Know Your Watches: What Is A Chronograph Watch?

A watch is not simply an instrument that tells the time. Rather, it is a piece of machinery that can perform a variety of different functions that sit atop your wrist. With just a push of a few buttons one can know the day, date, phase of the moon, use it as a stopwatch and so on. When it comes to mechanical watches, it is the chronograph that garners a lot of attention among watch enthusiasts. 

The name chronograph is a combination of the Greek word chrono meaning time and graph meaning writer. Instantly recognizable thanks to its multiple dials, a chronograph watch is one of the oldest watch complications in the world of horology and is mainly used for its stopwatch feature that allows the wearer to record elapsed time. Many chronograph watches, especially those that are dedicated to racing, include a tachymeter scale on the bezel or dial. A tachymeter scale facilitates the calculation of speed (over a set distance) or distance (over a set speed), in either kilometers or miles. 

Like most mechanical watch complications, the history of the chronograph is a long and convoluted one with many key players. French watchmaker Louis Moinet is widely regarded as the father of Chronographs as he designed a pocket watch with a stopwatch for astronomers in 1815. Today, almost every watchmaking maison offers chronograph watches among its collections. Although there are several styles, the most common type of chronograph is one with two chronograph pushers framing the winding crown and three counters on the dial. The top pusher starts and stops the chronograph hand while the bottom pusher resets it back to zero. More often than not, there’s one counter to track the passing minutes of the chronograph and one to track the passing hours. The third counter is the running seconds indicator. 

Types of Chronographs

Once you get deep into the chronograph world, you’ll notice that there are various types available outside of the traditional versions.

Traditional Chronograph: A traditional chronograph is characterized by a single chronograph hand, two pushers, and a three-step start-stop-reset operation. These normally have three counters (sometimes called tri-compax) on the dial, but some chronographs only include two counters (sometimes called bi-compax). Some of the best luxury traditional chronographs include the Rolex Daytona, Omega Speedmaster and Louis Moinet. 

Single-Pusher Chronograph: As its name suggests, a single-pusher chronograph (also known as a monopusher or monopoussoir chronograph) relies on one pusher (rather than two) to control the chronograph hand. Some excellent examples of monopusher chronograph watches include Cartier Tortue Monopusher Chronograph and Vacheron Constantin Harmony Monopusher Chronograph. 

Flyback Chronograph: A flyback chronograph (also known as a retour-en-vol chronograph) does not require the chronograph hand to stop before being reset back to zero. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph, FP Journe Octa Chronographe and MB&F LM Sequential EVO are some of the best flyback chronographs available today.

Split-Seconds Chronograph: One of the most complex versions is a split-seconds chronograph (also known as a rattrapante chronograph), which is used to time different events that begin but do not end together thanks to two chronograph hands. It is not uncommon for high horology to combine a split seconds chronograph with other complications to develop a grand complication. Patek Philippe 5370P Split-Seconds Chronograph and A. Lange & Söhne Triple Split are superb specimens of a split seconds chronograph.