I have 2 Chronographs at present and I purchased them for their looks and the detail on the face. I wasn't really interested in the crono function and what it could do and it didn't influence my decision when I bought them. However I find recently Im starting to use the stopwatch to time journeys, cooking dinner and a few other bits. Im really liking it! Has anyone else had the same experience?
I mainly have them for the look. I have timed some cooking and a couple of journeys but, if I'm honest, it wasn't strictly necessary. Then again, who really needs a perpetual calendar, or any watch functions...?
They're unbeatable for timing eggs.
haha so true, I have boiled many eggs with themOriginally Posted by nickwray
Looks only here.
If I want to time something, I will use a digital watch.
I've timed my mate on track days but not much else and I've seven chronos!
Love the look of them, and yes, I do use them for work activities.
Looks only for me.The most complications I use are to align the second hand with the sweeping hand.The digital clock on the cooker does the rest
Yes, looks primarily but I do actually use them. I also use the divers bezel on my non-chrono watches for similar.
For the look and WIS value. I have hardly used the chronograph, and I have a few! I have a perpetual calendar and why have a chronograph on it as well! Because they can and it is cool?
Do they make you a better cook or just encourage OCD!
the extra pushers on the watch don't go amiss either, i like the look of chrono's, best looking pushers are on the Breitling superocean (the older screw down one's) i think Breitling make excellent chrono's.
Rarely use mine :(. I usually end up using something with an alarm for timing. Just can't get into the habit of checking and using it.
Don't use mine, but that's just me.
Had a few chrono watches over the years, purchased primarily because I liked the look of them. I can't think that I've ever really made use of the functionality they offer.
Mainly for the looks, but I do use it for the usual timing in the kitchen, takeway delivery timing and duration of walks.
I like the looks but especially the movements that power them. I'm fond of the Lemania 5100, Valjoux 7750, Venus 178, Omega 321, Zenith El Primero 36.000 and Seiko's 6138 and 6139 column wheel to name a few. I actually do use the chronograph function, I like to measure how long I'm behind the wheel of my car or how much sleep I've had for a night for instance. Therefore I do need a chrono with an hour-totaliser, I have no use for short-term chrono's, even though their twin-subdial layout can be very pretty indeed.
Purely looks. And something to fiddle with when bored in a ra ra meeting.
Free Dominos Pizza if its longer than 30 Minutes :)
When was the last time any of us used a rotating diving bezel either? Purely for looks IMO.
Used to use for computer response times when developing applications, now cooking steaks and to watch the hands go round.
My good lady calls them "boys toys" and she's probably right. We love things that we can play with! I've used my chronos to boil eggs and time my parking. Nothing that I couldn't do by using my brain and an ordinary watch. Chronos do look good.
Mike
I use them to time pointless things, i.e. pretty much just play with the chronograph
Indeed; I've been using my Omega Dynamic chrono over the last couple of days to do some network acceptance testing.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
I use a dive bezel almost daily to time cooking/ parking meters etc. Actually I'd be lost without one. But I've never seen the point of Chrono's - I haven't owned one in years. Last one I had was a Speedy pro, I know it's a WIS darling but honestly - handwound, no date, low WR meaning you can barely get it wet, and a chrono on diddly little hands that whizz around. I used to be into high end hi-fi, most of the good stuff has an on/off switch, a volume control and that's your lot. Chronographs remind me of those old Pioneer/marantz etc mini systems - lots of lights, graphic equalisers and switches to keep you busy - all of which add nothing to the sound quality.
If I want a gadget watch I get myself another G shock :-)
My mobile has a stopwatch function, and I've never used it. This is why I'll never own a chronograph watch.
I do use my chrono's,
for timing cycles or certain routines in the factory, for doing some navigational dead reckoning and interval training on the racebike....
next to that the old ones ( from the 30'ies) are seriously cool dresswatches.... and the more modern ones (autavia, zenith's) are classy stuff also
I use my chronos at work for timing task sequences, data transfers, back ups and such.
ohhh nooooo - "fergie time" - do you also have a drinkers florid face? :-) lol
EDIT : forget the reply to op - i use diver bezel a lot, but find chrono dials a bit too small to look at.
Last edited by Michael_Mcr; 2nd September 2012 at 11:15.
always have the hand running on my speedmaster when i wear it...just because it looks more interesting with a second hand sweeping round..never use it to time eggs though!
I guess that'll reduce the power reserve?
