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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Pocket watches · Complication

Chronograph Pocket Watches

Partially verified

Watches with an independent stopwatch function layered onto the timekeeping movement, allowing elapsed time to be started, stopped and reset without affecting the running watch.

Mechanism

A clutch (commonly a horizontal or oscillating pinion) connects and disconnects the chronograph train from the going train on demand; a heart-shaped cam and reset hammer return the chronograph hand to zero.

Typical characteristics

  • Pendant pusher or second pusher for start/stop/reset
  • Centre or subsidiary elapsed-seconds hand
  • Column wheel or cam-based control of the chronograph functions

Identification characteristics

  • Second pusher in the pendant or case band
  • Separate elapsed-time hand distinct from the running-seconds hand

Collector significance

A functional complication with strong sporting and scientific associations, and a major collecting category in its own right.

Known variations

  • Single-pusher chronograph
  • Two-pusher chronograph
  • Split-seconds chronograph

Photographs

Pocket Chronograph (48709445542)
Pocket Chronograph (48709445542) — Auckland Museum Collections from Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, CC BY 2.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Pocket Chronograph (48708940993)
Pocket Chronograph (48708940993) — Auckland Museum Collections from Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, CC BY 2.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Pocket Chronograph (48709439862)
Pocket Chronograph (48709439862) — Auckland Museum Collections from Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, CC BY 2.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.

Sources & references

  1. General horological surveys

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.