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Keeping Up with the World’s Fastest Chronographs
News
Keeping Up with the World’s Fastest Chronographs
The best I achieved was 0.07 seconds, and I am still doing 0.07 or 0.08 seconds consistently to date, over 30 years later. But I’ve never reached that elusive 0.06 (can anyone do it?). That made me see how incredible it is for a watch to be able to break a tiny second into smaller portions; one second, that small temporal unit, passes in an instant and leaves in a breath.
If marking 1/100th of a second is spectacular in an electronic device based on old quartz technology, how much more remarkable is it to do so by means of a mechanical device? But first, we start with the already fantastic achievement of measuring and displaying individual seconds utilising a mechanical timepiece.
Let’s go back to April 17, 1970, right at the time of the famous 14-second burn that allowed the Apollo 13’s entry angle to be corrected to avoid incineration at its entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. I won’t go into the historical details, but imagine this situation: what if, instead of using an Omega Speedmaster Chronograph to measure that lapse, Mission Control had told the astronauts, “Here’s what you gonna do: you’ll fire the engines, count to 14, and turn them off. Let us know how that goes.” I doubt very much that it would have been enough to accomplish the life and death task performed by the Apollo 13 crew.
And that’s precisely the point: it’s one thing to properly measure a lapse using a technical instrument and another, to merely estimate it. We can all reasonably estimate a second. In fact, we can count up to 60 or even 100 in a measured, cadenced manner, and we can surely keep up nicely with a chronograph. But that will not happen in more prolonged periods. While we will lose the cadence (and the interest) for sure, the mechanics — cold, reliable and consistent — will defeat us at every moment. And that’s just with the familiar seconds, let alone consider the tinier, more difficult fractions.
Watchmakers have been able to obtain the formulas to count these fractions, but they are often faced with technical challenges, such as the limitations of the materials used. Therefore, they have had to innovate in various ways to reach the objective of ultimate precision.
Breguet Type XXII (10Hz)
It comes as no surprise that one of the great fathers of mechanical watchmaking, Abraham-Louis Breguet, had had a hand in developing the chronograph. As succinctly put on the brand website, “With his ‘chronomètre à doubles secondes, dit d’observation’, developed in 1820, which permitted the measurement of intermediate periods or of the length of time taken by two separate and simultaneous events, Breguet anticipated the modern chronograph.” Indeed, while A-L Breguet did not create the chronograph (that honour belonged to his close colleague Louis Moinet, in 1816), he was instrumental in pushing the envelope of watchmaking, for the development of the chronograph capable of measuring time lapses in its most small units.
This technical feat of 10Hz timing was made possible by using silicon, which served to lighten the moving parts’ weight, eliminate the harmful effects of magnetism, and reduce the need for lubrication without compromising the wear and tear of the elements. The 589F automatic movement incorporated a silicon spiral, lever and escape wheel. The lighter mass design allows the heart to beat 72,000 vibrations per hour, making it beat and show 1/20th of a second.
TAG Heuer Mikrograph (50Hz and more)
Invented by Charles-Auguste Heuer in 1916, the Mikrograph chronometer was the first watch to measure elapsed time with an accuracy of 1/100th of a second, thanks to a mechanism that beat at 360,000 vibrations per hour (50Hz). Strictly speaking, it was a high-precision chronoscope as it did not offer the time. It only measured lapses.
In 2005, TAG Heuer launched the Carrera Calibre 360 Concept, which became the first automatic chronograph wristwatch with 1/100th of a second accuracy. The Calibre 360 was a 230-component modular movement that combined an ETA 2893 automatic base module and a self-winding manual chronograph movement. The fun calibre was released in late 2005 as the Vanquish Limited Edition.
In that same year, another new watch was introduced based on the same dual-balance wheel principle, but using a new integrated 1/1,000th-second chronograph developed by the firm. Yes, that’s thousandths of a second, folks. The Mikrotimer Flying 1000 boasted an incredible 1/1,000th of a second accuracy, thanks to a chronograph regulator that vibrates 10 times faster than the Mikrograph — it vibrates at a whopping 3,600,000vph. No wonder that this watch was recognised at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneva in 2011, receiving the award for the Sports Watch Prize.
It did not take long for TAG Heuer to raise the level dramatically in 2012. That year, the house of La Chaux-de-Fonds unveiled a crazy concept: a 5/10,000th-second counter that would pulse at 1,000Hz (1kHz!), that is, 7.2 million vibrations every hour.
