The first chronographs
Discussion
Stuart said:
The Heuer is a "Siffert" Autavia. Auto (left hander) chrono, with date. So called because Jo Siffert wore and promoted the watch.
Yours for £2-£2.5k and reasonably easy to find.
Lovely thing in the metal - I'll have one eventually.
I love this watch, always have.Yours for £2-£2.5k and reasonably easy to find.
Lovely thing in the metal - I'll have one eventually.
My parents were at Brands the fateful day Joe went straight into the trees in front of them. They knew he wasn't going to get out of the car and what was happening once it caught fire. They grabbed their kit and started a very sad and long walk down the back straight to go home . . .
In the other direction 100's of people were sprinting to watch a fantastic driver and well regarded man perish, it nearly stopped my folks going racing again. Not the accident, that is part of motor racing and you have to accept it does happen, but the crowds rushing to see someone die. Fortunately it didn't and I'm a far poorer man financially, but far richer through the experiences thanks to them.
I too will own a Joe Siffert Autavia, for sentimental reasons as much as aesthetics and chronological history.
Fantastic watch.
A truly gorgeous watch. I have a Breitling Chrono-matic and have managed to uncover the following info:
The Race
The 1960s saw the race towards the development of the world’s first automatic chronograph movement, with two groups of watchmakers in competition to achieve this milestone. The groups of Movado/Zenith (further referred to as M/Z) and Heuer/Breitling/Hamilton/Dubois Depraz (further referred to as H/B/H/DD) achieved their aims independently and exhibited their new developments at the Basel Fair in 1969. Both claimed to be the first to introduce the automatic chronograph movement, however, the Caliber 11 movement of H/B/H/DD had beaten the M/Z group by over a month.
Movado/Zenith
The joint venture between Movado and Zenith aimed to produce an automatic chronograph named "El Primero", which literally means "the first". The automatic winding of the M/Z watch has a centrally positioned rotor. The date indication is in an aperture positioned between the 4 and 5 ‘o clock markers. The chronograph is equipped with 30-minute and 12 hour registers as well as the normal hour and minute hands. There is a small seconds hand at the 9’o clock position and a tachometer scale around the edge of the dial. The balance beats at 36,000 vibs/hour and there are 17 or 31 functional jewels and a rotor running on ball bearings. Called the Caliber 3019 PHC movement, it is used in the Zenith El Primero and the Movado Datron.
Heuer/Breitling/Hamilton/Dubois Depraz
The main competition of M/Z came from the amalgamation of the chronograph specialists Breitling and Heuer-Leonidas with Hamiliton-Bruen and Dubois Depraz, who started the development of their project in 1965. When the delegation of the four houses met together for the first time in 1965, they were so obsessed with keeping things quiet that they gave their project a confidential code name: 99. During this meeting, the role each house would play was distributed in utter secrecy. Bruen would be in charge of the special automatic mechanism (adapted from Bruen’s "Intramatic" caliber: planetary rotor of heavy winding in both directions via gliding pinion); Dubois-Depraz would be responsible for the chronographic module (chronograph unit 8510 with coulisse-lever switching, equipped with a 12-hour and a 30-minute counter) as well as the oscillating pinion invented by Edouard Heuer. Breitling and Heuer would develop the other components and oversee the design of the watch dial and case.
By 1968, the group had carried out the first conclusive tests and developed experimental prototypes. The winding-mechanism and the caliber 11 chronograph, the ‘chrono-matic’, measuring 13 ¾ lines (31 mm in diameter) and 7.7 mm in height, worked marvellously well, even under extreme conditions, with an accuracy close to the norms required of a chronometer. The world’s first automatic chronograph (developed at a total cost of 500,000 Swiss francs) was officially unveiled on March 3rd 1969, over a month before the Basel fair where the ‘El Primero’ was introduced. Named ‘Chrono-matic’, the movement was used in several models by the developers. Heuer used the movement in the ‘Monaco’, ‘Carrera’ and ‘Autavia’ models, Breitling in the ‘Chrono-matic’ models and Hamilton/Bruen in several models.
The Caliber 11
Beating at 19,800 bps, ‘Chrono-matic’ consists of a basis movement unit and a chrono-section unit. These two units are attached with screws, one on top of the other. The design required that the winding stem with the crown had to be removed to the position of the 9. Although a surprising innovation, it seems that all the firms agreed that this would be the best. Since this watch does not often need to be wound up by hand, it follows that the chronograph buttons would be better located on the right side of the case. A suitable winding mechanism is required for this automatic chronograph. The heavy microrotor that winds the mainspring is housed in the basic movement and has a pointed dead angle of only 11 degrees, which means that even relatively inactive wearers can always depend on the watch being wound up. In addition, a special regulator setting was developed for the watch, with eccentric setting and moveable spiral block, which allow precise regulation and the smallest error in the timing. These developments are also patented.
