Tudor launches its first Master Chronometer-certified watch. If until now Omega had been the only Swiss brand to be certified by the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (Metas), in a surprise move Rolex's little sister, increasingly independent of the cumbersome queen brand, has also unveiled the Black Bay Ceramic, which sports the Master Chronometer inscription on the dial and which in design echoes the unique piece created for Only Watch in 2019, but with white indexes. Obtaining Master Chronometer status is not easy. It requires strict specifications regarding the construction of the watch in its entirety. The specifications to be met are: Swiss Made, Cosc-certified movement, resistance to magnetic fields of up to 15,000 Gauss (the field generated by a magnetic resonance imaging), chronometric accuracy on the wrist, constancy of precision throughout the duration of the winding stated by the manufacturer, water resistance of the case to 200 metres and beyond. 
The execution of the tests is entirely the responsibility of the manufacturer and it takes a huge investment in money, personnel and machinery to implement an in-house Metas laboratory. The Federal Institute has control over the specifications of the laboratory and carries out periodic spot tests to verify the accuracy of the controls carried out by the manufacture. In contrast to the Cosc, the Metas does not have its own facilities where brands send their movements (or watches), but, as with the Cosc, each individual piece must be tested in order to be certified. And this takes place within the factory. It is easy to think, therefore, that investing in Master Chronometer certification for a single watch is uneconomic, to say the least. It is more reasonable to assume that Tudor's objective is to extend testing and certification, progressively, to all or almost all of its production, following the path traced by Omega.
Price4,610 euro.
