Waltham quartz crystal watch with LCD movement by SGT (Societe des Gardes Temps), Switzerland, 1972

One of the first digital wristwatches with a liquid crystal display (LCD), this Waltham International watch has a movement made by Societe des Gardes Temps (SGT). The first quartz watch with no moving parts, the Hamilton 'Pulsar', had a digital display made of light emitting diodes (LED). These imposed a heavy drain on the battery and could not be left on permanently. Liquid crystal displays were far less power hungry and several watches incorporating them appeared on the market in 1972. The early LCDs were unstable but once this problem had been overcome they replaced LEDs as the standard type of digital display.