The first electronic watch was developed by Hamilton Watch Co, Pennsylvania, it was not even an electronic watch in the purest sense as it still used traditional balance wheel mechanism to determine the time. However, to power the watch mechanism, it uses a battery instead of windspring. It was considered to be much more convenient as people are no longer need to wind the watch regularly. Unfortunately, the electric contacts worn out rather easily, which was difficult to repair.

The next development occurred in 1960, with Accutron watches. These watches used U-shaped nickel alloy which vibrated when subjected to electrical pulses from the battery. These vibrations were proven to be more accurate than traditional mechanical gears and for the first time, electrical devices are capable of determining time with decent accuracy. Accutron watches didn’t require electrical contacts, as it used transistors, which were more reliable and have longer lifespan.

Accutron watches had threatened the domination of Swiss watchmakers, which are famous for their premium quality timepieces. Consequently, major Swiss watchmakers financed the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) to develop a much more accurate oscillator than nickel alloy Accutron. Finally in 1967, the CEH was able to develop quartz wristwatches with a deviation of less than 0.01 seconds each day. Further advances in microelectronics integrated circuitry allowed far less energy utilization.

The next step toward a full digital watch was performed by Hamilton in 1972, when it used a digital display. The watch was known as the Hamilton Pulsar, it had a button to display the time on red LED numeric display. The futuristic-looking watch was even shown on the famous sci-fi movie, 2001: A Space Odissey (1968). Earlier LED displays on digital watches used aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) to produce red lights or gallium nitride (GaN) for green lights.

Earlier digital watches were expensive and only reserved for wealthier consumers. Texas Instruments tried to deliver these devices to common consumers by releasing $20 watches and the price was further brought down to $10. One major drawback of early LED watches was it required users to press a button to display the time. Displaying the time continuously was simply inefficient due to high amount of power needed. At 1972, the TNLCD (Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystal Display) was developed which required low amount of power to emit light on a display. After a few years, Seiko developed the first LCD digital watch that used six-figure display. The watch required low amount of power which allowed a continuous display.

Digital watches experienced further development in 1980’s, with the addition of basic features such as date and stopwatches. In fact, in 1982, Seiko was the first to release a digital watch which was equipped with a tiny TV. At the same year, Casio’s digital watches included a dictionary and a thermometer sensor. In 1987, Casio developed a digital watch that can dial a phone number.

In 1990’s many digital watches no longer needed batteries as they can be powered solely by ambient light. New features was also soon added such altimeter, barometer, compass and GPS, which can aid people during outdoor activities.

Some digital watches in 21^st century no longer resemble their predecessor, in fact these sophisticated watches could even be considered as wrist computer. For example, Aigo F029 Digital Watch is equipped with full-color OLED display. With this watch, you can play WMA and MP3 music and MPEG-4 videos. It has a mini-USB 2.0 and headphone ports also 1GB internal memory.