Chronograph

Chronograph is a term that you will hear discussed by horologists and bandied about by manufacturers but oddly enough it is very rarely explained properly. You may be purchasing a watch with a chronograph function but does that mean anything to you? To the majority of people out shopping for a new timepiece whilst it may be sold to them as a must have feature it is easy to remain in the dark without actually knowing what a chronograph actually is. Here are foundit4watches we believe you should make an informed, honest decision when you purchase your timepiece, henceforth we hope to explain these complicated terms to you to help you in making that informed decision.

A chronograph is simply a timepiece that has not only timekeeping but also a stopwatch function. Simply really, isn't it? It makes you wander why it is never more properly explained. The first chronographs were produced as far back as the early 18th century and were very popular through the 19th century amongst the gentry and merchant class. Chronograph functions are often incorporated into all sorts of timepieces, from aviators watches that will set you back thousands of pounds to cheap quartz watches that you can pick up for under ten pounds. In fact it is one of the most useful and also most incorporated "extra" features in many timepieces although most good horologists will provide either a model of watch specifically designed around the concept of a chronograph, or provide two versions of the same model, a standard watch and a chronograph version.

There are three different types of chronographs in circulation at the moment, analogue, digital and a mixture of the two commonly referred to as an analogue-digital chronograph. An analogue chronograph shows the time and stopwatch function with regular analogue hands. Usually the main centre hand is used for the stopwatch functions and there will be smaller dials on the main dial of the watch that will indicate things like seconds, minutes and hours on the stopwatch function. A digital chronograph is a simple digital watch with a mode function that allows you to swap between a display of the time and a stopwatch display. Usually the stopwatch will continue running even if you navigate back to the time function. Finally an analogue-digital chronograph is usually a standard analogue style watch with a permanent seconds hand in the centre but that features a separate digital display on the face of the watch that operates separately from the analogue timekeeping function.