| By :
Jamie Simpson
A chronograph is basically another name for a watch that has both timepiece and stop watch functions. The earliest chronographs were produced in the 18th century and by the early 1800's they started to become popular. People often confuse the terms chronograph with chronometer. A Chronometer is a watch that has received a special type of certification known as precision certification. Not all chronographs are chronometers. There are mainly 2 different types of chronographs, digital and analogue-digital chronographs. These are again sub-divided into kinetic and automatic chronographs. A digital chronograph, as the name suggests, is a digital watch that has a digital time piece and a digital stop watch. Analogue- digital watches will have an analogue timepiece with a digital stop watch functions. Kinetic or automatic chronograph watches are a specific type of watch that uses "kinetic" or "automatic" system of movement to power the watches. For example most Seiko chronograph watches will use kinetic movement. In fact Seiko is a pioneer of this technology. They were also the first to introduce quartz chronographs, back in the 1960's. Today Seiko is one of the leading manufacturers of chronograph watches. Some of the most popular chronographs made by Seiko are the "Sportura" and "Arctura". Both of these watches are offered with Seiko's, trademark Kinetic movement. The way how it works is the watch is powered by the movement of the wearer's hand. There is a clever piece of technology within the watch that is able to "tap" into the movement of the person's hand, which powers the watch. This means if the watch has been lying dormant for some time it will stop. In that situation there is an internal timer that will reset the clock automatically! Many chronograph watches will come with additional features such as alarm, tachymeter, power reserve, over charge preventer, sapphire crystals etc. These types of watches will be made out high grade stainless steel. Some of these watches will have what is known as double chronometer functions. This means it will have 2 stop watches available. These types of chronographs are also called split-second chronographs or split chronographs. Some chronographs will have one button to do all of the stop watch functions; these are called "fly back" chronographs. Another type of chronograph, the marine chronometer, is accurate enough to do precise navigation calculations needed for sea voyage and was invented in the 18th century. For navigation you also need precise time keeping capability. This contraption greatly increased marine navigation capability.
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlesbacklink.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
