COUNTING UP

One particular chronograph brings to mind the entire traditional watchmaking trade, and we offer no prizes for guessing what it is. This year, it heralds a new age of the chronograph, even though it is not the first to sally forth in the post-pandemic era. We offer an extended exploration of the time-writer, which will continue in subsequent issues

- ASHOK SOMAN

For a magazine that specializes in wrist-borne timekeeping instruments, the chronograph holds a distinctive appeal. Not only is this complication one of four considered major features in traditional watchmaking, it is also one of the most popular as far as the wider world of wristwatches goes (according to Federation of Swiss Watchmaking). Of those four high watchmaking complications, it is the only one to have broad commercial appeal and thus available in the greatest range of qualities. This is not simply a matter of price and quality, for example, because more affordable and accessible tourbillons - one of the most distinctive of the aforementioned high complications - are available but have never quite been embraced outside of enthusiast communities.

Perhaps one limiting factor here is that the wider world has no idea what a tourbillon is, and it is not actually a function that one can interact with. By way of contrast, the chronograph requires interaction, and even proffers (typically) two pushers that invite handling. Pure functionality is a poor explanation for the appeal of the chronograph though. One of the world's most symbolically important examples of fine watchmaking, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona is a chronograph, and its appeal has little to do with the complication. Perhaps now more than ever, the Daytona is shorthand for the entire luxury sports segment. By association, the chronograph also finds itself elevated beyond pure functionality, and catapulted into the realm of myth and legend.