Buying Gents Chronograph Watches Or Chronometers, Who Knows The Difference ?

There is often confusion between the chronograph watch and the chronometer

, the two terms are sometimes taken to be interchangeable, this is not the case!

The chronograph watch is a watch that has extra functions over and above the ability to tell the time and possibly give the date too. These extra functions usually take the form of some kind of stopwatch. However there are a lot of other functions available. Ask many men what functions their chronograph watch has or how do you use them and relatively few will be able to tell you.

This is a real shame as some of the functions available can be very useful if you take the time to learn about them. There are some chronographs designed with particular sports or activities in mind. Running sports have a large number of watches designed around them. They can have ability to record split times, lap times etc. on the fly, with some having the ability to download this information onto a computer. Some are dedicated to motor sport functions and yet others for sailing.

Chronographs can also show different time zones, useful for overseas calls. Moon phases are also a function commonly be seen, which can be an attractive novelty or perhaps useful for fishermen or by anyone affected by the tides.

The chronometer on the other hand is a watch designed with special features so that it remains a very accurate timepiece through a wide range of conditions.

One such feature is the ability of a chronometer to keep accurate time regardless of the temperature, this was a particular problem with early mechanical movements where changes in temperature caused the balance wheel to expand or contract changing its rate of oscillation, thus changing its accuracy. Another design features of a chronometer might include protection against the effects of magnetic fields.

It is usually quite obvious that a watch is a chronograph; it will usually have sub dials (smaller dials within the main watch face) and pushbuttons either side of the winder to operate the extra functions. A chronometer is not readily identified by appearance and it is also possible that a chronograph watch can also be a chronometer.

Most mechanical chronographs are to be found in the gents watches sector purely because men"s watches tended to be larger, so that the sub dials were still readable, however with the advent of the digital watch the main display can be used for multiple functions so size is not a limiting factor anymore.

The range of gent"s watches that are chronographs is large and popular probably due to looks as much as functionality, but we boys do love our gadgets!

by: Matt Lucas

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