Now, you might be wondering if I’ve lost my grip on reality, or if this is pure science fiction!?!! Rest assured—it’s neither. There’s REAL evidence to back this up.
1952 Electric Rolex
The Spark That Rewrote Rolex’s Future
Take a look at Rolex Patent Application CH298956A, filed by Hans Wilsdorf and Rolex in Switzerland on May 13, 1952, which is pictured below. It reveals a design for an electric Rolex watch—a tangible testament to the brand’s forward-thinking experimentation long before the quartz era dawned.
Rolex didn’t stop at their electric watch experiments—they pushed the boundaries even further. On June 3, 1952, Wilsdorf and Rolex filed patent CH298261A in Switzerland for a groundbreaking dry electric battery design. A close reading of the patent reveals something astonishing: its intricate details on electrolytes and electrodes feel eerily prescient, almost like a blueprint for a modern-day Tesla battery. This wasn’t just a power source for a watch—it was a leap into the future of energy storage, dreamed up decades ahead of its time by Rolex in Geneva!:
Below we see another 1952 Rolex Patent for an entire Electric Rolex Watch, which was published on June 3, 1952 under the number CH297906A.
"Our hat is off to Rolex"
At this point, you might be wondering "What became of the electric watches Rolex developed in the early 1950s?" A fascinating glimpse into their progress comes from a July 1955 issue of the American Horologist and Jeweler, shedding light on Rolex’s pioneering efforts, with COSC Certification as well as with an Electronic Rolex Wristwatch as seen below:
Rolex may have held back from bringing their electric watches to market due to formidable technical challenges, most notably the corrosion issue spotlighted in the 1955 American Horologist and Jeweler as showcased above. The article points to galvanic corrosion as the primary hurdle—a problem stemming from the electrochemical reactions in early batteries, which were often zinc-carbon or mercury-based and prone to leaking.
In the presence of moisture, an electrolyte, these batteries caused dissimilar metals within the watch to corrode, risking damage to critical components like the movement and case. Rolex, having secured patents around 1952, was further along than competitors, but the technology of the time simply may not have been mature enough to meet the brand’s exacting standards for reliability and durability. As a result, Rolex did not release an electric watch in the 1950s. Or, perhaps more interestingly, Rolex had perfected the battery technology, but chose not to release it at that time?
It’s worth noting Rolex mirrors Apple in its approach to innovation: rather than being the first to pioneer new technologies, both brands excel at refining existing ideas, elevating them to their pinnacle of performance and design. This strategy may explain why Rolex waited nearly two decades before launching their first electrically powered watch, ensuring the technology aligned with their uncompromising standards for quality and precision.
The Dawn of Electronic Timekeeping
A Horological Revolution
Electric wristwatches sprang into motion in the 1950s—a decade of bold innovation in horology. Early in the decade, a transatlantic collaboration between the U.S.-based Elgin Watch Company and the French firm, LIP, yielded a groundbreaking electromechanical wristwatch—one powered by a small battery rather than the traditional unwinding spring.
Though the LIP-Elgin partnership only managed to produce prototypes, their efforts paved the way for a milestone. In 1957, the American company Hamilton stole the spotlight with the Hamilton 500, the world’s first serially produced electric watch.
Its iconic design, the Hamilton Ventura, became a cultural touchstone. Pictured below, we see the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, rocking his Hamilton Ventura in 1957—a fitting emblem of the era’s electrifying spirit and the dawn of a new age in timekeeping.
The journey of electronic wristwatches took a dramatic turn in 1954 when Swiss engineer Max Hetzel unveiled a revolutionary timekeeping concept: an electronic wristwatch driven by an electrically charged tuning fork, powered by a 1.35-volt battery. Hetzel’s tuning fork vibrated at a precise 360 Hz, driving the watch hands through an electromechanical gear train.
This innovation materialized as the Bulova Accutron, launched in 1960. Its tuning fork emitted a faint, otherworldly hum—a sound that reverberated through the Swiss watchmaking elite, shaking their faith in traditional mechanical movements.
