Superlative vs Master Chronometer (METAS)

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by TikTok

Err! No.
Spring drive +- 10 sec/month.
Quartz +- 10 sec/year.

Yep, my 9F quartz SBGT235 has run at about +2 secs a year since I got it in 2018. Not bad for a nine-jewel gear train.

[samson66]

Originally Posted by TikTok

Err! No.

Spring drive +- 10 sec/month.

Quartz +- 10 sec/year.

I have two true quartz watches and my spring drive has been more accurate than both. Maybe I just got lucky with my SBGE253 but that's been my experience.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by Scholar

The WR testing on a Rolex is to 125% the stated pressure. METAS is comparable and even stricter for divers.

I don't know why people keep saying this and holding it out there as a universal truth.
Yes, Rolex tests their diver watches to 125% of the depth rating. That's not so special as that's what any reputable watch manufacturer does and in accordance with the ISO standard.
Rolex test all their other watch references to 110% of their depth rating.

[enjoythemusic]

i think some Rolex guys are very jealous that Tudor adds METAS rating. (^._.^)

[padi56]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

i think some Rolex guys are very jealous that Tudor adds METAS rating. (^._.^)

Wonder if Rolex and METAS watch owners will be jealous that a Chinese made Seagull ST19 movement with careful regulation can run well inside COSC spec even this new precision -2+2 spec cost of movement under $100.

[dubins930]

Originally Posted by SS Oyster

Rolex tests fully cased watch to +/- 2secs per day. That's better than 0 to +5secs per day.

Ahh... sorry I thought you were implying that the tests other than time deviation exceeded METAS standards!

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by padi56

Wonder if Rolex and METAS watch owners will be jealous that a Chinese made Seagull ST19 movement with careful regulation can run well inside COSC spec even this new precision -2+2 spec cost of movement under $100.

(Friendly humor and a bit of truth) Only $100? Darn, i paid like $300 for a Timex and regulated it to those specs. Chinese-made tourbillons are impressive too.

Kinda hard to beat this, it syncs.... and far more rare than any modern Rolex too.

[geoach]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

(Friendly humor and a bit of truth) Only $100? Darn, i paid like $300 for a Timex and regulated it to those specs. Chinese-made tourbillons are impressive too.

Kinda hard to beat this, it syncs.... and far more rare than any modern Rolex too.

Attachment 1437817

who you trying to kid it's a PSR and does not sync.........I know I have one for sale all over the place new right now

[padi56]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

(Friendly humor and a bit of truth) Only $100? Darn, i paid like $300 for a Timex and regulated it to those specs. Chinese-made tourbillons are impressive too.

Kinda hard to beat this, it syncs.... and far more rare than any modern Rolex too.

Attachment 1437817

Yes the Chinese made tourbillions are extremely well made but the tourbillon IMHO serves no real purpose in a wrist watch at all, only the fact the watchmakers can make them at crazy retail prices .And yes today you would be quite surprised how many watch HI end brands tourbillons and cages are made China, and they make them very very well too to equal the Swiss. I sometimes wonder why there so much admiration for the tourbillon, perhaps the unquestioned and deserved prestige of Breguet the inventor many many years ago.

But the tourbillon movements always work best in one position and in the tourbillon is always modifying the slight timing errors in the vertical position. The tourbillon does not correct position variations, it only prevents them being detected in the usual testing conditions. But when placed on say a Vibrograph timing machine, the tourbillon reveals its weaknesses immediately. The tourbillon does not correct anything, in wrist movements, it only prevents the detection of any beat errors that still exists in natural gravity with wrist movement.

The tourbillon is in fact an additional mechanism that consumes energy without producing anything except misinformation. The energy it consumes is taken from the reserve destined to the balance regulator. As a result, the balance wheel with less energy will have reduced advantages. Now I agree totally the skill needed to make the cage plus tourbillon etc is a great horological skill. But in reality any tourbillon watch is no more accurate that several other non tourbillon watches that cost quite a bit less. When you think of today's modern watches, with or without tourbillons are not so nearly accurate as one produced by John Harrison almost 320 years ago.

Gravity is one of the main causes of rate variations in watches, by creating the tourbillon, when Breguet thought he was eliminating its effects, It looks like it was an big error on his part, he only masked them like tourbillons do. Now if someone could come up and counteract the effect on gravity on a wrist watch totally, now that would be a big break through but until then tourbillons, IMHO are just good to look at, and they are very very expensive to own, and they make them because they can. But again looking at the other side of the coin, in Breguets day a hundred plus years ago when he invented the tourbillon and the tools he had then. And now today with modern machines and computers puts a different perspective on the making side of tourbillons today. But for any purely mechanical watch to run to the Swiss chronometer spec is a mechanical marvel, considering what the watch has to put up with daily on the wrist.