Time Cut Chronometer.

This is the watch I have been waiting for. This is the first watch I have seen which made me immideately say yes, I have to have it. This is a watch which just oozes class and has the paperwork to prove it. This particular Time Cut Chronometer (as opposed to chronograph) is number 367 of a limited series of 1500. The watch itself needs no explanation if you have seen it "in the flesh" but perhaps the best part of all is the packaging. Swatch have seen fit to endow packaging deserving of a quality timepiece by providing a hefty perspex display box showing the watch and official certificate of accreditadion from the Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronometres. How do you get that ? Read on.

The following is extracted in part from the "Swatch world Journal".

In order to recieve the SOCC certificate 1500 numbered (on the face and packaging) Time Cut chronographs went through a series of rigorous tests over a tortuous ten days. They were knocked about, shaken and hit. They were kept in the cold. They were subjected to heat. At the end of all the tests they all worked perfectly ! The SOCC lab's in Geneva recieved the movements and kept them all separate throughout the testing procedure. The lab technician registers the movement upon recaipt and allots it an I.D. number which he engraves upon the dial. This number will never leave the chronometer and is a guarantee of its quality. Once this is done, basic times are recorded to serve as a reference thoroughout the tests. Each movement passes through the Vision system which is highly accurate and consists of a camera and computer. This records two times consecutively and those times are processed through a computer in relation to the exact time provided by a standard clock radio controlled from a centre in Germany. Then the test begins! The movements are put in dust free chambers, heated to 23 C with a very low level of humidity. Every 24 hours they are checked on the Vision system and put back in the chamber and tested under all sorts of other conditions. On the third day for example, the movements are cooled to 8 C, fourth day heated to 38 C, eighth day the wearer simulation test is done, where for 240 minutes the model is subjected to 10 G shocks and then rotated and placed back in the 23 C chamber. The tenth day sees it subjected to 200 dynamic shocks of 100 G over 100 mins and then put back and checked one last time. Then and only then will the movement recieve the prized certificate (if it passes every test). This is only a brief description of some aspects of the torture these watches are subjected to before becoming a "chronometer". As you can see, a watch this hard working is entitled to a little special treatment at the end of it all but I will be wearing mine at every opportunity. Maybe?