As explained by Patrick Jaton, Director of TIMELAB, “The review and expansion of the criteria and the new regulations result from an extensive investigation made by an ad hoc commission. Composed of a multidisciplinary team of experts from the watchmaking industry, the “Ecole d’Horlogerie de Genève” and the TIMELAB Foundation, the commission held the criteria review with an approach based on the expectations of final customers looking for exceptional products possessing faultless reliability.”
He specified that the “Poinçon de Genève” regulations and the new criteria with the added technical requirements for the watch head and appearance will be operational from June 2012. An extension nonetheless will be given to applicants in order to give them time to adapt their manufacturing operations to the latest directives.
http://people.timezone.com/jmerino/genevasealchanges.pdf
