A chronograph is basically a very simple device: it’s a combination of a wristwatch and a stopwatch. Able to tell time as well as measure elapsed time, it’s one of the most useful in daily life of all watchmaking’s complications, whether you’re timing a three minute egg or, as Apollo 13′s crew did, using one to time course correction engine burns to guide a crippled spacecraft home (the crew was forced to use their Omega Speedmaster wristwatches as all electrical power to their cabin instruments had been cut to conserve battery power.)
The simplicity of the description belies the complexity of the chronograph, however –of all of watchmaking’s complications it was the last to be invented. The first chronograph was invented in the 1820s by Nicolas Rieussec, and the first selfwinding chronograph watches didn’t appear until almost unbelievably late in watchmaking history –1969 was the year three different automatic chronographs came out almost simultaneously; ironically enough the same year that Seiko introduced the world’s first quartz wristwatch.
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