Omega is launching a new certification – Master Co-Axial Officially Certified – in partnership with the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology. This new standard imposes more stringent criteria than the COSC, including tough demands in terms of resistance to magnetic fields. It will be open to the entire Swiss watch industry.
It had to happen. After the initial series, in 1999, of one thousand watches equipped with the now famous co-axial escapement, developed by George Daniels; after the first in-house movement to incorporate co-axial technology, in 2007; after the Master Co-Axial movement of 2013, able to withstand magnetic fields greater than 15,000 gauss, Omega only had one thing left to do: launch a new certification. Stricter than COSC tests, the Master Co-Axial Officially Certified standard will make its debut in 2015, once the multinational has settled into its new building, currently under construction, at its site in Biel. High Quality Omega Replica Watches Group, owner of Omega, convened a press conference in Geneva just before Christmas to paint a clearer picture of what this new certification entails.
A national body
Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek was quick to put the new scheme into perspective: “We could easily have taken a self-centred approach and simply publicised the new Omega calibres,” he declared. “Instead of this, and in keeping with the group’s philosophy which has always been to defend Swiss watchmaking as a whole, and we have given ample proof of this in the past, we wanted this new certification to be open to everyone. No-one needs me to remind them how essential innovation is if our industry is to remain at the cutting edge, and on a global scale. But innovation is more than just a way of thinking. It requires investment in research and in production resources. This is also the message we need to get across.”
Fatal attraction
In concrete terms, the new certification is clearly focused on the negative effects of magnetism*, currently identified as the number-one enemy of the mechanical watch within Swatch Group. “What does someone who wears a high-end mechanical watch expect?” asked Raynald Aeschlimann, member of the extended Swatch Group management board. “First and foremost he wants precision over the long term; he wants his watch to function properly in all circumstances, and to be 100% water-resistant. Now, we have observed that Fake Rolex Watches are frequently returned to after-sales service for problems caused by magnetism, and these problems are increasingly commonplace in our present-day environment. Often, customers aren’t even aware of this. They think it’s a purely mechanical defect. This new certification carries on this line of thinking.” The bar has been set at 15,000 gauss, which is the average value measured next to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. This is infinitely greater than the current standard set by the Swiss watch industry (NIHS), which requires a watch to withstand 60 gauss in order to qualify as antimagnetic.
*Every Omega Master Co-Axial watch entered for official certification will be tested on the following points:
• functioning of each movement when exposed to magnetic fields greater than 15,000 gauss
• functioning of each Replica Omega Watches when exposed to magnetic fields greater than 15,000 gauss
• average daily precision (different positions and temperatures) between 0 and +5 seconds/day before and after being exposed to magnetic fields greater than 15,000 gauss
• power reserve in hours, defined as per the model
• water-resistance in bars, tested in water, defined as per the model