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The chronograph, coming from the words "chronos," meaning time, and "graph," meaning the record of an event. In contemporary times, a chronograph watch is usually paired with a general timekeeping mechanism showing the hours and minutes of the day. In certain specialized circumstances, the chronograph is separated from these normal hours and minute calculations, called a "stop watch".

In any case a chronograph, or stop watch, is meant to record special events that require very precise documentation. The early chronographs of 200 years ago were quite simplistic in their approach to short term time documentation. They incorporated a fountain pen at the end of a special seconds hand that marked an ink trace at the perimeter of the dial that obviously needed to be erased after each event, and was only readable for short events of less than one minute. Things have changed dramatically. Modern chronographs are certainly user-friendly and can record events of fractional seconds, minutes, and hours with great accuracy.

History in Brief

Frenchman Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec is credited with creating the first true chronograph in clock form in 1821, though it must be noted that there are competing claims of paternity. Rieussec's clock wrote out the elapsed time on paper, using ink. Other significant milestones in the story of this complication are its first appearance in a pocket watch (1844, through Adolphe Nicole), the introduction of the now-familiar three-push system and sweep seconds hand (1862, also by Nicole) and the introduction of this same system in a wristwatch in 1933 by Breitling. Finally, both Breitling and Zenith pioneered automatic chronograph movements for the wristwatch in 1969.