Assembly Crew of Beta 1

The first quartz wristwatch Beta 1 had been developed by the two scientists Dr. Armin H. Frei and Dr. Rolf Lochinger (both carrying a PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), with the executive support of Dr. Roger Wellinger director of the CEH Neuchâtel (see history chapter).

In the following text, Dr. Armin H. Frei sheds light on the assistant technicians, forming his team, involved in the assembly of the world’s first quartz wristwatch Beta 1 made in Switzerland.

By Dr. Armin H. Frei, 2009

My research over the past 7 years on the works and the contributions of the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH), Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in its early phase under the direction of Roger Wellinger resulted basically in two new findings: First, the very first quartz wristwatch (QWW) worldwide was Beta 1 in July 1967, not Beta 21 as postulated by the Swiss watch industry, and secondly, the leaders and innovators, the makers and inventors were some much different people than what were celebrated and extensively honored in the past 40 years. Here are some of them:

The picture below shows the crew which assembled the first QWW called "Beta 1" in July 1967, at the CEH in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The watch with designation CEH-1020 had been delivered in August 1967 to the observatory in Neuchâtel for its famous yearly "Concours Chronométrique". The picture had been taken in September 1967 by Richard Challandes, at the occasion of the observatory announcing the record-breaking ranking result of 0.189. The "Montre-bracelet à quartz"-project had been officially started in November 1965. The watch represents a milestone in the evolution of electronic timekeeping in that it sets new standards for precision and stability for watches carried on your arm as well as for for timers in various electronic equipments later on.¹

Assembly Crew of the First Quartz Wristwatch Beta 1 Photo: Courtesy J. Hermann, Copyright by R. Challandes — **Assembly Crew of the First Quartz Wristwatch Beta 1**
Photo: Courtesy J. Hermann, Copyright by R. Challandes

The persons on the picture can be identified from left to right: Charles-André Dubois, technicien horloger (watch technician), François Niklès, technicien horloger (watch technician), Jean Hermann, ingénieur électronicien EPUL (electronic engineer, Polytechnic University Lausanne), Richard Challandes, technicien horloger (watch technician), Charles Frossard, technicien horloger (watch technician). As opposed to the CEH governing assembly and its president and many other well-known personalities in the Swiss watch industry, the people on the picture really did believe in quartz wristwatches, which can be readily concluded from their smiling faces. – Worth mentioning one floor above was located the very first semiconductor pilot line in Switzerland, under the direction of Kurt Hübner, physicist ETHZ (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), and his outstanding crew, who produced and delivered the first low power integrated circuits (IC) needed to operate the QWW, an other "first" by the CEH. – Amongst the equipment and instruments in front one can see a Tectronix oscilloscope and a hp frequency synthesizer. On the scope is placed a honorary plate and a hand written document indicating: "0.189" and "Beta I". Photo copyright R. Challandes, courtesy J. Hermann, who has been very helpful in historical research on the first QWW.