3. Longines Ultraquartz

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J.3 Longines Ultraquartz

1967	During the exhibition 'Montres et Bijoux', the first working prototype of an oversized Longines Ultraquartz is displayed in October of this year.
1969	On August 20th a prototype of the Longines Ultra-Quartz can be seen on display in Geneva, Switzerland. Its size had been successfully reduced to normal proportions.
1970	The Longines Ultraquartz is presented at the Basle Fair.
1971	The Longines Ultraquartz with a cybernetic system, caliber 6512, goes on sale in Switzerland,the only cybernetic watch ever to be produced. The project 'Hour-Glass' comes to an end. There were two models: gold (Ref.no. 8483) and steel (Ref.no. 8482) both fitted with cal. 6512. The IC was not used in this quartz watch. Instead separate micro-sized electronic parts were used (14 transistors, 19 resistors, 7 capacitors). The electronic circuit was developed in co-operation with Golay S.A. in Lausanne.

To avoid the use of frequency-dividing stages, the watch contained two oscillators, one controls the other by means of an electronic comparision circuit. Thus 170.7 times a second the rod quartz oscillator (9,350 Hz) corrects the vibrating motor and stabilises it. The elastic element of the vibration motor is a torsion strip which holds a coil in a magnetic field at one end in order to sustain the frequency at 170.7 Hz.
These very interesting watches are hard to find.

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