The Accutron’s remarkable precision raised a chilling question: could mechanical watches, like the pocket watches of a bygone era, fade into obscurity, much as digital photography supplanted film cameras?
Rolex, as we’ve seen, had already explored battery-powered technology by 1952, though their early electric watches were never offered to the public. By 1962, with the winds of change sweeping through the industry, Rolex joined the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH), a consortium of Switzerland’s leading watchmakers, in a united effort to counter the rising tide of electronic timekeeping.
In a surprising twist, this alliance included brands often seen as Rolex’s rivals—Patek Philippe, Omega, and others—underscoring the Swiss watch industry’s deep unease in relation to the potentially disruptive impact of electronic watch technology.
Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe's foray into electronic timekeeping began in 1948 when Henri Stern, the company's president at the time, established the Electronic Timekeeping Division (also referred to as the electronics department) in Geneva. This move was inspired by Stern's exposure to advanced technologies during his extended stay in the United States from 1937 onward, where he witnessed rapid progress in electronics and precision timing. To support this new venture, Patek Philippe also set up a dedicated timekeeping laboratory capable of receiving precise time signals from the Neuchâtel Observatory in Switzerland, allowing for accurate synchronization and testing of their innovations.
Georges Delessert, Stern's half-brother, was appointed as the first director of the division, bringing technical expertise to lead the team. The primary goals were ambitious: to blend Patek Philippe's renowned mechanical craftsmanship with cutting-edge electronic science, ultimately creating the world's most accurate clocks and watches. This wasn't about abandoning tradition but enhancing it, positioning the company at the forefront of the impending "Quartz Revolution" that would reshape the horology industry in the decades to come.
The division quickly yielded groundbreaking results. In 1952, they produced the world's first electronic clock without contacts or moving parts, marking a significant leap in reliability and precision. This was followed by the first fully electronic timekeeper in 1956 and, in 1958, the world's first miniaturized quartz chronometer, which earned Patek Philippe the U.S. Government's Miniaturization Award for its compact design and exceptional accuracy.
By 1959, they had developed the first quartz-powered marine chronometer, and in 1960, the Chronotome—a miniature quartz clock that became iconic when a transistorized version was gifted to U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963, which can be see below in the image that appears courtesy of QuillAndPad.com, who wrote an amazing article chronicling this special clock.
This state of the art Patek Philippe Quartz desk clock kept time in Moscow, Washington and Berlin, and was gifted to JFK when he visited Berlin, during his trip where he uttered his famous "Ice bin bin Berliner" speech.
Further innovations included the Chronoquartz systems in 1962, the first series-produced quartz chronometers with observatory-certified accuracy, and advanced master clock systems like the T2 and T3 in the mid-1960s. The T3, introduced around 1971 and famously installed in the Swiss Parliament (earning it the nickname "Swiss Parliament Clock"), was a towering dual-system marvel standing 1.48 meters tall, featuring three high-precision quartz reference clocks, 64 subordinate dials, and the capacity to drive up to 6,000 secondary clocks. It incorporated a patented radio-controlled synchronization system from 1967, using long-wave signals from the Prangins Swiss Time Observatory for automatic adjustments.
These electronic masterpieces powered critical infrastructure worldwide, from airports, railways, hospitals, and nuclear power plants to high-profile clients like NASA (for space shuttle launches), the United Nations, the Vatican, and even the World's Fair. By the 1980s and 1990s, the division evolved to produce compact systems like the Telequartz—a microprocessor-controlled radio clock about 8 centimeters tall, 60 times smaller than earlier tower models—representing the pinnacle and eventual culmination of Patek Philippe's electronic clock era.
Overall, the 1948 establishment of this division not only cemented Patek Philippe's role as a pioneer in atomic and quartz timekeeping but also influenced modern horology by achieving accuracies down to the thousandth of a second, far surpassing mechanical standards of the time. Today, these rare electronic pieces are highly collectible, with the largest known collection valued at over $2 million and comprising more than 40 items amassed since the 1970s.
