exclusive - Louis Moinet

T h e Wo r l d w i d e R e p u t e d Wa t c h M a g a z i n e i n t h e M i d d l e E a s t
exclusive
Special Motorsports Coverage
• Rolex Supersonic Speed
• Hublot Timepieces for the Tifosi
• Guide: Victory Laps
•
since 1990
Parmigiani & Bugatti
‫شراكة قوية للتميز التقني‬
‫فرحة فاخرة‬
‫المرصعة باألحجار الكريمة‬
ّ
‫تميّز الساعات‬
Urwerk
Knights in Space
Review 2014
Watches in Subtle Technology
Cartier’s
Culture of Creativity
Two hundred years after Louis Moinet invented the
chronograph with start, stop and reset, enthusiasts
have embraced the multi-subdialed wrist timer as the
very definition of a sports watch.
Stop.
Start.
Reset.
Patek Philippe
Nautilus Travel
Time Chronograph
While most chronographs feature two pushers and
require three clicks, the wider world of chronographs
includes a variety of timing options.
By Angus Davies
Blancpain’s new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe now features a high-speed
chronograph with a flyback function
T
he chronographs, much like alarms and GMT complications,
confer immediate benefits that can prove useful in normal
everyday life and for many, myself included, they represent
wonderful complications to own.
The chronograph is of course recognizable by the addition of two
pushers, usually positioned at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock. Ordinarily, the
upper pusher starts the stopwatch function and a further press stops it.
The pusher at 4 o’clock resets the central chronograph seconds hand
and the hands on the various registers.
And of course, there is that easy-to-recognize dial, typically boasting of
its usefulness with two or three subdials. However, there is much more
to chronographs than this simple description may imply.
Thanks to economies of scale, chronographs are made in relatively
large numbers and prices are relatively affordable. Moreover, with
serially produced movements from a wide variety of Swiss and nonSwiss producers, as well as with the frequently used higher-end ETA
Valjoux 7750, chronographs have become accessible to watch lovers
for relatively modest sums.
In fact, chronographs are so in-demand that you’ll frequently see lowend quartz models with dials that appear to be chronographs, but upon
close inspection are simply multi-function or time/date watches outfitted
with chrono-style subdials.
What makes chronographs so special?
Legions of watch addicts around the globe adore the physical
interaction between index finger and pusher. It makes horology seem a
more participative ownership experience and connects the owner to the
micro-mechanics housed within their cherished timepiece.
Apart from the human interface with the action of the chronograph,
there is the usefulness this complication confers. A competitive parent at
their child’s school sports day may well wish to time Junior running 400
meters. Alternatively, a chronograph is useful to gauge the time taken to
perform a morning jog.
In many cases, chronographs have been sought for professional use.
Motor racing personnel use chronographs to measure lap times or the
67
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2014 INTERNATIONAL WATCH
Reference 5951P-013 Patek Philippe
Grand Complications, a split-seconds
monopusher chronograph
speed taken to perform a pit stop. Indeed, the Heuer Carrera, launched
in 1963, was named after the Carrera Panamericana Mexico Road Race
and has been a firm favorite with motor sport fans ever since. As this
motorsports issue of iW annually confirms, many watch companies tout
their alliances to motorsports in many ways. In nearly every instance,
you’ll find a chronograph at the heart of that partnership.
The Habring2 Doppel
3, with a rattrapante
pusher at 10 o’clock.
Above: Montblanc’s Nicolas Rieussec
Chronograph Rising Hours
Right: The 1969 Zenith El Primero
high-speed chronograph
Bell & Ross WW1
monopusher
chronograph
The first chronograph
Swiss watch company Louis Moinet in 2013 rediscovered and showed
the world the first chronograph, the compteur, a high-frequency pocket
watch developed by its namesake Louis Moinet in Paris in 1816. This
occurred several years before Nicolas Rieussec’s ‘ink chronograph’
was patented (1822), and the watch featured a return-to-zero function
previously thought to date to Adolphe Nicole’s patent of 1862.
