Historical Facts and Misrepresentation

Following the honorary celebration of the IEEE milestone of the Quartz Wristwatch in Neuchâtel in 2002, Dr. Armin H. Frei became aware of the fact, that after he left CEH in 1967 to join IBM Research, a large amount of historical false information and even plagiarisms in connection with the first quartz wristwatch Beta 1 had been published by individuals of the initial quartz wristwatch project remaining at CEH as well as by journalists. With the following text Dr. Armin H. Frei intended to shed some light on the facts and their misrepresentation.

By Armin H. Frei, 2009

“The design and construction of the Beta 1 watch had been completed and tested at the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in July 1967 and consequently Beta 1 became the first quartz wristwatch worldwide.¹”

Manipulated Information from CEH

The CEH laboratory is located in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel, a region which is strongly characterized by the so-called “Barons des montres”, a touch of traditional French diplomacy and a mostly socialistic population. During the presentation of the bronze plaque with the IEEE milestone on the “Pioneering Work on the Quartz Electronic Wristwatch, 1962-1967” and after publication of the book "L'Aventure de la montre à quartz" by Max Forrer et al. in 2002 it became clear that the evolution and history of the invention of the first quartz wristwatch at the CEH had been strongly manipulated and plastered with wrong information and presentations. My own research on the history of the first quartz wristwatch is based on investigations with the states archive of the canton of Neuchâtel, with persons, who participated in the development, with authors and journalists who conducted their own investigations, with publications on the internet, documents, books and journals - and I concluded that the history of the first quartz wristwatch as actually presented is confusing, inadequate and badly disturbed by manipulations, pleasantries, flatteries and fairy tales.

Origin of faulty Information

The originators and persons responsible for this non-academic actions were mainly Max Forrer, director CEH as of 1968, together with Henri Oguey and Eric Vittoz. The reasons for their failures might be:

a) The persons mentioned above did not contribute to the Beta 1 watch.

b) Forrer, following the instructions of the president of the board, refused to support the quartz project until January 1967. He probably tried to compensate this loss of prestige by manipulations and other tricks.

c) The initiators of the quartz wristwatch project, Frei and Lochinger, had left the CEH in 1967 and 1966 respectively, and by that lost control over these unpleasant developments.

d) Director Roger Wellinger had been fired in 1968 shortly after his probably greatest success in his professional career and by that lost control over these unpleasant developments.

Manipulations identified

During my investigations from 2002 until 2007, I have been able to identify the following manipulations in relation to the invention of the first quartz wristwatch:

1) SUPPRESSION: The deliberate suppression by Forrer and his conspirators, of the fact that the Beta 1 watch was the very first quartz wristwatch resulted in the most severe historical error. The watch had been completed in July 1967 and became the very first functioning and tested quartz wristwatch in the world.¹

2) MANIPULATION: The “famous” Beta 21 was definitively not the first quartz wristwatch as has been implied by Forrer and propagated by the Federation Horloger and by many journalists. The Beta 21 watch was definitively not the first commercially available quartz wristwatch either, nor was the Beta 21 watch the first mass-produced quartz wristwatch. Seiko's Astron 35SQ was the first quartz wristwatch which appeared on the market in 1969 in large quantities. Beta 21 was definitively not developed in 1967 as implied by Forrer and copied by the Federation Horloger (FH). The connotation Beta 21 did not exist in 1967 at all. – As a reminder, the Beta 2 and Beta 21 watches were equipped with Oguey's 256 Hz vibrating motor. As opposed to Beta 1, this line of development was a strategic error, resulted in a costly failure and had been abandoned shortly thereafter. However, all watches Beta 1, Beta 2 and Beta 21 were equipped with Frei's integrated quartz oscillator.

