TESTING WATCHES

Evening Star, Issue 23123, 24 November 1938, Page 7

TESTING WATCHES

GRADED TIME-KEEPING STANDARDS A scheme which will prove of material value to the public generally is announced jointly by the organisations in the country which represent the watch trade (says the London •Times’). “British horological standards of time-keeping ” have been set up and a bureau established where watches can be tested. The purpose of the scheme is to enable the purchaser of a watch to select one knowing to what standard of accuracy it will attain.

The performance of watches—wrist watches particularly—is influenced by conditions of wear, which vary considerably with different individuals. Watches, therefore, sometimes require regulation after they have been in use. The new scheme enables the purchaser to obtain an assurance of what the watch will do at the time of sale.

A series of graded timekeeping standards has been set up for general adoption in the trade. Watches are classified into three types, according to the method of construction. The reason for this is that some watches, though giving the same timekeeping results as others while new, cannot reasonably be expected to give the same service over u period of years. Definite timekeeping performances are laid down for each class. Thus a class A 1 watch can be.bought with the knowledge that it has been found to keep time to within lOsec, either slow or fast, in the 24 hours, and that it is a watch of first-class construction calculated to go on keeping accurate time for many years. The standards are graded to cover the whole range of watches, so that everyone will be able to take advantage of the scheme, whether the price he or she is able to pay is high or low. A Co watch—that is to say, of the lowest standard—will not vary from correct time more than three minutes a day either way, but it would not be fair to expect it to maintain this standard for long. The purchaser of a watch will be able, if he desires, to have one with a certificate showing that the watch has been officially tested and found to conform to such and such a standard. The cost of the test is only a few pence, so that it will not add appreciably to the price of the watch. The standards are contained in a leaflet, which includes diagrams of the different types of escapement (the most important part of a watch movement! showing clearly which can be relied on to keep good time and continue to do so.