A French company (SilMach) backed by Timex Group is claiming to have opened a new chapter in watchmaking with the creation of a silicon motor that matches the accuracy of quartz-based movements with the elegance of a mechanical watch’s sweeping hands.
I am confused by this article. The quartz is how electronics keeps track of time accurately. The silicon motor is how you move the arrows. Those are not related or comparable things.
Yes, it is still a quartz watch. The oscillator is still a quartz oscillator. However the mechanism which advances the second hand is replaced with onethat does not need to tick.
The kind of quartz watch is no longer a ticking quartz watch, it is a non-ticking quartz watch.
As for the specific wording of the article, I would assume the authoris not fully versed in partsof quartz watches, and does not know that the oscillator which keeps time is different from the stepping motor which moves the hands.
This invention targets only replacing the stepping motor, not the oscillator.