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The term “chronometer” dates back more than 150 years, and originally referred to marine clocks whose accuracy enabled precise navigation. In the 20th century, it became a designation of timekeeping excellence reserved for only the most accurate watches. A byword for reliability, chronometer certification is fundamental to the reputation of brands including Rolex and Omega, but has seen its value decline with their adoption of more demanding in-house standards.

For more than half a century, Swiss watches have been certified by COSC, a not-for-profit organisation established in 1973. Its independent testing regime stipulates a level of daily variation in timekeeping that, if met, permits the watch to be sold as “chronometer certified”. Based on an ISO standard first drawn up in 1976, its headline criteria — that a watch should lose no more than four seconds and gain no more than six in a 24-hour period — have been improved upon by several brands in the past 20 years.

Now, after decades of near-silence, COSC has announced it will introduce a more stringent standard of accuracy. The so-called “Super-COSC” will make its debut in September 2026, and build on rather than replace its current level of certification.

“The market is changing,” says COSC’s CEO Andreas Wyss. “Rolex has its superlative chronometer certificate; Omega its master chronometer. We knew that the ISO certification that we use today is old, maybe too old, but it’s difficult to change that. So we took control and said we have to do something first.”

Full details of the upcoming standard are yet to be announced, but Wyss said it would almost certainly improve the standard for daily accuracy by cutting the threshold in half, as well as testing other attributes such as magnetic resistance and power reserve, to provide a more rounded certification of quality. The Super-COSC would also test cased-up watches, as opposed to movements — which is the norm for current COSC testing — to better represent a watch’s performance in the real world.

Wyss says the improved standard, as well as COSC’s decision to be more vocal in promoting its role in the industry, reflects a need for the organisation to improve its image.

“We questioned our customers to know the perception that they have of COSC and the value of the certification. Most of them said the image of COSC is dusty. They said the ISO certification is good, but it’s not sufficient. The end customer needs more.”

Exactly which brands submit watches to COSC, and in what quantities, has been a secret since 2016, when the organisation ceased to disclose the information in its annual reports. Rolex, which Morgan Stanley estimated sold 1.18mn watches in 2024, submits every movement it produces to COSC, as does Breitling, which sold an estimated 160,000 watches last year.

We knew that the ISO certification that we use today is old, maybe too old, but it’s difficult to change that

Omega’s Metas-certified watches must first achieve a regular COSC certificate; between them, these three constitute the majority of COSC’s custom. In its annual report for 2024 COSC says it issued 2.38mn certificates, a decline of 5 per cent on 2023.

“Breitling was among the brands encouraging COSC to update its certification standards,” says the company’s chief operating officer Daniel Braillard. “We submit 100 per cent of our production to COSC testing — both mechanical and quartz — which provides customers with the reassurance of proven precision, reliability and quality. Advances in technology and materials allow us to improve the performance of our watches, and it is therefore necessary and important that testing criteria evolve as well.

“The current standards remain highly relevant, but they no longer fully reflect the capabilities of modern watchmaking. This is why the Super-COSC initiative is so compelling: the new criteria will apply not only to the movement but to the entire watch, with stricter tolerances for precision and added new tests for resistance-to-magnetism testing and power reserve.”

Braillard says Breitling is considering whether to submit watches for Super-COSC certification in 2026. As the largest maker of chronometers not to have adopted any additional benchmarks, its support would be valuable to establishing credibility for the new standard.

For Wyss, the introduction of a new standard is not about competing with other tests. “Our goal is really not to enter in competition with Metas. Our message to the end customer is to say the watch you buy will function every day with no problem. We don’t say you can go on the Moon or in the Marianas Trench.”

For COSC, the move will have financial as well as reputational implications. Charging brands for certification is its only revenue stream. Wyss says it costs just under SFr10 per movement for standard COSC certification, and although no prices have been set for Super-COSC, it will cost more, as watches will still have to pass the existing test.

Wyss estimates that the upstream cost to a brand submitting a mechanical movement for COSC certification is around SFr50, which may also increase.

“All revenue generated from testing is fully reinvested into our operations and the ongoing development of our services,” says Wyss.

“There’s a time and a place for beautiful watches,” says Edward Margulies, co-founder of Split Watches. “But sometimes people hide behind their gold Rolex or their Richard Mille and it can be superficial. Every aspect of what I’m trying to do is about connecting people honestly and creating real conversations.”

Within moments of speaking to Margulies, 53, it’s clear this isn’t going to be a typical watch story interview. Speaking from his West London home, where he launched his new watch company in July, the entrepreneur tells a very personal story.

Margulies began his career in watches more than 30 years ago, learning the ropes in Switzerland with brands such as Longines and Vacheron Constantin, and spending time at Blancpain under Jean-Claude Biver, who would later turn Hublot into a household name. In the UK, he would work for the retailer Asprey and the ill-fated Ratners jewellers, then in distributing luxury watch brands, before spending three years in the 2000s managing Marcus, his father’s namesake Bond Street high-end watch store that closed in 2017.

