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Research · Tenue Score / Engine / Frame / Bench

How Tenue Score works

How much watch is in this watch?

In Switzerland they would say tenue: how the watch holds itself. Its bearing. Not the brand. Not the price. How much watch is in this watch.

Every other ranking mixed price and fame into how good a watch is. This one does not. You get Engine, Frame, and Bench. Price stays off. Brand prestige stays off. Craft and Vision stand beside the number. They do not inflate it.

Engine. Frame. Bench.

What the card prints

  • Tenue Score

    Engine + Frame + Bench, out of 100. In Switzerland they would say tenue: how the watch holds itself. Price and brand fame stay off the sheet.

  • Engine

    Barrels, beat, escape, load, protocol.

  • Frame

    Case, seal, clasp, carrier, crystal, lume.

  • Bench

    Whether it can be serviced and kept alive.

  • Craft

    0 to 20. Beside. Never added.

  • Vision

    0 to 20. Beside. Not yet scored on live cards.

Craft and Vision stand beside the number. They do not inflate it.

Three parts of the number

  1. Engine

    45

    The calibre and how it times. Barrels, beat, escape, load, protocol.

  2. Frame

    38

    Case, seal, clasp, carrier, crystal, lume. Unused points stay unused.

  3. Bench

    10

    Whether it can be serviced and kept alive.

The number you see is out of 100. 100 is today’s production ceiling, not a stuffed category. Craft and Vision never enter that total.

Why one number is not enough

Put a steel Datejust next to a hand-finished Chopard. The Datejust can take Tenue Score on Engine and independent timing. The Chopard can take Engine quality and Craft. That split is the point. Read the number with what stands beside it.

  • Datejust 36 126234 · TS 73 · Engine 24 · Craft 0
  • L.U.C Mark III · TS 63 · Engine 27 · Craft 7

What stays off the sheet

Price. Brand fame. Auction results. Scarcity. Celebrity. Craft used as prestige. Quartz is not scored. Hybrid movements lose points. A maker’s own long test is not the same as an independent lab. A clasp you can adjust on the wrist scores higher than one you cannot — no brand owns the top of that scale.

Nobody pays to move a Tenue Score. If you want what to pay for a listing, that is Ask— a different door.