It's worth noting that in the late 1950s, Patek Philippe's research institute stood at the forefront of horological innovation, pioneering deep investigations into alternative power sources for clocks and watches, including solar (photoelectric), nuclear (atomic-based), and quartz technologies. This forward-thinking work is highlighted on the first page of an article in the June 1959 issue of Discovery magazine, a British popular science publication of the era. The full article, starting on page 238, offers a fascinating glimpse into the cutting-edge developments reshaping timekeeping.
On page 242, the magazine describes an intriguing American innovation: "An interesting American development is the miniature tuning-fork watch, prototypes of which are at present undergoing reliability testing. It consists of an oscillator stabilised by a tuning-fork with a transistor, probably working at some tens of cycles per second (the exact figure is not yet known). The frequency division and the counting are mechanical, and the accuracy appears to be greater than that of an ordinary watch. However, it is perhaps better to reserve judgment until the official results are made known."
This reference likely alludes to the Bulova Accutron, whose Caliber 214 movement was developed in 1959 by engineer William O. Bennett and commercially launched in 1960 as the world's first fully electronic watch, vibrating at 360 Hz for unprecedented accuracy. In the same article, the head of Patek Philippe—likely Henri Stern, who led the company during this period—discussed quartz technology, noting that while it showed immense promise, it wasn't yet feasible to miniaturize for wristwatches. He predicted, however, that such advancements would arrive soon. Indeed, Patek Philippe had already achieved milestones like the first quartz clock in 1956, paving the way for the quartz revolution that would transform the industry in the 1960s and 1970s. This era underscores Patek Philippe's pivotal role in bridging traditional mechanical mastery with electronic horizons, a legacy that continues to influence modern watchmaking.
In an ironic twist of fate, it's fascinating to point out that the Strontium-90 (Sr-90) that Patek Philippe was experimenting with at the time to try to power clocks was the exact same energy source that Rolex used on the first GMT-Master models in 1955 to luminate the bezel insert and dial markers and hands, that got Rolex in trouble with the U.S. Government's Atomic Energy Commission.
1961 Electric Rolex
ROLEX ELECTROTIME
On April 21, 1961, just a year before joining the Centre Électronique Horloger (CEH), Rolex filed a trademark application for “ROLEX ELECTROTIME,” as documented in the registration below. This pivotal move raises a captivating question: Was Rolex poised to debut its first electronic watch, a project rooted in their early 1950s innovations, or did this trademark hint at an entirely different venture?
Seven months later, on November 8, 1961, Rolex took a bold step forward by filing a patent application for an electronic Rolex watch, with the distinguished watchmaker Emile Borer (pictured below) named as the inventor, as detailed in the application below. As Rolex’s Technical Chief Director, Borer had already left an indelible mark on horology, having spearheaded the development and refinement of the groundbreaking Rolex Perpetual movement in the early 1930s—a pioneering automatic winding mechanism that proved both commercially viable and enduringly successful.
The fact this Rolex engineer was responsible for both the Perpetual and Electronic Rolex watches is deeply profound when you think about it!!!!
This recently uncovered patent filing carries profound implications, shedding new light on Rolex’s early ambitions in electronic timekeeping and its potential impact on horological history.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the 1961 Rolex electric watch patent application, CH374938A, originally filed in Switzerland, is a specific claim within the document:
"Electric watch, in particular wristwatch, the bottom of the case of which is pierced with at least one opening in which a source of electrical energy is housed, characterized in that said source of energy is driven into said opening of the bottom, which it closes tightly. Opposite writings and images under examination Swiss invention statement."
This description underscores Rolex’s innovative approach to housing the battery in a sealed compartment, likely designed to tackle the era’s prevalent challenges with battery leakage and moisture—a critical issue for early electric watches, as evidenced by their 1950s experiments. The patent suggests Rolex was focused on developing a secure, replaceable battery system, ensuring the watch’s reliability and durability in line with their exacting standards.
