Marine Chronometer, a special type of watch!
A marine chronometer is a timekeeper precise enough to be used as a portable time standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. They were the high tech product of their era, ranking in importance to the modern era with such inventions as GPS, the telegraph, steel making, railways, steamships and so forth. The chronometer was the life work of one man, John Harrison, spanning 31 years of persistent trial and error that revolutionized naval (and later aerial) navigation as the Age of Discovery and the Scramble for India waned and Colonialism hit a new gear.
The term chronometer is also used to describe watches tested and certified to meet certain precision standards. In Switzerland, only timepieces certified by the COSC may display the word 'Chronometer.'
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