　　Time passes by all too quickly. It had been 5 years since the quartz watch that astounded the world, the ‘Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ,’ had been brought to market. The quartz watch had already become an indispensable tool in people's daily lives, and had become widely popularized. However, awaiting the top manufacturer at that time, Suwa Seikosha Co., Ltd., was a difficult period of stiff competition from rival companies. It had been crucial that the company continue making quartz watches even more compact and affordable, in order to maintain the dominant position it had held until then. However, tuning fork crystal units, the very heart and soul of these watches, were already as small and cheap as technological limitations would allow. How could they overcome the impending crisis? The solution they eventually chose was the implementation of a completely unknown technology. This second installment of ‘The QMEMS Story’ will explore the efforts of the engineers involved in the technological development of QMEMS' origins.

　　時(shí)間過(guò)得太快了。自石英手表驚世駭俗的5年以來(lái)，“精工石英天文35SQ”已經(jīng)上市。石英表已經(jīng)成為人們?nèi)粘Ｉ钪胁豢苫蛉钡墓ぞ撸⑶乙呀?jīng)廣泛普及。然而，等待當(dāng)時(shí)的頂級(jí)制造商，蘇瓦株式會(huì)社有限公司是競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手公司競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的困難時(shí)期。至關(guān)重要的是，該公司繼續(xù)使石英表更加緊湊和實(shí)惠，以保持其迄今為止的主導(dǎo)地位。然而，這些手表的核心和靈魂的音叉水晶單元已經(jīng)像技術(shù)限制所允許的那樣小而便宜。他們?nèi)绾慰朔磳l(fā)生的危機(jī)？他們最終選擇的解決方案是實(shí)施一項(xiàng)完全未知的技術(shù)。第二期“QMEMS故事”將探討參與QMEMS起源技術(shù)開發(fā)的工程師的努力。
　　The year 1974 marked the fifth year since the birth of the world's first quartz watch, the ‘Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ.’ It was at this time that quartz watches became fully popularized, and production of tuning fork crystal units had to be increased constantly in order to keep up with demand. It was the Quartz Device Division (then Matsushima Industry Co., Ltd.) in Ina, Nagano Prefecture, that was tasked with overseeing the volume production of these devices (see Figure 1). With production and other factors proceeding so smoothly, it seemed as though they could confidently rely on tuning fork crystal units to maintain their core business. Everyone working at the Ina plant was steeped in a deep sense of satisfaction.
　　On the surface, everything seemed to be going smoothly. However, the engineers working at the forefront of development had no time to rest. Heated arguments were beginning to take place on a daily basis between the engineers at Suwa's Watch Design Division and those at Ina Quartz Device Division. For watch manufacturers, the ability to make devices smaller and more affordable was vital, and they barely had time to pause for breath.

　　1974年是世界上第一塊石英手表'精工石英天文35SQ'誕生以來(lái)的第五個(gè)年頭。正是在這個(gè)時(shí)候，石英表才全面普及，為了跟上需求，音叉晶體的生產(chǎn)必須不斷增加。這是位于長(zhǎng)野縣伊那的石英器件部門（松島工業(yè)有限公司），負(fù)責(zé)監(jiān)督這些設(shè)備的批量生產(chǎn)（見(jiàn)圖1）。隨著生產(chǎn)和其他因素的順利進(jìn)行，似乎他們可以放心地依靠音叉晶體單元來(lái)維持其核心業(yè)務(wù)。在伊那工廠工作的每個(gè)人都深深感到滿意。
　　表面上，一切似乎都順利進(jìn)行。然而，在開發(fā)前沿工作的工程師沒(méi)有時(shí)間休息。蘇瓦鐘表設(shè)計(jì)部門的工程師和伊那石英設(shè)備部門的工程師之間每天都在開始激烈的爭(zhēng)論。對(duì)于手表制造商而言，制造更小且更便宜的設(shè)備的能力至關(guān)重要，他們幾乎沒(méi)有時(shí)間喘口氣。

https://www5.epsondevice.com/en/information/technical_info/qmems/img/story2_2_2.jpg

圖1：位于長(zhǎng)野縣伊那的水晶器件部門。
20世紀(jì)90年代俯瞰精工愛(ài)普生伊那工廠的鳥瞰圖。三層建筑背后的大型扁平結(jié)構(gòu)是為擴(kuò)大照片流程而建造的。

　　The Quartz Device Division understood the wishes of the Watch Design Division. But it was simply not possible to make tuning fork crystal units any smaller than they already were. The Watch Design Division, on the other hand, needed the crystal units to be made more compact so that they could move on to their next commercial product line of ladies' watches. They were desperate for the engineers to come up with something.
　　There was a reason behind the Suwa Watch Design Division's stubborn refusal to back down. It had been 5 years since they had first launched the world's first quartz watch, and competition in the market was becoming increasingly tough, particularly with Hong Kong's sudden rise in manufacturing. It was therefore essential to continue making watches more compact and affordable in order for the company to maintain its dominant position. Accordingly, they began to consider bringing to market a new line of ladies' watches that would be dramatically smaller than existing watches. To achieve this, it was absolutely crucial that they be able to make tuning fork crystal units ? the very heart of these devices - yet smaller again.
　　However, nothing is without its limitations. ‘Of course, it was possible in theory to make these crystal units even smaller. But that would have caused costs to skyrocket. So the fact remained that in practice, it wasn't really possible to make them any smaller after all.’ This was the true position of the Quartz Device Division. As usual, the inter-divisional arguments were going nowhere.

　　石英晶振設(shè)備部門了解鐘表設(shè)計(jì)部門的愿望。但是，音叉晶體單元的尺寸比以往任何時(shí)候都小。另一方面，手表設(shè)計(jì)部門需要將水晶單元制造得更加緊湊，以便他們能夠轉(zhuǎn)向下一代女士手表的商業(yè)產(chǎn)品系列。他們迫切需要工程師提出一些建議。
　　蘇瓦株式會(huì)社手表設(shè)計(jì)部門頑固拒絕退縮的原因是有原因的。自從他們首次推出世界上第一塊石英表已經(jīng)有5年了，市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)變得越來(lái)越艱難，尤其是香港制造業(yè)突然興起。因此，為了使公司保持其主導(dǎo)地位，繼續(xù)制造更緊湊和更實(shí)惠的手表至關(guān)重要。因此，他們開始考慮向市場(chǎng)推出一系列女士腕表，這些腕表比現(xiàn)有腕表小得多。要做到這一點(diǎn)，他們能夠制造音叉晶體單元是絕對(duì)至關(guān)重要的？這些設(shè)備的核心 - 再次變小。
　　但是，沒(méi)有任何限制。“當(dāng)然，理論上可以使這些晶體單元更小。但這會(huì)導(dǎo)致成本大幅攀升。所以事實(shí)仍然是，在實(shí)踐中，畢竟不可能讓它們變得更小。這是Quartz器件部門的真正立場(chǎng)。像往常一樣，司際爭(zhēng)論沒(méi)有進(jìn)展。

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