Quartz wall clocks are those that are powered by batteries and require no winding. Batteries will power the clock for a year or more at a time. These clocks keep better time than a keywound clock at a fraction of the cost with little or no maintenance. You
will probably never see a quartz clock in a museum as they have no value after they expire, but they are still a good value with many more case and feature options than keywound clocks.
How a Quartz Clock Works ~ Quartz clock operation is based on the piezoelectric property of quartz crystals. If you apply an electric field to the crystal, it changes its shape, and if you squeeze it or bend it, it generates an electric field. When put in a suitable electronic circuit, this interaction between mechanical stress and electric field causes the crystal to vibrate and generate a constant frequency electric signal that can be used to operate an electronic clock display. Quartz crystal clocks were better because they had no gears or escapements to disturb their regular frequency. Even so, they still relied on a mechanical vibration whose frequency depended critically on the crystal’s size and shape. Thus, no two crystals can be precisely alike, with exactly the same frequency. Such quartz clocks continue to dominate the market in numbers because their performance is excellent and they are far less expensive, have many additional feature options and case styles than keywound clocks.
Types of Quartz Wall Clocks
- Standard Quartz
- Pendulum Quartz
- Chiming Pendulum Quartz
Standard Quartz Wall Clocks are usually round and can range in size from 8″ to 42″. The larger quartz clocks use a special “high-torque” movement to move the longer, heavier hands.
Pendulum Quartz Wall Clocks offer a swinging pendulum below a standard movement. The pendulum arm has a magnet which swings over top of an electromagnet powered by one of the batteries with an opposite polarity at the bottom. Every time the pendulum swings near the magnet, it pushes it away which keeps it swinging back and forth. The pendulums are silent and the movements are not to be considered to be a ticking device, however if you listen very carefully you may hear most quartz movements quietly ticking.
Chiming Pendulum Quartz Wall Clocks These wall clocks offer the accuracy of a quartz movement, a swinging pendulum and chimes. The realism of the sound of the chime can very from a very electronic sound to an outstanding chime. This depends on which type of movement the clock manufacturer uses to create the chime sound which is played through a speaker in the clock case.