Hi! I'm aAbottleofrum, one of the boards newest members.
I'm also a master watchmaker, trained by Rolex. I'm SAWTA Certified, and an AWCI
member for life. Allow me to clear up alot of questions.
Where have the chronometers gone? Under your
bed of course!
No, actually they haven't left. But what defines a chronometer has changed considerably. By default, a Chronometer is any mechanical watch that meets the rigorous standards of the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres. COSC for short. Rolex watches by default are all chronometers, as are a few other high quality watches.
Notice what I said though? Mechanical.
In the US, there are less than 900 trained and certified watchmakers. Average age is 70. Having just graduated a year ago, at 25, Im one of the youngest in the country and will likely see the death of this industry. The main watchmaking hubs are Pennsylvania,
Texas, and
Ohio.
To sum up months of education, the beat of the watch is determined by the oscillations of the balance
wheel. And even THAT is a crude answer at best. The more "in beat" the watch is, the steadier the rate (how fast or slow the watch runs). A chronometer keep an extraordinarily steady rate, in various positions, and is praised for its accuracy.
However, ALOT of things can affect the rate of a watch... debris, position, heat and cold, atmospheric pressure, and you guessed it... motion. Guess how many of these applied to cruising?
As far as a regular chronometer is concerned, it is USELESS in the open sea. Which is why the Marine Chronometer was offered tens of thousands of pounds for a reward of its development and John Harrison is the Vespucci of watchmakers, if I can use a bit of nautical jokes.
Even then, mechnical watches, by sheer design, don't match the accuracy of a Quartz watch. A chronometer can lose around a second a day in real life situations. A quartz loses about a second a month.
Hold your horses before you buy that fancy new Timex. 90% of all quartz watches are delicate, flighty things. Made of plastic movements, they break easily, are made of foreign
parts, and the slightest amount of moisture damages the IM (integrated module). If the quartz oscillator goes bad, the motherboard made like ****, or a nick finds its way on your coil, the quartz watch is junked. Furthermore, try finding a battery in the middle of an ocean when it inevitably runs out. Go ahead, I dare you.
Mechanical watches, in good condition, require a few seconds of winding each day. They are physically built to last, and to take various impacts provided their sealed. Marine Chronometers even moreso. They were designed for boats.
To the guy who suggested the Citizen Eco-Drive; good suggestion, and he is right on that. But he failed to mentioned the specialized battery
core that only Citizen Watchmaker has access too and can install. They don't need batteries, but like all functioning objects, stuff happens.
TO THE REST OF YOU CHUCKLEHEADS SUGGESTING EBAY: Hey, those are great prices but you forget one little thing... the servicing. Its a Marine Chronometer of good quality is going for that low, do not rely on it unless it has been verified to have all factory original
parts and serviced by a Marine Chronometer specialist. I am NOT one, though I've worked on them. They were so many aftermarket indian/chinese/japanese ******** parts flooding the market before the Quartz crash, it was insane. This affected the longevity of those pieces like you wouldn't believe.
In conclusion....
Chronometers : Super accurate, useless at sea.
Marine Chronometers: Made for the seas, due
research and maintenance of whatever you get. Toss me a PM if you want a nod in the right direction.
Quartz: Super duper accurate, tempermental bastards that are broken when they break. Super
cheap, but you get what you pay for.