How to Deal with a Chronograph?

If you are not a watch expert, you may easily get lost in all those additional functions of a timepiece and their usage. As chronographs represent the most popular complication featured by numerous timepieces, you may find useful to learn more about chronograph watches and their peculiarities.

Speaking about chronograph watches, first of all it is necessary to make clear what exactly the 'chronograph' function implies. A chronograph is a kind of a stopwatch or a timer responsible for measuring elapsed time.

In case of analog chronographs the elapsed time is featured by a hand found in the center of the dial instead of a usual sweep seconds hand of a non-chronograph watch. The watch's owner uses a special button (also called a pusher) placed on the side of the watch's case for starting and stopping the chronograph hand. There is also one more button for returning the hand to the starting position.

Many chronograph watches feature sub-dials, also called totalizers, counters or registers. With help of sub-dials they display the elapsed minutes and sometimes hours. The majority of chronographs also have a sub-dial displaying the constantly running seconds.

Owners of digital watches have to adjust their timepiece to the 'chronograph' mode in order to start and stop the chronograph function. It may be done differently according to a watch's model. Digital watches are usually supplied with a booklet giving the necessary instructions.

The method of chronograph operating varies from model to model. Still, pay attention to a few general rules:

• the chronograph function works independently from timekeeping. It means that when a watch's owner is timing some event, his watch still keeps track of the current time.
• a pushbutton is used for starting and stopping the chronograph. In some models he chronograph may be set and stopped with the same button, while other models have separate buttons.
• when the elapsed time has been measured, the watch's owner presses another button to return the chronograph hand to the starting position.
• besides watch models that have chronographs measuring the elapsed seconds, minutes and hours, there are also chronograph watches timing fractions of a second. Sometimes for reading fractions of a second instead of a sub-dial there is a scale found at the edge of the dial. Digital chronographs provide readings to the 1/100 of a second, analog quartz chronographs - to 1/10 of a second and mechanical chronographs to 1/5 of a second.
• when the watch's owner pushes the necessary button, the hands on the chronograph sub-dials come to the starting position simultaneously with the seconds hand.
• the last but not the least: a chronograph is not the same as a chronometer. A chronometer provides supreme accuracy of timekeeping. To gain a chronometer status, the timepiece is subjected to the strictest tests under control of official testing organization. However, a chronometer watch may provide a chronograph function.