The First Quartz Wristwatch: Rectifications

By Armin H. Frei, 2009

To avoid further propagation of errors on the subject of the first quartz wristwatch caused by incorrect statements and manipulations in the past by Forrer and Oguey, the following major facts must be quoted and falsifications must be corrected:

BETA 1, developed in July 1967 by the CEH, Switzerland, was the world first complete and operational quartz wristwatch.

BETA 1 incorporated Frei's integrated quartz oscillator and was well documented at the time. Beta 1 incorporated CEH's first high impedance integrated bipolar circuits by Hübner's group. Beta 1 also was the first quartz wristwatch delivered to the observatory tests in Neuchâtel 1967 by Hermann. Further, Beta 1 was not a prototype of Beta 21. Beta 2 was not a prototype of Beta 21 either. Both watches Beta 1 and Beta 2 were unique development items, demonstrating feasibility of quartz wristwatches and proofing to management, industrial and scientific nomenclature in Neuchâtel including Hetzel were wrong. – Unfortunately the Beta 1 project had been discontinued by CEH management in 1968 in favor of Beta 2 on arguments of battery lifetime. None of the concepts of Beta 2 and Beta 21, like the five stage divider or the 256 Hz vibrating motor survived. The watch industry favored the concept of Beta 1 with the stepping motor instead.

BETA 21 was not developed in 1967 as stated by Forrer, Manager of the Section Circuits. The Beta 21 project was started in 1968 and was simply a technology transfer project of Beta 2. Later on, Beta 21 became a watch clock module, which was delivered to various Swiss watch manufacturers, encapsulated and sold on the market as of 1970. Beta 21 was not the first industrial quartz wristwatch either; Seiko's Astron 35C was the first quartz wristwatch on the market. All Beta's 1, 2 and 21 incorporated Frei's integrated quartz oscillator.

ASTRON 35SC BY SEIKO, JAPAN, was the world first industrial quartz wristwatch, sold on the market in 1969, and not CEH's Beta 21 clock work, which was sold in 1970.

QUARTZ WATCH INITIATIVE was started by Frei and Lochinger in May 1965 and by nobody else and certainly not by CEH management. It was started in absence of Forrer, Manager Section Circuits, and in opposition to the whole scientific, industrial and managerial nomenclature of Neuchâtel and the CEH. – Only Wellinger, director CEH, supported the team and declared the quartz project in November 1965 as the new major strategic direction. Wellinger immediately assumed responsibility for Frei's quartz work. Glorification of alleged management support by Forrer is fake and has to be discontinued.

VITTOZ' CLOCK ASSEMBLY 1962 incorporated an off-the-shelf quartz tube like many other clocks at that time. It had no influence on the quartz wristwatch initiative by Frei and Lochinger in May 1965 and must be dropped from the listings in context with the subject.

IEEE MILESTONE PLAQUE must be moved from the observatory to the LSRH building, rue Breguet 2, Neuchâtel, the place where Beta 1 had been designed, developed and tested.

SMITHONIAN INSTITUTION TIMELINE is based on historical manipulations by Forrer and must be replaced by: 1967 Beta 1 developed at CEH, Switzerland, was the first quartz wristwatch. This watch was a qualified and complete quartz wristwatch in a series of 5 units tested internaly and officially.

Examples of falsifications and corrections:

1. R. Wellinger: "Rectification concerning a 1969 publication on Quartz Wristwatches", March 23, 2005 referring to an impertinent plagiarism by: M. Forrer: "A Flexure Mode Quartz for an Electronic Wrist-Watch" Proceedings 33. Annual Frequency Control Symposium, Atlantic City, May 1969, pp 157-162.

2. J. Hermann, M. Forrer, L. Omlin: "Resonateur à quartz pour montre-bracelet" Colloque International de Chronométrie, Paris 1969. – Co-authors were inserted by M. Forrer personally and in secret.

3. M. Forrer, H. Oguey et al.: "L'Aventure de la montre à quartz", Centredoc Neuchâtel, 2002. – Approximately 20 plagiarisms between p 158 and p 179.

4. Stephens, C. (2003). "The Quartz Watch: Swiss Inventors". Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Smithonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Washington. https://web.archive.org/web/20090109114801/http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/Quartz/inventors/swissinvent.html
This publication (original text by Forrer / Oguey) has been reviewed and re-edited by Carlene Stephens in 2003 upon intervention by Frei, Lochinger and Wellinger for reasons of plagiarism and faulty statements.

5. Oguey, H. (revoked). "First Quartz Wristwatch", Draft for the IEEE Spectrum, September 2009 issue. – This publication has been revoked by S. Hassler, IEEE Spectrum, editor in chief, June 15, 2009 upon intervention by Frei, Lochinger and Wellinger for reasons of plagiarism and faulty statements.

6. IEEE Milestone: "Pioneering Work on the Quartz Electronic Wristwatch, 1962-1967", Neuchâtel, 2002. – Has been escalated by Frei to the IEEE History Committee by M. Geselowitz, Staff Director IEEE History Center, September 17, 2009 upon severe critiques on manipulation.