How big a deal is for watch company to go for COSC certification?

[mountbaldy]

Hi all,

I am just curious about something:

1) How much does it cost a company to COSC certify their watch?

2) How much does COSC certification add to the price of a watch?

3) How much quality does a COSC certification add to a watch?

4) What kind of hoops does a company need to jump through to get a watch COSC certified? I am sure COSC just does not accept any watch from any one, right? I am sure COSC has their standards that a watch company has to fulfill before the COSCing company accepts the watch for testing?

Thanks,

[yessir69]

I believe they send the movement, not the watch for certification. Watchtime had a good article on it last year.

[toph]

It is mostly marketing. other companies such as IWC supposedly test there movements, in house, through a more stringent test than COSC.

[Lagunatic]

Originally Posted by mountbaldy

hi all,

i am just curious about something:

1) how much does it cost a company to cosc certify their watch?

2) how much does cosc certification add to the price of a watch?

3) how much quality does a cosc certification add to a watch?

4) what kind of hoops does a company need to jump through to get a watch cosc certified? I am sure cosc just does not accept any watch from any one, right? I am sure cosc has their standards that a watch company has to fulfill before the coscing company accepts the watch for testing?

Thanks,

$600.00

[mltworldwide]

Originally Posted by toph

It is mostly marketing. other companies such as IWC supposedly test there movements, in house, through a more stringent test than COSC.

they're watches do not keep time as good as Rolex. I've owned over 20 IWC watches and I like them a lot. However the only ones that kept good time were my Ingenieur's and only one or two were within 2 sec/day. In my experience COSC watches do keep very good time. Rolex, Breitling and Panerai are some of the best. I'm also impressed with Bremont.

[Kevin B]

You want to talk about keeping accurate time, try a Seiko spring drive It makes COSC standards look laughable.

[toph]

Originally Posted by drster

they're watches do not keep time as good as Rolex. I've owned over 20 IWC watches and I like them a lot. However the only ones that kept good time were my Ingenieur's and only one or two were within 2 sec/day. In my experience COSC watches do keep very good time. Rolex, Breitling and Panerai are some of the best. I'm also impressed with Bremont.

Not arguing about that as such as i have also owned several rolex, breitling, omega, panerai, iwc etc and some are more accurate than others. COSC might be valid for 2 years but If i wanted my watch to be perfect i would not be relying on a COSC cetificate.. i would get my watchmaker to do it on any watch.

AS far as i was aware IWC watches should be -3 to +5? maybe i am wrong though?

[Oyster1982]

Originally Posted by Kevin B

You want to talk about keeping accurate time, try a Seiko spring drive It makes COSC standards look laughable.

The Grand Seikos are timed to a greater standard than COSC.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by mountbaldy

Hi all,

I am just curious about something:

1) How much does it cost a company to COSC certify their watch?

2) How much does COSC certification add to the price of a watch?

3) How much quality does a COSC certification add to a watch?

4) What kind of hoops does a company need to jump through to get a watch COSC certified? I am sure COSC just does not accept any watch from any one, right? I am sure COSC has their standards that a watch company has to fulfill before the COSCing company accepts the watch for testing?

Thanks,

Not sure now what it cost to test each movement but its not cheap, would expect cost would be based on volume of movements tested Rolex has there own machine at the COSC and today around 85% of all movements tested pass first time.The failed ones a sent back now they are re-oiled timed and sent back for testing again.A chronometer certificate is not a guarantee of future accuracy only a certification of the bare uncased movement tested at the COSC at the time of testing. Rolex will try with re-regulation to keep movement to spec and regulate at normal 5-7 year service.But many watch movements that have been certified can get out of adjustment and perform quite poorly that's a simple fact of being mechanical. Movements that were not certified could still exceed the COSC standards with just simple regulation.Many of the manufacturers today may have simply chosen to bypass the expense of the certification process its quite expensive to test every single movement. But today IMHO the COSC is little more than a pure marketing tool and means little in actual performance only the fact its been tested.

The term "Superlative Chronometer" is a now trademark of Rolex, the addition of the word "Superlative" in front of the official designation of Chronometer is merely a Rolex marketing angle to give a more distinguished sound to the chronometer status of their products . As all watches that have earned the privilege of bearing the official Swiss designation of "Chronometer" have to meet the exact same C.O.S.C. standards for any movement of Rolex size. Any words added before or after the official designation of "Chronometer" are merely marketing.

When thinking of accuracy its very important to remember that even when a mechanical watch is allowed to vary by COSC standards average of between +6/-4 seconds per day, that does not mean it will consistently vary by that high or low amount each day. Mechanical movements that self regulate say by resting in different positions over night its very rare for this to happen.All Mechanical watches are noticeably affected by the gravitational pull of the Earth, it only takes a performance distortion of 1/1000th of a percent for a mechanical watch movement to be one second less accurate in a day. So to get any mechanical watch to self regulate with zero tolerance is IMHO something thats quite rare maybe one it quite a few thousand.But today regulation is a very simple process should take around 30 minutes start to finish but send to RSC could take weeks .

Below is the copy of the German Din certificate for my Dreadnought watch,a Timefactors watch that cost then just £400 and a good quality movement and case, as you can see +0.4 seconds a day,not bad for a so called humble ETA 2824-T2 movement,less than half a second a day and still the same today after several years of hard wearing.Now today The Japanese chronometer and the DIN standard for Chronometers is to a higher standard the the Swiss COSC since its introduction in 1973.

[Andad]

IMO passing a COSC test is proof of a movements precision under variable conditions and positions.
If a movement has precison then it can be adjusted and maintain accuracy.

[RRGHOST1]

Rolex will never beat a Seiko Spring Drive for out and out accuracy.My Longines Hydroconquest with its ETA movement in is just as accurate as my Submariner and thats not COSC. Keeping within the COSC limits doesn't really bother me even if it was 20secs out a day i would just reset the watch. Its a mechanical device with lots of variables as padi56 has mentioned many times,its amazing they are as accurate as they are.

[Andad]

Rolex will never beat a Seiko Spring Drive for out and out accuracy. My Longines Hydroconquest with its ETA movement in is just as accurate as my Submariner and thats not COSC. Keeping within the COSC limits doesn't really bother me even if it was 20secs out a day i would just reset the watch. Its a mechanical device with lots of variables as padi56 has mentioned many times,its amazing they are as accurate as they are.[/QUOTE]

IMO you have missed the point entirely with this statement.

My vote for post of the year.

[wokafu]

Originally Posted by Lagunatic

$600.00

wow...(not being sarcastic here) ..but wheres the source you refer to ..? or im just being silly asking a stupid question..??

[padi56]

Originally Posted by rolexplorer2

Rolex will never beat a Seiko Spring Drive for out and out accuracy.My Longines Hydroconquest with its ETA movement in is just as accurate as my Submariner and thats not COSC. Keeping within the COSC limits doesn't really bother me even if it was 20secs out a day i would just reset the watch. Its a mechanical device with lots of variables as padi56 has mentioned many times,its amazing they are as accurate as they are.

Thats quite true mainly because the Seiko escapement is electrical and not a conventional hairspring and pallet fork like in a conversational mechanical watch like Rolex.

[Lagunatic]

Originally Posted by wokafu

wow...(not being sarcastic here) ..but wheres the source you refer to ..? or im just being silly asking a stupid question..??

I read it somewhere.