“It was a very successful period, but honestly, with the brands we had, anyone could have done it,” says Margulies with disarming self-deprecation of his time running the store. Back then, the Marcus boutique was known for its exceptional collection of pieces from the likes of Audemars Piguet, Franck Muller and Hublot, as well as for championing a new generation of independents, such as Greubel Forsey and Urwerk.

Behind the glamour and the record sales, though, all was not well. “I never felt right in that environment,” Margulies admits. “At parties, I’d have what we’d now call imposter syndrome. I was lucky to work with some incredible brands who did incredible things, but certain parts of the industry didn’t sit well with me. There was a huge amount of status and ego.”

It would lead to what he now calls “a wobble” and significant mental health problems. “I would smile at the school gate and tell everyone I was OK, and then drive away and cry in my car for a couple of hours,” he says. “I needed some time away from the luxury watch industry to focus my energies on my family.”

He may have fallen out of love with the watch industry, but never with its product. “I love tradition and heritage and I’ve always loved watches,” he says. “Life is so complicated now and we have so much information thrown at us all the time, but a simple mechanical watch is a beautiful thing.”

Having found help and got back on his feet, a couple of years ago, he and consultant friend Dara Amjadi decided to create a new watch company that combined their love of watches with a mental health message. Split Watches was born and in July this year it introduced its first collection, a drop of three 250-piece limited-edition watches called the MC-1, MC-2 and MC-3 in beige, black and blue respectively, named in homage to the 1960s counterculture US rock band MC5.

Designed in England and powered by automatic Seiko movements from Japan, they’re sports watches with bicompax (twin-counter) chronographs, cases made of a soft-touch but highly scratch-resistant ceramic and polymer material called Ceramod+, and set on straps made of FKM, a heat- and bacteria-resistant rubber, which Margulies says is more expensive than a stainless steel bracelet. Each strap has a space for an optional personalised message that Margulies says is handwritten and varnished by a local calligrapher.

The watches cost £1,800 and come with a promise. “We’re giving an hour’s therapy to the Anna Freud mental health charity from the sale of every watch,” says Margulies, adding that the per-watch donation will be £100 minimum. “They focus on helping youths and young people and that felt important to me.”

Margulies says his watches aren’t designed to convey status. “People have been willing to spend £300 on a logo T-shirt made in Taiwan,” he says. “But they’re now questioning that and why they spent that much money on a product that doesn’t cost that much to make. I wanted to create that meaning and make people feel connected. We’re all humans and we’re all far more connected than we realise.”

The most immediate symbol of Split’s ethos is in its marketing campaign. Where most watches are photographed with hands at 10:10 because they form a smile, Margulies opted for 7:20. “We call it the ‘Brave Face’,” he says.

“It creates a frown. When you’re having a bad day, you can hide behind a smile, which can be very harmful. I wanted to make people aware that a frown or a sad face doesn’t need to be hidden away.”

What about the name — Split Watches? “I’ve always loved how split-seconds chronographs and bicompax chronographs look,” says Margulies. “But it’s also about our split personalities and how we often put on a smile when everything’s not OK. And then there’s how we’re a bit split from one another at the moment, too. I didn’t want to put my name on a watch, so this felt like the right thing.”

Further versions of the watch in bright yellow and green have now joined the collection, and Margulies says he has a chocolate brown iteration and a white version that glows in the dark on the way. In the spring he’ll launch a GMT collection, also powered by a Japanese movement, priced below £1,000.

Collaborative limited-editions based on “opening real conversations” are in the pipeline, too, and he says they’ll come with a larger donation to Anna Freud. He’s already worked with musician and Radio 6 DJ Don Letts — “he’s a hugely kind and trustworthy human being” — and the actor and hip-hop artist Jordan Stephens.

I was lucky to work with some incredible brands who did incredible things, but certain parts of the industry didn’t sit well with me

Margulies is also planning a podcast where he will interview members of the watch community who are “comfortable to talk about their personal journey”. His five-year goal, he says, is to introduce a sub-brand selling watches for under £100 “that everyone can afford to buy” and that will send all its profits to mental health charities.

Split Watches arrives in a difficult moment for watchmaking, with sales of Swiss watches depressed and the economic turmoil created by factors such as wars in Europe and the Middle East and US tariffs causing headaches for brands.

“It’s a tough industry at the moment and those moments I’d had thinking of selling out in a few minutes, well it wasn’t to be, but we’ve had solid sales,” says Margulies. “I’m in a saturated world and what I’m doing will push people out of their comfort zones. I just want a watch to go back to what it was meant to be — a watch.”