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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Bienne, Switzerland · 1921 – 2004

Max Hetzel

Verified

Electronic tuning-fork timekeeping

Life & work

Max Hetzel developed the tuning-fork wristwatch movement, in which a transistor-driven tuning fork replaces the balance as the oscillator, giving a hum rather than a tick and a continuous seconds sweep.

It was the first commercially successful electronic wristwatch, and it briefly bridged mechanical and quartz timekeeping before quartz displaced it.

Training, contributions & innovations

  • Developed the tuning-fork wristwatch oscillator
  • Produced the first commercially successful electronic wristwatch movement

Inventions & patents

  • Patents exist for the tuning-fork movement; the specifications are the reliable source.

Signatures & markings on surviving work

  • Not a signing maker: the movements carry brand names and calibre numbers.

Collecting significance

Signatures on historic work were applied by retailers and by later hands as well as by makers, so attribution should rest on the movement's construction and on documented provenance rather than on the name alone. A specialist opinion is worth obtaining before any purchase made on the strength of a signature.

Diagram

12345let downstripcleanoilregulateorder of work; never skip letting down the mainspring
Schematic: order of work at the bench. An outline schematic drawn to show the arrangement of the parts discussed here. It is not a dimensioned working drawing and does not depict a particular maker's calibre.

Sources & references

  1. Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers
  2. Loomes, B., reference works on British and European clockmakers (edition-dependent)
  3. Museum catalogue entries for signed examples

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.