That pocket watch chronograph’s balance beat at 216,000 vibrations
an hour or at the then-unimaginable frequency of 30Hz, thus imparting
60 vibrations a second. Louis Moinet is thus the father of high-frequency
time measurement, although it was not until exactly a century later that
a watch was made to beat his record.
Moinet was said to have made the watch “for an astronomical transit
instrument, originally mounted for use at sea, that he had adapted to
track the movement of heavenly bodies from the land. According to a
letter he wrote in 1823, “I came to Paris in 1815 with the sole purpose
of devising and making a compteur de tierces. The difficult and seldom
attempted realization of this instrument of a new construction, has
achieved my purpose most satisfactorily.”
In 1821, Nicolas Rieussec extended this idea timing races, developing
what was the first chronograph to be later commercialized. While
attending a horse race in Paris, he recorded the times of all horses
crossing the finishing line to an accuracy of a quarter of a second with
his time-writing chronograph. His machine employed two rotating discs
positioned beneath an ink-filled marker, recording elapsed times on
paper. (Today, the two rotating discs have provided inspiration for the
INTERNATIONAL WATCH NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2014
66
design of the Montblanc Rieussec Chronographs with their unusual, but
incredibly handsome, aesthetics. Rest assured no ink features in these
modern watches.)
While most mechanical chronographs today are automatic, self-winding
chronographs were not found on wristwatches until 1969 when several
Swiss and American companies (Heuer, Breitling, Hamilton and Dubois
Dépraz, Zenith and Movado) and one Japanese company, Seiko, all
debuted specific types of automatic chronographs within months of
each other.
All this set the stage for the plethora of models today available to those
who seek the usual start-stop-reset chronograph or one of the many
variations available. Let’s look at a few of the most common types of
chronograph functions– and see a few models that offer them.
Roger Dubuis
Excalibur 42
Chronograph
The Longines Avigation,
a monopusher
chronograph
Seiko in 1969
helped pioneer
early automatic
chronographs.
Pictured is a Seiko
Ananta ‘Kumadori’
Chronograph
65
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2014 INTERNATIONAL WATCH
The flyback
Imagine for a moment you are timing consecutive events. You need to
stop, reset and start the chronograph in minimal time while recording
an elapsed period as accurately as possible. With a conventional
chronograph, the action of nimbly pressing the pushers at 2 o’clock, 4
o’clock and then 2 o’clock again can prove particularly tricky.
The flyback chronograph is the answer. A flyback chronograph behaves
in exactly the same way as a conventional chronograph in terms of
the stopwatch function. It is actuated by the pusher at 2 o’clock and
stopped by pressing the same push-piece again. When the hands are
stationery, pressing the pusher at 4 o’clock resets the hands. However,
with a flyback chronograph (if the stopwatch is in motion) the wearer
can press the pusher at 4 o’clock and the stopwatch will stop, reset
and start in one action. Simple and quick, it makes timing consecutive
events a matter of child’s play.
Blancpain recently debuted an interesting example of the flyback
chronograph. The new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe model houses a new
Manufacture Blancpain movement, featuring a high frequency of 36,000
vibrations per hour. The model, measuring 43mm in diameter, is available
in a choice of brushed steel with a meteor gray dial or brushed black
ceramic with black dial. It is the latter variant that shows that a flyback
chronograph can offer stylish aesthetics as well as useful functionality.
The rattrapante
Rattrapante means “catch up” in French and is a particularly complex
chronograph to execute. Two central chronograph second hands
traverse the dial in unison. To the naked eye it appears there is merely
one hand; however, a lower hand resides beneath the chronograph
hand, hidden from view.
The rattrapante usually has two pushers positioned on the right hand
side of the case, similar to the aforementioned “usual” chronograph, but
also has an additional pusher, often positioned at 10 o’clock.
Assume the chronograph is actuated at 2 o’clock, perhaps after a runner
has commenced a relay. The baton is subsequently passed to another
runner and the wearer of the watch now presses the pusher at 10
o’clock. The upper chronograph hand stops and the lower rattrapante
hand is revealed, recording the elapsed time of the second phase of the
relay. This allows the first stage of the relay to be noted while the total
race time is still being recorded.
