Chronograph
What is a chronograph?
A chronograph is a time keeping instrument that has at least one hand that can be stopped at will to measure an amount of elapsed time. Chronographs are more commonly known today as stopwatches. Today they come in two basic forms, mechanical and digital.
Mechanical stopwatches are powered by a spring mechanism that must be continuously wound, and operate at the control of two or more buttons. Pressing the buttons starts and stops the time tracking mechanism, displayed by second and minute hands, which can be reset to a starting position by pushing an additional button. For most purposes, mechanical chronographs are accurate enough, though anyone desiring a high degree of accuracy will use a digital stopwatch. Capable of displaying tenths, hundredths, even thousandths of seconds, and using the same extremely accurate and reliable oscillator found in quartz watches, digital chronographs are the most popular form of the chronograph today.
The first chronograph like instrument was developed in 1720 by an Englishman named Graham, who is today referred to as ‘the Father of the Chronograph’. His invention was basically a clock that could start and stop quickly to measure elapsed time during a specific event, and it was accurate within a sixteenth of a second. Although by today’s standards that is horribly inaccurate, it was marveled at in its day.
The first actual chronograph was made about a century later by a Frenchman named Rieussec. His clock had dots on it to measure the elapsed time, and was the first to bear the name ‘chronograph’. His invention used a pen to mark onto the dial itself an arc whose length could be used to measure how long the mechanism had operated for.
The Greek roots of the word ‘chronograph’ suggest that it actually means ‘time writing’, and since Rieussec’s invention was the only one to involve writing it is the only real chronograph. Chronographs today are more accurately described as stopwatches, in that they are capable of measuring elapsed time but do no recording of any sort. Although it is technically a misnomer, many people still refer to stopwatches as chronographs, and the names are for nearly all intents and purposes interchangeable.
Many wristwatches today have built in stopwatches of their own, of both digital and mechanical varieties. Analog wristwatches that have a built in mechanical stopwatch are simply referred to as chronographs, and usually carry a heftier price tag due to their complexity.
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