Later versions of the Caliber 11: The difference between the caliber 11 and 12 lies with the beats. The Caliber 12, which is an updated version, beats faster at 21,600 bps. The later versions from Heuer and Breitling are the caliber 14 and 15, some with 3 registers instead of 2.
PM me if you'd like a copy of the movement and caliber diagrams
The Race
The 1960s saw the race towards the development of the world’s first automatic chronograph movement, with two groups of watchmakers in competition to achieve this milestone. The groups of Movado/Zenith (further referred to as M/Z) and Heuer/Breitling/Hamilton/Dubois Depraz (further referred to as H/B/H/DD) achieved their aims independently and exhibited their new developments at the Basel Fair in 1969. Both claimed to be the first to introduce the automatic chronograph movement, however, the Caliber 11 movement of H/B/H/DD had beaten the M/Z group by over a month.
Movado/Zenith
The joint venture between Movado and Zenith aimed to produce an automatic chronograph named "El Primero", which literally means "the first". The automatic winding of the M/Z watch has a centrally positioned rotor. The date indication is in an aperture positioned between the 4 and 5 ‘o clock markers. The chronograph is equipped with 30-minute and 12 hour registers as well as the normal hour and minute hands. There is a small seconds hand at the 9’o clock position and a tachometer scale around the edge of the dial. The balance beats at 36,000 vibs/hour and there are 17 or 31 functional jewels and a rotor running on ball bearings. Called the Caliber 3019 PHC movement, it is used in the Zenith El Primero and the Movado Datron.
Heuer/Breitling/Hamilton/Dubois Depraz
The main competition of M/Z came from the amalgamation of the chronograph specialists Breitling and Heuer-Leonidas with Hamiliton-Bruen and Dubois Depraz, who started the development of their project in 1965. When the delegation of the four houses met together for the first time in 1965, they were so obsessed with keeping things quiet that they gave their project a confidential code name: 99. During this meeting, the role each house would play was distributed in utter secrecy. Bruen would be in charge of the special automatic mechanism (adapted from Bruen’s "Intramatic" caliber: planetary rotor of heavy winding in both directions via gliding pinion); Dubois-Depraz would be responsible for the chronographic module (chronograph unit 8510 with coulisse-lever switching, equipped with a 12-hour and a 30-minute counter) as well as the oscillating pinion invented by Edouard Heuer. Breitling and Heuer would develop the other components and oversee the design of the watch dial and case.
By 1968, the group had carried out the first conclusive tests and developed experimental prototypes. The winding-mechanism and the caliber 11 chronograph, the ‘chrono-matic’, measuring 13 ¾ lines (31 mm in diameter) and 7.7 mm in height, worked marvellously well, even under extreme conditions, with an accuracy close to the norms required of a chronometer. The world’s first automatic chronograph (developed at a total cost of 500,000 Swiss francs) was officially unveiled on March 3rd 1969, over a month before the Basel fair where the ‘El Primero’ was introduced. Named ‘Chrono-matic’, the movement was used in several models by the developers. Heuer used the movement in the ‘Monaco’, ‘Carrera’ and ‘Autavia’ models, Breitling in the ‘Chrono-matic’ models and Hamilton/Bruen in several models.
The Caliber 11
Beating at 19,800 bps, ‘Chrono-matic’ consists of a basis movement unit and a chrono-section unit. These two units are attached with screws, one on top of the other. The design required that the winding stem with the crown had to be removed to the position of the 9. Although a surprising innovation, it seems that all the firms agreed that this would be the best. Since this watch does not often need to be wound up by hand, it follows that the chronograph buttons would be better located on the right side of the case. A suitable winding mechanism is required for this automatic chronograph. The heavy microrotor that winds the mainspring is housed in the basic movement and has a pointed dead angle of only 11 degrees, which means that even relatively inactive wearers can always depend on the watch being wound up. In addition, a special regulator setting was developed for the watch, with eccentric setting and moveable spiral block, which allow precise regulation and the smallest error in the timing. These developments are also patented.
Later versions of the Caliber 11: The difference between the caliber 11 and 12 lies with the beats. The Caliber 12, which is an updated version, beats faster at 21,600 bps. The later versions from Heuer and Breitling are the caliber 14 and 15, some with 3 registers instead of 2.
PM me if you'd like a copy of the movement and caliber diagrams
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