I appreciate your comments; I look forward to your posts because they are always very informative.
Like I wrote earlier, in agreement with John, whether the demise of the observatory trials is due to the quartz revolution or Japanese watches or anything else cannot be conclusively proven. That is my opinion, as well as the opinion of others. At the same time, you hold your opinion and there will be many people who agree with you too.
As for COSC replacing the observatory trials, COSC did replace them in the minds of the public and as a marketing concept. Watches with observatory certificates were certainly marketed as superlative timekeepers - Seiko certainly did not let people forget that - and similarly COSC-certified watches are the same. COSC is certainly not the same competitive procedure as the observatory trial, and that's why COSC watches are not ranked.
Lastly, for the Spring Drive, the going train has 4 wheels, plus the mainspring and flywheel. For a traditional mechanical watch, it consists of the mainspring, 3 wheels of the gear train, plus the 3 parts of the escapement (I count hairspring and balance as one). Perhaps "not a lot" I concede, but certainly not much less than a mechanical watch - 6 vs 7 parts.
- SJX
This message has been edited by SJX on 2008-01-05 19:30:54