Quartz is a hard substance and can transmit ultraviolet light, and is used in manufacturing glass. It does not split easily and is piezoelectric. This means it vibrates a bit when an electric current passes through it. When it is put under pressure, quartz can generate a small electric charge by itself. Apart from this, quartz gems and jewellery are famous worldwide.

It is also used for making special lenses, prisms and quartz-glass tubes for lamps. Quartz is also used in the manufacturing of the tubes, crucibles and glass which are used in a laboratory. It is used as a material used in the construction and in the foundry industry for making moulds. It is also used as a filter for some liquids, in the manufacturing of sandpaper and whetstones, in the scouring of powders, in sandblasting.

Refractory brick are often made of quartz sand because of its high heat resistance. Quartz sand is also used as a flux in the smelting of metals. In the petroleum industry sandy slurries are forced down oil and gas wells under very high pressures. This high pressure fractures the reservoir rocks and the sandy slurry injects into the fractures. The durable sand grains hold the fractures open after the pressure is released. These open fractures facilitate the flow of natural gas into the well bore.
Quartz sand is used as a filler in the manufacture of rubber, paint,detergent and putty. Screened and washed, carefully sized quartz grains are used as filter media and roofing granules. Quartz sands are used for traction in the railroad and mining industries. These sands are also used in recreation on golf courses, volleyball courts, baseball fields, children's sand boxes and beaches.Quartz digital watches are known the world over for their precision. Switzerland is one of the biggest production centres for quartz watches