A while back, I got set up with Sellita. Full access to anything they make. It’s like a dream come true for a nerdy watchmaker like me. So many possibilities! Recently, a customer asked me about getting a COSC certified watch. I logged in to start spec’ing out the movement, only I couldn’t spec a COSC certificate… Hmm…

I never put any stock in COSC, personally. It seems to me kinda like getting a NIST certificate on a torque wrench. If you’re in some regulated industry (aerospace, say), and you’re required to have a NIST certified torque wrench to make sure you don’t go around under-tightening bolts and killing people, then you get that certificate. Otherwise… I dunno. Maybe you get some coolpoints in the Cool Tool Club? I don’t know what a COSC certificate would be required for that would allow a mechanical watch over a quartz watch, but it seems pretty unnecessary since it would need to be renewed every time the watch is serviced on some more advanced service schedule to be worth anything.

Regardless, if the client wants a COSC certificate, I’ll do what I can to make that happen! I asked my Sellita rep how I would go about getting one. He sent me the form to apply, but told me it was probably pretty moot, because I would have to be a Swiss company, located in Switzerland, drinking Swiss Miss, and missing Ms. Wiss.

Wait, what? Why would being Swiss have ANYTHING to do with accuracy? Ah. Yes. Swiss marketing strategies… It doesn’t. At all. It’s just like the “Swiss Made” thing. If you aren’t aware, a watch is “Swiss Made” if it has something like 60% of the ECONOMIC value originating in Switzerland. One of those oft discussed topics in the darker corners of the internet. So… If Jens in Jura takes the Chinese movements made by Wen in Guangdo out of the weirdly pinkish cardboard box covered in Mandarin, and puts them into a more conventionally brown cardboard box with French on the side, and Jens is paid really well to do so, BOOM! Swiss Made! There is at least one “Swiss Made” movement manufacturer that shall remain nameless where I’m quite sure this is their business strategy.

I’m being slightly hyperbolic here (slightly). I’m sure there are other requirements to be “Swiss Made”, but I’m equally sure they have nothing to do with being Swiss made in the way words have meaning, and everything to do with protecting the Swiss watch industry. Sorta like how “fresh” means things in words, but somehow ends up on the dusty Doritos bag that fell behind the shelf at the 7/11. That’s fine. Some watch manufacturers (more accurately marketing companies that occasionally extrude a watch) make fewer watches so they can charge more. Kinda like how certain prancing pony car and beardy boomer motorcycle manufacturers are actually t-shirt companies that occasional emit a car or motorcycle. There’s an ass for every seat, I guess.

I have a deep seeded opposition to this sort of dishonest marketing. Marketing by technicality and verbiage that is carefully crafted to make you think one thing while meaning something else entirely due to some legal loophole. Definitely something you’ll NEVER see from Rocinante watches.

Got me thinking though. My watches aren’t Swiss Made. The movements are certainly Swiss. They simply make some of the best movements on the planet in this century, and that’s how I make that sort of decision. But 60% of the value doesn’t originate with a Frenchy sort of accent that isn’t quite French (not that there’s anything wrong with a cool accent, kinda wish I had one). Noop. Rocinante Watches are “Made in USA”. Or maybe “Made in Colorado”? Not by some legal appellative loophole where some lawyer is going to knock on my door to audit my payroll if I’m found to be using the words like words rather than marketing wank. That’s just what they are, because that’s what the words mean and what the reality is.

I haven’t really given it a ton of thought, as it only just occurred to me that I think I’m going to be required to put something somewhere to that effect at some point. Probably soon. I’m kinda Leaning in the “Made in USA” direction. Right now, most of my clients are located in other states, which is neat, and I feel like “Made in Colorado” would sort of amplify the appeal to a fairly small audience while decreasing the appeal to all the rest. On the other hand, there’s a certain romance to the Rocky Mountains. Rugged beauty, and nature, and wildlife, and struggling to breathe…

The ability exists to leave comments on this thing. So maybe weigh in? Let me know if you have a preference, and where you’re commenting from. I’m not gunning for that calculated audience engagement thing here. I’m genuinely curious how people feel about this sort of thing. This is at least marketing adjacent, and I am NOT good at marketing…