zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: I question the current COSC standards of -4/+6.
: ... Shouldn't the COSC requirements
: be more stringent?

The COSC certification these days is hardly anything more than a marketing gimmic based on an archaic standard. But it sells watches, and that is what is important to the watch making companies.

The majority of luxury watch buyers known nothing about accuracy and the true nature of the test. These people merely make the simplistic assumption that a 'certified' watch is better than one that isn't. And when spending lots of money on a watch, they want what is obviously better.

Increasing the standard would be: 1) expensive to implement, 2) would immediately make watches tested to the 'old' standard less desirable and hard to sell, 3) would devalue watches still in production and movements in inventory, and 4) wouldn't make a hill of beans difference to +99% of watch buyers.

I think that would be an idea impossible to sell to the watch manufacturers. It costs and loses them money -- all for a likely imeasurable increase in sales.

: How much does a manufacturer have to pay
: for the certification?

Only a few dollars a movement for large scale manufactuers.