Chronographs, why?

[100SRV]

Why do wrist chronographs (e.g. Breitling) feature such accurate stop watches when the reaction time of the human operating it is so variable? I could understand it if they had a port to connect to a triggering beam but I'm guessing that most don't...

[carter711]

Chronographs are there to look good when all the little hands are spinning around, usually used to impress little nieces/nephews etc.

Wrong message board by the way.

[AB]

Yeah, in fact, now you mention it, why do they even bother making stopwatches?

D'oh.

[Defcon]

Wristwatch chronos are all but redundant in a cockpit, as a fixed stopwatch in your line of sight is much more effective and safer, and automation is pushing the old technology out all together, however Breitlings and the like are 'pilot watches', and therefore need a degree of accuracy.

Bearing in mind that NDB/VOR turns are measured in seconds rather than anything smaller, the reaction times are academic, you may as well question the accuracy of the flying surface controls themselves as each pilot's strength and reaction times are different. It is the ability to accurately keep time which is important, and wristwatch chronos can certainly be used to fly an accurate pattern, and are arguably an important element of redundancy from a safety viewpoint.


ETA: For everyone else, well, its a selling point. Most people don't need 12 megapixels, or a Terabyte of hard drive space.

Edited by Defcon on Monday 6th July 23:03

Edited by Defcon on Monday 6th July 23:10

[deejuic]

Defcon said:

ETA: For everyone else, well, its a selling point. Most people don't need 12 megapixels, or a Terabyte of hard drive space.

Edited by Defcon on Monday 6th July 23:03

Edited by Defcon on Monday 6th July 23:10

Really? I thought that everyone needed a TB AND a 12 megapixel camera so that they can take 14 hours of HD video of their cute little kid that nobody wants to see and print out 48"x64" posters and mail them out as Christmas cards...

[CommanderJameson]

carter711 said:

Chronographs are there to look good when all the little hands are spinning around, usually used to impress grown men.

EFA. I veer away from chronos, not because of the spinny hands, but because of the visual clutter on the dial. That said, I still want a Speedmaster Professional.

I do so like the hands that spin, though. Especially when you reset it and it all magically jumps to zero.

[gwasoc]

AB said:

Yeah, in fact, now you mention it, why do they even bother making stopwatches?

D'oh.

I actually use the stopwatch function a bit - not that I need accuracy to the poofteenth of a second or anything, and neither would I buy a watch just because it had a stopwatch either. It just so happens that some of the watches I like have stopwatch functions.

I sometimes have to time certain functions at work to the second and it is handier to use a watch than carry around a dedicated stopwatch. I use it for cooking as well - load up the oven, start the stopwatch and go do something else. Usually just tells me how much I've burnt dinner by...

[andy_s]

My question is why the minute counter is on a 30min scale on most chronos when intuitively a 60min scale makes for easier reading?

Edited by andy_s on Tuesday 7th July 14:15

[Steve748]

Personally I think of your going to have lots of dials then they should be of use every day as in day, date, month and preferably a moon!

[NJH]

andy_s said:

My question is why the minute counter is on a 30min scale on most chronos when intuitively a 60min scale makes for easier reading?

Edited by andy_s on Tuesday 7th July 14:15

I am pretty sure its just a limitation of the mechanical movement in most chronographs. Personally I find it difficult and very counter intuitive. If the measured time is say 1 hr 45 minutes, you look at the minutes and see 15 then have to look at the hour counter and decide for yourself if the hand is over 1.5 hours. It takes time and is error prone, no one with any sense would design it to be this way on purpose. Have a look at the Precista 17C on here

http://www.timefactors.com/precista.htm

for what is IMHO by far the best way to organise a chronograph set of hands and dials in analog form. However this is a quartz movement. Hard to argue though against ditching all these wizzy little hands and just use a digital display, much quicker to read accurately and reliably.

[grumbledoak]

Surely the stopwatch is as accurate as the time display? You want that to be accurate so you don't have to adjust it every day.

It would be rather perverse to intentionally fit a less accurate chronograph on an accurate watch!

[Murph7355]

Not sure really. An added complication to what is already a complicated machine? Useful now and then?

Perversely I actually like the complication on the dials, and seeing designs that incorporate this complication whilst leaving the general functions of the watch still readable...

Each to their own

[BigAlinEmbra]

They look nice.