Accuracy of Fine Wristwatches

Dispelling myths and misconceptions about how well a good watch tells time

1. An expensive watch is more accurate, right?
2. So why would anyone want a less accurate watch?
3. So what makes a mechanical watch a "Chronometer" or "Certified Chronometer?"
4. Aren't some quartz watches certified as Chronometers, too?
5. How is a "Superlative Chronometer" different from a "Certified Chronometer" or "Chronometer?"
6. Are quartz watches always more accurate than mechanical ones?

An expensive watch is more accurate, right?

"Excellence is achievable, perfection is much more elusive."
(origin unknown).

If this is your first time buying an expensive wristwatch, there is one very important fact you need to know in advance. A $25 Timex or Casio digital watch will keep time just as well as, and possibly better than, a $20,000 solid gold mechanical Omega, Rolex, or other very fine watch.

If that last statement surprised you, read the rest of this section carefully.

All watches tend to gain or lose a few seconds over a period of time. These are small mechanical or electro-mechanical devices that are counting out 86,400 seconds per day. Even if a watch is 99.9% accurate, it will still be off by a minute and a half in only 24 hours! So even a mediocre wristwatch has to be well over 99.9% accurate to even begin to be useful on an ongoing basis.

So, what is a reasonable expectation of accuracy from a wristwatch?

While some people desire wristwatches with extremely high accuracy over long periods of time, it is seldom for any reason besides personal satisfaction. The few professions that depend on precision time synchronization (such as astronomy, global navigation, train scheduling, and broadcasting) base their operations on high precision time sources, not consumer wristwatches.

Ultimately, if you are living so close to the edge that having your watch off perfect time by less than a minute bothers you or otherwise throws your life into disarray, you probably need less caffeine and a vacation!

So why would anyone want a less accurate watch?

The short answer is that pretty much any modern wristwatch from a reputable brand is more than accurate enough for normal use. So some people choose to enjoy the esoteric, emotional and jewelry-value advantages of older mechanical watch technologies over the small accuracy advantages of quartz watches.

For more detail, see our Buyer's Guide article: Why would I want a mechanical/automatic watch when quartz is more accurate?

So what makes a mechanical watch a "Chronometer" or "Certified Chronometer?"

Fine watchmakers often have their mechanical watch movements individually certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres. COSC is the official Swiss institute responsible for certification of wristwatch movements. Only watch movements certified with a COSC 'bulletin de marche' (certificate of watch performance) are allowed to bear the internationally protected label "Official Swiss Chronometer" or even use the word "Chronometer" anywhere on the product, packaging or advertising.

The standard used by COSC is to test the accuracy of a mechanical wristwatch movement--before it is assembled into a watch--for consistent accuracy under a range of position and temperatures. COSC actually peforms seven tests as part of the certification. But the most commonly mentioned is the "mean daily rate" test for which a standard men's watch size mechanical movement, the watch must maintain an accuracy within -4 to +6 seconds of variation per day (that's +99.994% accuracy!).

The other six less mentioned measurements are: mean variation in rate, greatest variation in rate, horizontal and vertical difference, greatest deviation in rates, rate variation due to temperature and resumption of rate. Overall, these tests measure not only the overall daily accuracy but also the consistency under various normal ranges of conditions.

It is also important to note that a "COSC certified chronometer" is not the Holy Grail of watchmaking. With the high quality of modern manufacturing, this test is nowhere near as important as it was several decades ago. Most decent modern watches, when adequately adjusted, should be able to match the performance specified by COSC.

A chronometer certificate is not a guarantee of future accuracy. Watch movements that have been certified can get out of adjustment and perform poorly. Movements that were not certified may still exceed the COSC standards--the manufacturer may simply have simply chosen to bypass the expense of the certification process.

Aren't some quartz watches certified as Chronometers, too?

Yes, but they are very rare. Even a very cheap quartz watch can easily exceed the COSC requirements for a mechanical chronometer. So COSC had created a separate series of tests and standards to certify the truly superior quartz movements. They are tested under several measurements, the most important being a 'mean daily rate' of +/-0.2 seconds per day.

Almost no watch manufacturers bother to have their quartz movements certified by COSC, though. This is primarily because the general public are seldom willing to pay extra for a certified accurate quartz watch--they expect quartz watches to be well more accurate than needed for normal life. The few companies that offer Quartz Chronometers do so mainly to appeal to niche market of super-high-accuracy wristwatch enthusiasts.

How is a "Superlative Chronometer" different from a "Certified Chronometer" or just "Chronometer?"

The term "Superlative Chronometer" is a 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. All watches that have earned the privilege of bearing the official Swiss designation of "Chronometer" have been held to and met the exact same C.O.S.C. standards. Any words added before or after the official designation of "Chronometer" are merely fluff--there are not any different grades or levels of chronometer certification.

Likewise, "Certified Chronometer" also means nothing different than just "Chronometer." It is a redundant phrase--since Chronometer status is a certification--that is used like "verde green" or "hot water heater" to ensure that the reader clearly and quickly understands the point.

Are quartz watches always more accurate than mechanical ones?

Typically they are, but not always. Accuracy and precision are not exactly the same thing.

It is important to remember that even when a mechanical watch is allowed to vary +6/-4 seconds per day, that does not mean it will consistently vary by that high an amount each day. Mechanical movements--except the very rare 'turbillon' movements that correct for it--are noticably affected by the gravitational pull of the Earth. It only takes a performance distortion of 1/1000th of a percent for a watch movement to be one second less accurate in a day. This causes the performance of mechanical movements to be somewhat different from day to day when not stored in a fixed position. The good news is that the actual variations of a mechanical watch will often cancel each other out. This means a mechanical watch will tend to be more accurate over a longer period than the single-day COSC measurement may imply.

The day-to-day performance of quartz is much more consistent than mechanical under identical conditions. Quartz performance is affected mainly by temperature changes and weakened batteries. So a quartz watch that you measured to gains 0.5 second yesterday will be consistently increasingly off correct time by about that amount. You can be pretty certain that in 60 days, it will be about 30 seconds off. At the end of a year, it would be likely be over 180 seconds off.

Compare that to a mechanical watch that you measured to gain 2 seconds yesterday. It would seem that our example quartz watch is 4 times more accurate than this. But while the daily measured daily variations seem much higher, they are not likely to be as consistent, so will have a dampening effect. You cannot accurately predict that this mechanical would therefore be off by 120 seconds at the end of the same 60 days. It might be right on time, or it may be 200 seconds off. That broader range of variations allows most mechanical watches to stay closer to correct time than the daily variation rate implies. Over a year, some mechanicals can on average stay closer to correct time without having to be reset than a quartz watch might.