This revelation carries significant implications, indicating that Rolex may have been on the verge of launching an electronic watch not once, but twice—first in 1952, and again in 1961—only to hold back at the last moment.
These findings position Rolex as a pioneering force in the development of electronic watches, potentially even being THE leading innovator in the field. Remarkably, this aspect of Rolex’s history remained undocumented until elements of this article’s publication in early April 2025, marking a groundbreaking contribution to horological scholarship.
CEH MISSION
The CEH’s mission was clear and urgent: develop cutting-edge electronic wristwatch technology to keep Switzerland at the forefront of a rapidly evolving industry.
Electronic Watch Centre (Centre Électronique Horloger SA, or CEH) was founded in 1962 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland by René Le Coultre. It was a joint venture between 20 of the top Swiss brands, with the objective to develop a reliable and manufacturable analog quartz watch movement. As we will see later in this story, René Le Coultre would go to later play a significant role in the development of the Rolex OysterQuarz.
CEH's first innovation, the "Alpha" movement, emerged under the guidance of Heinz Waldburger. It featured a figure-eight-shaped resonator—a clever design that hinted at the potential of electronic timekeeping.
Soon after, Max Forrer led the development of the more ambitious "Beta" movement, which paired a tuning fork with frequency dividers to drive a stepped motor in a complex interplay of mechanics and electronics. Despite their promise, neither the Alpha nor Beta movements progressed to production.
Meanwhile, a clandestine faction within CEH, spearheaded by visionaries, Rolf Lochinger, and Armin Frei, began exploring a radical new frontier: quartz technology. This "underground" team forged ahead, even as Max Forrer—head of the circuits division—dismissed quartz as a futile endeavor, clinging to his skepticism.
THE BIRTH OF QUARTZ
Lochinger and Armin's quiet defiance would soon prove pivotal. In November 1965, CEH director Roger Wellinger made a bold declaration: a "montre-bracelet à quartz" (quartz wristwatch) would be their ultimate goal. Forrer, however, remained unmoved.
By May 1967, Lochinger and Frei proposed a quartz oscillator paired with a frequency divider—echoing Forrer’s Beta project—but with a crucial innovation: an integrated circuit to slash power consumption.
This became the foundational architecture of the Beta Quartz movement. Just two months later, in July 1967, CEH unveiled the Beta 1 prototype, dubbed CEJ 1012, meticulously engineered by François Niklès and Jean Hermann.
Widely regarded as the world’s first functional quartz wristwatch, it was submitted to the International Chronometric Competition in Neuchâtel, Switzerland—despite being a proof-of-concept prototype rather than a production model.
The Beta 1 featured a "dead-beat" ticking motion, oscillating at 0.5 Hz (one full oscillation every two seconds). Its 60-position stepper motor advanced the second hand once per second—a mechanism that remains the standard for quartz watches today.
In August 1967, the Neuchâtel Observatory awarded the Beta 1 a chronometer classification of 0.189—an unprecedented score that surpassed every watch previously tested, including the Bulova Accutron.
In July 1967, the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) advanced the quartz wristwatch race by submitting ten Beta 1 models for testing at the International Chronometric Competition in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where they outperformed Seiko’s competing quartz entries.
That same month, CEH introduced the Beta 2 prototype, developed by Max Forrer’s team, and confidently declared their intent to be the first to produce a viable quartz wristwatch movement, a plan they solidified by February 1968.
However, competitors moved faster: on August 10, 1969, Longines unveiled functional prototypes of the Ultra-Quartz at a press conference at The Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, followed by Seiko’s debut of the Astron on December 25, 1969—four months later. The Seiko Astron was a 35SQ Model that was 30MM, and was designed by Kazunari Sasaki of Suwa Seikosha. It operated at 8192 Hz, ad was made from 18kt yellow gold (diameter 36 mm, thickness 11 mm). The price was 450,000 yen.
Seiko filed their trademark in Japan on September 9, 1969, then on October 9, 1969 filed their "SEIKO QUARTZ-ASTRON" trademark in Switzerland, as pictured below. Seiko later filed a trademark for their Astron Quartz model in the U.S.A. in 1970.
