the various type of movement works and shows examples
of each type of movement.
- The "Cross Reference" link on the left attempts to marry these three groups together.
I'm always on the look out for interesting
early , so if you have
one or more For Sale,
I may well be interested! Please
email me!
| Last Modified: Wednesday, 9-Nov-2011 |
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