Ronda Quartz, ca. 1974

A very early Quartz Movement!
this is one of the first inexpensive quartz movements. I paid only ca. CHF 55 for this watch in the mid 70ies! That was an extremely low price for a quartz watch then and about all I could afford as a college student. Most quartz watches were a lot more expensive during those early quartz days. I was quite surprised and happy to find this inexpensive watch in the windows of the most exclusive jeweler shop in my hometown. As boys we used to peak into the windows and commenting and dreaming about the watches.
This is also my "college timing contest watch". We had a contest who would own the most accurate quartz watch. Once a week regulation was allowed. You can find the nice and big regulator at the right hand side, at around 3 o'clock. Now that is a good old big capacitor! This watch was running on the second for more then 4 weeks and once regulated, showed an astonishing accuracy!
Unfortunately we used to open the watches with kitchen knives, those days, you can clearly see that at the lower part of of the case. Still, even wiht the "chewed" case, this early quartz movement is an important representative in the history of quartz watches, at least in my modest collection.
Battery type is RW44, corresponding to a LR44, just make sure it is a Silveroxid battery. LR44 alkaline batteries are very popular in children toys and other small electronic gadgets. But more prone to leakage, alkaline batteries should never be used in wrist watches!