Observatory competitions, before the quartz crisis had been the endurance car-racing equivalent for the watch industry. An often drawn analogy with the automotive world would be to think of the Observatory tests as being akin to the Le Mans 24 Hours. Only the difference here is that you cannot work on the watch during the racing. You can only pre-test as much as possible, but as the Observatory tests are being conducted, you can only hope that the watch both survives, and does not drop too many points. The observatories were the keepers of the time of day. They knew when the sun would rise and the heavens would disappear and then re-appear. At a certain longitude and latitude, given the earth’s distance and rotational speed, sunrise, sunset, and the pattern of the heavens would be computable to an exact hour, minute, and second.
The idea for Observatory timing contests was initially instigated through a competition held at the observatory at Greenwich, London, England, in 1766. The reasons were fairly straightforward: if you had an accurate chronometer you could navigate across the world with greater precision. The determination of longitude (and where you were on the planet) required exact timing. Both the Royal Navy in England and the Navy in France offered substantial cash prizes to the timing competitions to encourage the development of marine chronometers and to find and acquire the most accurate versions on the market! The first chronometer competitions began in Geneva around 1790, but it was not until about 80 years later (in 1873) that the annual timing competitions were instigated for pocket chronometers. The international acceptance of the competitions was seen with the annual competitions being held at the Kew Observatory from 1884, and then subsequently in the following years at Besançon, Neuchâtel, Hamburg and Washington. In all instances a points system was adopted, computed via a weighted sum, although unfortunately there was no standardized system between the observatories. Unlike current timing tests organised by MIH (Musée International d'Horlogerie) and COSC (Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres), in cooperation with the Swiss Society of Chronometry, the Observatory of Besançon, and the Haute-Ecole ARC Ingénierie, the past timing competitions would last for anywhere between 30 and 50 days! Points were deducted according to a weighted sum that was based on a variety of factors such heat, position, and shocks.
This message has been edited by 219 on 2013-03-28 12:46:07