I use my chronos occasionally to time the rounds of the silly party games we play at Christmas and after dinner parties with our group of friends - I've sort of become the designated watch-guy for this (and it got Omega a sale after a friend noticed and liked my SMP).
I'd like to use them for timing long camera exposures, but you need to be able to see the watch in sometimes almost pitch blackness so I tend to use my Suunto with its own faint illumination for this.
Last edited by drmarkf; 2nd September 2012 at 12:08.
If bored in meetings I will use the chrono fly back to entertain myself - will it go clockwise or anti-clockwise when the second hand is at "6".
Probably not very good for the watch ....
Swisstony
I'll often come up with ways to use one when I'm wearing it, but I really don't miss it if I'm not. Definitely a form first, function second for me.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Yes, same here
I have quite a few but to be honest I don't use the function all that much. I've also a few divers but I don't go deep sea diving either. I guess it's mostly down to aesthetics.
If I never used them, I probably wouldn't be able to persuade myself to buy them. Looks alone wouldn't be enough.
If I needed a chronograph for anything critical, I'd use a digital watch.
I prefer clean look of non-chrono watches (there are rare exceptions of course)
As for timing, if I need to time something then I use my rotating bezel, it is enough 99% of the time.
I reckon a decent analogue centre minute hand (Lemania 5100 or 251.262) chrono is much easier to read quickly and accurately at a glance than a digital watch.
I prefer chronos and use mine all the time. Bought the Speedy Pro as a business/dress/classic acrylic, and wore it last week for an interview, in the course of which we were given a timed essay (30 minutes) and a team discussion/negotiation task. Came in very handy for both.
I wear the Fortis a lot for more active sports - flying, sailing, walking, swimming - 6 x 50m laps take 5 minutes, so at all times I can keep an eye on how many laps I've swum.
And, as others have said, either comes in handy for cooking, or parking meters. With the Fortis, I have the chrono for timing one pot and the bezel for another. The digital timer on the oven doesn't work!
Why?
An anologue chrno watch is a multi dial puzzle needing recconing with ample room for reading error added.
The digital elapsed time will tell you the interval in inequivocable format.
I use mine regularly, be it journey times, employees journey times, cooking, employees production rate, the list is endless.
I just had to a have a Chronograph, first one was quartz, then kinetic then automatic, i do like the way they look for sure.
With my Avanta Spring Drive chrono I have the thing running all the time to that I can watch the smooth seconds hand moving around the dial...other than that...just for looks
I use mine a fair bit, cooking, exercise, but I guess I like using them so that probably makes me use them more.
I've never used my chronos for anything practical so it's just looks for me. Won't stop me buying another one though.
It was aesthetics that drew me to the watch...
But I do use the chrono function fairly regularly, 'bout once a week I would estimate, mostly cooking related.
Cheers,
Effortless.
For me its all about aesthetics, just prefer the look of chronos and have never really used it
I prefer clean uncluttered watch faces, chronos look a bit messy to me.
The timer and stopwatch with laptimer on my phone is far better to use thou I do appreciate the mechanical complexity of a chrono.
The seconds hand is perfectly adequate for timing my espresso shots.
call you back in ten minutes!
click!
set off the irrigation
click!
have a poo break
click!
(hey, that would be.... aaahhh.... 300 poos an hour... hummm interesting)
be right there in a moment!
click!
I love chronos, I time everything to anything.
the best is when you are watching a movie with a bomb timer countdowning.....
anyway, one of the reasons I hate my tudor big block is the pushers crew doen, so I have to unscrew then and booom! I have lost the moment.
And then I cannot live with the pushers unscrewed if I am not timing....
having said this, I find chronos more delicate, I broke one twice with pushers falling off.
was a long long time ago when i used to fall down the stairs, but, you know....
Mainly aesthetics for me, underpinned by a sense of marvel at the design and engineering skills that goes into making one. Confession time - I do get a very guilty but not unpleasant frisson of pleasure using one too, even for trivial tasks (yes, I am also guilty of the timing the dinner application too .... )
i find that i do use the bezel on my divers watch a lot as it is a very quick way of remembering simple timing elapsed time tasks - the loud clicking when you rotate it can be a little embarrasing, however.
i do also have a chrono, but find i have to lift up the watch and squint at the chrono dial a bit if i want to see precisely how many minutes have elapsed - in that respect the divers bezel wins hands down for easily seeing at a glance that it is, for instance, 3 minutes or 7 minutes since you started / parked the car / put the egg in the pan.
TBH - if you do a lot of timing tasks , then the only way is Casio (heresy, i know, but its the truth innit ?)
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