This is the same power source for things like quartz watches and kids' light-up sneakers.

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Quartz watches use very high-frequency oscillations of a crystal, which can be tuned with extreme precision to produce regular signals.

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The world of high-end quartz watches is boutique to say the least.

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In the 1970s battery-powered quartz watches made mechanical ones functionally obsolete.

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In the early 1980s, the Swiss watch industry faced looming catastrophe as it failed to realize the importance of quartz watches, even though the quartz watch had been invented in Switzerland in 1967.

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The brand would no longer produce mechanical watches, but only its interesting quartz-based timepieces that used special interfaces and display systems.

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Another formidable competitor is Swatch Group, better known for the cheap plastic watches that helped save Switzerland when the quartz revolution looked as if it would relocate the entire watch industry to the Far East.

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Until now, most ladies timepieces have been quartz or simply sized-down mechanical men's watches, but women were a major focus for several brands at the show.

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