1999 will go down in the history of the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Agency (COSC) as the year in which every record was broken: absolute record for the number of timepieces submitted with 981,941 movements, i.e. 137,587 units, 16.3% up on 1998; record number of mechanical movements presented with 905,499 timepieces (+ 9%); record number of quartz movements with 76,442 pieces (+ 451.5%). Of this total, 946,536 movements passed their examination while 35,405 failed (30,566 mechanical and 4,839 electronic). As far as brands are concerned, Rolex still comes easily in the lead with 584,607 certificates followed by Omega (137,750), Breitling (127,659), Bulgari (22,601), TAG Heuer (13,342) and Panerai (12,826). Next in line are Vacheron Constantin (5,152), Tissot (4,838), Montega (4,186), Concord (3,319), Ikepod (3,287), Zenith (2,481), Ebel (2,456), Swatch (1,957), Muhle Glashutte (1,468), Ventura Design on Time (1,384) and Ulysse Nardin (1,280).

(October 31, 2000)