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Before the common use of electronic clocks in automobiles, automobile clocks had mechanical movements, powered by an electric remontoire. A low power drive spring would be wound every few minutes by a plunger in a solenoid, powered by the vehicle's service battery and activated by a switch when the spring tension got too low. Such clocks were ...
Clock mainspring A pendulum wall clock movement showing the two mainsprings which power it. This is a striking clock which sounds the hours on a chime; one of the springs powers the timekeeping gear train while the other powers the striking train. A mainspring is a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon—commonly spring steel—used as a power ...
Smaller clocks and watches with a spiral-balance are made on the same principles as pendulum clocks. In 1918, Henry Ellis Warren invented the first synchronous electric clock in Ashland, MA, which kept time from the oscillations of the power grid. [7] [8] In 1931, the Synclock was the first commercial synchronous electric clock sold in the UK. [8]
Clockwork of mechanical Prim wrist watch. Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or weight. [1] [2] [3]
Automatic quartz is a collective term describing watch movements that combine a self-winding rotor mechanism [1] (as used in automatic mechanical watches) to generate electricity with a piezoelectric quartz crystal as its timing element. Such movements aim to provide the advantages of quartz without the inconvenience and environmental impact of ...
Lavet-type stepping motor of a quartz clock. A black rotor sprocket provides the mechanical output. The Lavet-type stepping motor has widespread use as a drive in electro-mechanical clocks [1] and is a special kind of single-phase stepping motor. Both analog and stepped-movement quartz clocks use the Lavet-type stepping motor (see Quartz clock).
It is also possible for quartz clocks and watches to have their quartz crystal oscillate at a higher frequency than 32 768 (= 2 15) Hz (high frequency quartz movements [4]) and/or generate digital pulses more than once per second, to drive a stepping motor powered second hand at a higher power of 2 than once every second, [5] but the electric ...
Electronic watches require electricity as a power source, and some mechanical movements and hybrid electronic-mechanical movements also require electricity. Usually, the electricity is provided by a replaceable battery. The first use of electrical power in watches was as a substitute for the mainspring, to remove the need for winding.