Quick Facts
Biography
Warren Alvin Marrison (1896 - 1980) was a Canadian-American inventor of the first quartz watch.
Short biography
Marrison studied at Queen's University in Kingston and graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics engineering in 1920. His studies were interrupted for two years when he participated in the First World War as a radio technician with the Royal Flying Corps.
In 1921 he received a master's degree from Harvard University and then worked for Western Electric in New York City. From 1925 onwards, he worked at Bell Laboratories in New York. There he looked for suitable frequency standards and developed the first quartz watch in 1927, at that time still a larger device.
He acquired over 65 patents.
Marrison became a US citizen in 1941. In 1975 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Selected publications
The Evolution of the Quartz Crystal Clock (The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. XXVII, pp. 510-588, 1948. Copyright 1948, AT&T. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)