Despite the later unveiling, our research suggests the Seiko Astron reached consumers first. CEH’s Beta 21 movement finally hit the market on April 10, 1970, nine months after Longines’ announcement and four months after Seiko’s launch, marking a significant but delayed milestone in quartz watch history.
THE QUARTZ
CRISIS REVOLUTION
and The Seiko Christmas Surprise
In the world of horology, the rise of quartz watch technology is a tale of two perspectives: some call it the Quartz Crisis, a cataclysm that upended traditional watchmaking, while others hail it as the Quartz Revolution, a bold leap into the future. The label you choose depends on which side of the divide you stand.
Rolex, celebrated for its exquisitely over-engineered cases, bracelets, and mechanical mastery, was once a trailblazer in the realm of quartz timekeeping. Their early experiments with electric watches (as detailed above in this story) in the 1950s laid the groundwork for what was to come.
Meanwhile, across the globe, the Japanese Seiko Corporation was also racing toward innovation, developing both electric watches and quartz technology throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Seiko made its first major mark in 1964 at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, deploying its pioneering Seiko Crystal Chronometer QC-51—a portable quartz clock—as a backup timer for Olympic events, showcasing quartz’s potential for precision.
THE ROLEX REVOLUTION
Hans Wilsdorf, Rolex’s visionary founder, together with his trusted executive René-Paul Jeanneret, carefully selected André-Jean Heiniger to assume leadership of the company following Wilsdorf’s death in 1960.
Entrusting Heiniger and Jeanneret with near-unlimited financial resources, Wilsdorf effectively handed them a blank checkbook, which they used to embark on a strategic investing initiative. Far from frivolous, their investments were astute and forward-thinking, positioning Rolex for long-term success on multiple fronts.
Under their leadership, Rolex transformed from a manufacturer of high-quality reliable watches, into a premier luxury watch brand, a shift epitomized by the construction of a cutting-edge world headquarters in Geneva, completed in January 1965. This state-of-the-art facility, which remains Rolex’s global headquarters to this day, symbolized their elevated ambitions.
To mark this milestone, Rolex published two striking Rolex Magazine advertisements showcasing their redefined identity and commitment to excellence.
"First we shape our dwellings, then our dwellings shape us."
—Sir Winston Churchill
There are several lines that I find to be really interesting:
"The Rolex watches of today have reached such heights of precision, accuracy, and ruggedness that it is difficult to predict what the watches of tomorrow will be like."
In particular, I find this next line to be fascinating:
"Whether they will be in cases of titanium or solid synthetic diamond. Whether they will be powered by atomic energy or by sun. But one thing is certain. The finest watches of tomorrow will be built by the men at Rolex."
So basically, back in 1965, which was 60 years ago, Rolex was experimenting with titanium cases, which means it only took Rolex six decades to finally come out with a titanium case Rolex. The next line that they might be powered by atomic energy or by the sun, is the most interesting!
In 1965, after Rolex moved into their plush new international headquarters that rose above Geneva, Switzerland, they focused on the next round of innovation, which involved coming up with a strategy for creating a quartz Rolex watch platform.
By 1966, Seiko revealed prototypes of the world’s first quartz-powered pocket watches, presenting them alongside Longines at the Neuchâtel Observatory competition in Switzerland.
The following year, in 1967, both the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) and Seiko unveiled quartz wristwatch prototypes at the same competition, signaling a fierce race to market.
On Christmas Day, December 25, 1969, Seiko electrified the horological world with the launch of the Astron—the first commercially available quartz wristwatch. Its arrival reverberated like a thunderbolt across the watchmaking industry, ushering in a transformative era of precision timekeeping and foreshadowing profound changes to come.
Some likened it to a second Pearl Harbor, an ironic strike against Switzerland’s watchmaking stronghold. Yet, Rolex remained unfazed, having quietly and diligently advanced their own quartz technology in anticipation of this very moment.
