Chronograph Watches: Upping the Ante

Article Written By: Jenna Hilton

Part and parcel of being an athlete is being competitive. This trait is not exclusive to one's desire of beating opponents: it also refers to beating his or her record to be the best. Such is the reason why athletes usually have chronograph watches during training so they can keep track of their progress and then, improve their game so when the real competition starts, they are confident that they would win.

This type of sports watch is specialized in sort of slicing up time in different segments. Basically, this is a stopwatch worn on the wrist. Its stopwatch functions allow athletes to record their lap times and save them. This means that he or she can see up until the minute, second, and even millisecond that it took him or her to complete the lap or course. Chronograph watches work best with athletes who go around in laps or courses. Runners, swimmers, and racecar drivers usually have these kinds of watches.

This particular timepiece can be traced back to the 18th century where its ancestor is a pocket watch. However, the pocket watch that had chronographic functions did not become popular until the middle of the 19th century. From here, this type of watch diversified into different types such as analog chronograph, digital, and analog-digital. Then in the early 1900s, this kind of watch transferred from pockets to hands as it had wristwatch variants. Thus, chronograph watches were launched into a more mainstream market. In the early 90s, it was the watch manufacturing brand Swatch that launched this kind of watch into popularity as it released a colorful kind of chronographs. However, other brands also had their chronograph lines but never launched theirs into the mainstream like Swatch did.

It is because if this mainstream marketing that these kinds of watches were not only limited to athletes and military personnel. However, they are still a big part of the lives of sportsmen and sportswomen, people in different industries started wearing chronograph watches for preference rather than function. This preference stems in the image of athletes and their competitive and adventurous streaks. However, not athletes themselves, ordinary people want to up the ante a bit, even if that kind of watch and its special time splicing functions and dials are not of particular use to them. Indeed, the most practical application this kind of watch has to a normal person's life is to help him or her boil an egg with the most accurate and perfect timing.

Then again, there are real enthusiasts who collect these types of watches for the intricate beauty of their structures. You could understand this fascination, however, when you open this kind of watch. Inside, you'd see chaos, intricacy, and craftsmanship combined. Since chronograph watches can measure time in different ways, it needs a lot of springs, gears, and wheels to keep it going. And all these machinations are shoved in a space that is not bigger than the palm of your hand make it such a marvelous invention that is indeed fascinating.

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About the Author

Chris Clark is author of this article on Casio watches. Find more information about Guess watches here.

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