However, with one unique type of chronograph, the operator can activate the Reset pusher and reset the chronograph while it is still running. With a traditional chronograph, the operator pushes the Reset pusher when the mechanism is disengaged. Similarly, with the cam/lever mechanism, the cam is forced to a ‘home’ position which zeros all of the chronograph hands. In a column wheel mechanism, the column wheel activates a finger which zeros the chronograph hands. Then, when the mechanism is disengaged and the operator wants to zero the chronograph, he pushes the Reset pusher. The cam and lever mechanism, on the other hand, controls the chrono mechanism by the orientation of the heart shaped cam.Īs we noted above, the Start/Stop pusher engages and disengages the chronograph mechanism. The column wheel looks a bit like a castle turret – a flat gear with a number of columns rising off one side which engage with the mechanism to control its function. The way the mechanism engages the rest of the movement is by means of either a column wheel or a system of a cam and levers. It can move the elapsed time gearing vertically to engage with the conventional timekeeping mechanism, or it can move the gearing horizontally (here, “vertical” and “horizontal” refer to “up/down” and “from the side,” respectively, when the movement is lying flat on a table). The mechanism can do that in either of two ways. You can think of the Start/Stop pusher of a chronograph as the button that connects and disconnects the chronograph mechanism with the conventional mechanism.
So we’ll narrow our look to integrated chronograph movements. As such, it may be a separate module riding on top of a conventional movement, or it may be incorporated into the movement itself.Īs you can guess, very quickly we get into enough permutations that this article could very well be a book instead. Seconds are commonly measured on a central sweep seconds hand, with the running seconds for conventional time located on a sub-dial.īasically, the chronograph portion of a watch movement has to tap into the power and timekeeping portions of the regular watch mechanism. The elapsed time of short duration events, usually up to 12 hours (racing laps, scientific experiments, cakes baking in the oven, coffee brewing, etc.) is tracked on sub-dials which separately record minutes and hours.
0 kommentar(er)