Thereafter, the pusher at 10 o’clock can be pressed and the upper
chronograph hand catches up, once again appearing as one hand, with
the rattrapante hand hidden from view. Pressing the pusher at 2 o’clock
stops the stopwatch function and pressing the pusher at 4 o’clock
resets the various hands.
The gap between central chronograph seconds and rattrapante hand
is incredibly small. It necessitates much watchmaking prowess to bring
this type of complication to fruition. Sometimes other terms are used in
place of rattrapante such as doppel-chronograph, double-split or splitseconds chronograph, but the joy of use remains the same.
A young brand that has made a name for itself with the rattrapante
is Austrian independent company Habring2 with its wonderful Doppel
3. Unusually, it combines the roles of the pushers, normally found at
2 o’clock and 4 o’clock, with just one pusher at 2 o’clock. This, in
combination with the rattrapante pusher at 10 o’clock, imparts a
delightful balance to the case design.
An artistic rendering of the Zenith El Primero chronograph.
Arnold & Son CTB, with central
dead beat seconds hand.
The mono-pusher
Simplicity of line is conferred with one pusher that starts, stops and
resets the chronograph. The sole button of a monopusher can perform
all of the necessary tasks to operate the stopwatch function. It may
sound a small detail, but to make it happen is far more complex and
necessitates more engineering than does a standard model.
However, the ultimate expression of clean, uncluttered design is where
the monopusher is situated within the winding crown. A good example
of this is the Bell & Ross WW1 Chronographe Monopoussir Heritage. It
is inspired by pilots’ watches of the 1920s and features charming loop
attachments to affix the strap to the case.
The dial features a bi-compax layout. This term is used to describe two
subdials positioned on the dial. They accord a sublime symmetry, which
proffers an abundance of eye-appeal. Alternatively, some wearers may
succumb to the charms of a tri-compax layout, which, as the name
implies, features three subdials.
Modular and integrated chronographs
In simple terms, there are two categories of chronographs, modular and
integrated. The modular chronograph features a base movement with a
chronograph module added on top, whereas the integrated movement
is a clean-sheet design, always destined to be a chronograph.
Modular chronographs are generally less expensive and easier to
service than integrated chronographs. However, when the chronograph
is actuated it can draw much power from the mainspring and, as a
result, adversely affect the timekeeping of the watch.
Another disadvantage of a modular chronograph is that sometimes
there is a noticeable stuttering of the central chronograph seconds
hand when the stopwatch is started. A fully integrated chronograph will
invariably have a delightful action to its pushers. Pressing them should
deliver a silky smooth action and superior tactile feel.
A column-wheel chronograph, a form of integrated chronograph,
provides a useful safety function. With some chronographs, pressing
the reset button without stopping the stopwatch hands first can result
in damage to the gear train of the movement. A column wheel, with its
series of pillars often visible via a clear caseback, prevents any resultant
damage caused by pressing the reset button at an inopportune moment.
However, arguably the most enchanting aspect of a fully integrated
column-wheel chronograph, particularly with a horizontal coupling,
is the sight of the chronograph engaging and disengaging. Indeed,
such is the majesty of this spectacle, that I confess to enjoying nothing
more than pressing the pushers of a chronograph, with glove clad
hands and loupe affixed to my eye, admiring the view afforded by an
exhibition caseback.
The ultimate expression of chronograph ownership can be likened to
going on holiday in an open-topped sports car. There are many delights
awaiting you at your chosen destination, but the pleasure conferred
with travel cannot be ignored. The chronograph offers much merit in
terms of functionality, but the column-wheel chronograph bestows an
abundance of pleasure by virtue of the way it operates.
Above: DeBethune’s DB29
Maxichrono Tourbillon features
a monopusher chronograph
A classic Heuer Carrera
chronograph from 1963
INTERNATIONAL WATCH NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2014
64