Chronometer. The word appears on more watch dials than almost any other technical designation. Rolex prints it across the Submariner’s dial. Tudor uses it on the Black Bay line. Omega’s Master Chronometer standard takes it further. But what does the designation actually require, who tests...
In 1839, Antoine Norbert de Patek and François Czapek established a watchmaking partnership in Geneva. Seven years later, Patek dissolved the partnership and entered a new agreement with the Alsatian watchmaker Adrien Philippe, whose invention of the keyless winding mechanism would become the company’s first...
Roughly 3% of Swiss watch movements produced annually receive COSC certification. The figure is worth establishing at the outset, because the word “chronometer” appears on a significant proportion of Swiss watch dials and implies a tested standard that not every wearer knows the precise content...