In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in Switzerland discovered that a small crystal would vibrate at a constant rate. He found this was so accurate that it could be used to calibrate time so he took it to company management and said it would make an entirely new kind of watch that had no springs and no gears. They could not imagine who would want such a thing. Swiss watches dominated world commerce. They did not even bother to patent it.

The inventor took his new idea to a commercial trade show, set up his booth and tried to interest manufacturers to produce his new kind of watch. Of the thousand people only 2 were willing to try it