3) PLAGIARISM: The most impertinent plagiarisms by Forrer and Oguey were their publications of relevant research and development results of Frei’s work in secret under their own name at international conferences,² ³ in a book⁴ and in other internal and external documents without referring to the originator of the sources. – In the sequel, Wellinger conducted an “Open Door Case” (internal investigation and procedure) against Forrer with a number of condemnations.⁵

4) SELF-OVERESTIMATION: The personal overestimation by Forrer as an early promoter of the quartz project is highly misleading since – supported by the board and the scientific and industrial nomenclature of Neuchâtel – Forrer avoided to support Frei's quartz project permanently until January 1967. Consequently, the laboratory director was forced to revoke Forrer’s responsibility over the quartz project as of 1966.

5) UNTRUE STRATEGIE: To overcome the blame of missing out on the quartz project, Forrer and Vittoz developed the hoax of having initiated the quartz strategy and project as of 1962. This is definitively a pure lie. It is true though that Vittoz glued together a quartz clock in 1962, using a commercial quartz radio tube, but this was for other purposes (power and voltage of semiconductor devices). Here, the quartz was used for convenience, not as a strategic element. Vittoz' quartz clock showed up contra-productively with the members of the board, became locked up and was never shown to the members of the staff at all. – Fact is, that the quartz initiative and project started from scratch by Frei and Lochinger in May 1965 in absence of Forrer and Vittoz.

6) BRAZEN BLUFF: One of the worst cheating happened when Forrer passed on a test watch to his superior Wellinger on September 1, 1966 and made him believe it were a quartz wristwatch. It took some 40 years to uncover this hoax – it was an ordinary tuning fork watch or modified Accutron! Unfortunately, the bluff had been published and glorified in the glamorous watch press and had to be rectified by the author later on.⁶

7) FIRST CORRECTIONS: For the first time incorrect statements on the history of the first quartz wristwatch which had been disseminated by Forrer and Oguey in 1998, had been corrected publicly by Carlene Stephens, Smithonian Institute, National Museum of American History. After intervention by Frei and Wellinger, a two-day reviewing meeting with the participation of the persons who were involved in the development of the first quartz wristwatch was held in Neuchâtel in 2003. Plagiarism and false statements were removed from the homepage of the Smithonian Institute and the part of the “Swiss Inventors” was newly edited.⁷

8) FIRST REMOVAL: After intervention by Frei and Wellinger against plagiarism and false statements in an article to be published in IEEE Spectrum on the history of "Swiss quartz wristwatches" and edited by Oguey⁸ the project was cancelled by S. Hassler, Editor in Chief of the IEEE Magazine.

Bibliography

1) Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) (1967). "Monatsrapporte Juli 1967", Staatsarchiv Neuchâtel.

2) M. Forrer: "A Flexure Mode Quartz for an Electronic Wrist-Watch", Proceedings 33. Annual Frequency Control Symposium, Atlantic City, May 1969, pp 157-162.

3) Hermann, J., Forrer, M. & Omlin, L. (1969). “Resonateur à quartz pour montre-bracelet”, Colloque International de Chronométrie, Paris 1969. – Comment: Co-authors were inserted by M. Forrer personally and in secret.

4) Forrer, M., Le Coultre, R., Beyner, A. & Oguey, H. (2002). "L'Aventure de la montre à quartz". Neuchâtel: Centredoc. Comment: approximately 20 plagiarisms between p 158 and p 179 related to Frei's quartz oscillator.

5) Hermann, J. & Wellinger, R. (2005). “Rectification concerning a 1969 publication on Quartz Wrist Watches”, Neuchâtel, March 23, 2005. – Comment: 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.

6) Trueb, L. (2007). "Die erste Schweizer Quarz-Armbanduhr - ein übler Streich, Schummelei nach 40 Jahren aufgeflogen" gold'or 1/2007.

7) 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
Comment: This publication 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.

8) Oguey, H. (unpublished). "First Quartz Wristwatch", Draft for the IEEE Spectrum, September 2009 issue. – Comment: This publication has been cancelled 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.