With an unprecedented precision of 5/10,000th or 1/2’000th of a second, the Mikrogirder was a highly innovative regulating system employing a tandem of oscillating girder coupling in a beam that worked like a pair of very fast linear oscillators (as opposed to the spiral shape of a classic balance wheel and hairspring). They vibrated isochronously in a tiny amplitude, an indispensable condition for a quick oscillation. We can understand it like this: unlike a traditional watch, whose balance wheel oscillates at an angle of up to 320 degrees, the girder comes and goes on its beam in a very small straight path that allows it to complete more cycles in shorter times.
To achieve such an incredible level of accuracy for a mechanical watch, the Mikrograph uses two regulators. One beats at 28,800vph (4Hz) and regulates the ordinary watch. The other beats at 360,000vph (50Hz) and regulates the chronograph. This dual balance wheel system provides a separation that prevents any adverse effects on the timing regulation when running the timepiece. Basically, one side of the movement keeps the time and date, and is powered by its own barrel with a regular 42-hour power reserve. The other side houses the chronograph, and has its 90-minute barrel, gear train and regulator. Both sides of the movement are wound by the same rotor that winds bi-directionally, with each direction winding a barrel.
F.P. Journe Centigraphe Souverain (3Hz and lots of trickery)
If you are not familiar with the Centigraphe Souverain, this watch is notable because it is a timepiece that displays time to the hundredth of a second. But notice that I said “display” and not “measure”.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, they are different things. And while we prefer the technical majesty of a watch whose movement lays the foundation for accurate and reliable recording of short times and their smallest fractions, we must recognise the alternatives that do (almost) the same thing. And the Centigraphe Souverain, from the genius that is François-Paul Journe, opts for that direction and does so in a rather cunning way.
Being a watchmaker is about fighting against the laws of physics. Whatever you want to do, there is an undesired reaction or consequence. All of us who have spoken with Journe know that his main enemies (well, the enemy of his watches with movements made of gold) are friction and wear of the components. Therefore, it will always be vital for François-Paul to find ways to reduce friction in his movements, with the level of complexity depending on the number of components involved. And he has managed to do this with the Centigraphe.
Let’s go with the most contentious feature: the frequency of oscillation of the steering wheel, which is a measured 21,600 vibrations per hour (3Hz). That implies six beats per second… not 10 or anything like that. And six is not an integer divisor of 100 either.
The problem is that a slow rate is a complete opposite of what is needed to measure small intervals. Still, notice that the watch is called “Centigraphe”. If “chronograph” means “time writer”, then Centigraphe means “writer of hundreds”. In other words, the timepiece should display (again, not measure) centesimal fractions.
The chronograph system has a separate gear train, driven directly by the mainspring, isolating it from the escapement to maintain accuracy when in operation. In consequence, the amplitude of the balance wheel is not affected when the counter is engaged. The hands on the hundredths and 20-second counters are driven by independent trains, which are driven from the barrel’s axis. A third wheel train operates the 10-minute hand.
It all works like this: the hundredths hand, controlled by the watch’s unique escapement, makes one revolution per second in 1/6th steps. A wheel mounted on the wheel of the escapement (the fourth wheel) releases the axis that carries the hand. The seconds are driven by the train from the barrel axis and by the chronograph train’s energy, also generated from the barrel axle. The centesimal hand can stop anytime and anywhere it is located, allowing a split reading. This is possible by vertically disengaging the centesimal shaft’s pinion from the escapement drive while simultaneously pressing the stem to act as a brake.
Where a typical chronograph engages tooth to tooth for driving, the Centigraphe Souverain purposely allows sliding between each of the six linkages to enable a brake lever to “catch” the wheel driving the hand between each oscillation. The result is an approximation of what would be hundredths of a second so that despite only six impulses, the watch can produce a fractional reading of 1/100th resolution.
Zenith DEFY El Primero 21 (50Hz)
In 1969, Zenith launched El Primero, the first integrated column-wheel automatic chronograph movement, which allows for 1/10th of a second precision. This model marked a new milestone in watchmaking history and established itself as the pinnacle of high chronographic accuracy and reliability. Half a century later, the El Primero calibre is the knight in shining armour that defends Zenith’s legacy and its history.
The automatic high-frequency movement of El Primero 9004 gives life to the extremely successful Defy collection and reveals its complexity on both sides of its structure. The calibre is complemented by various case finishes depending on the reference, and there are many of them, confirming the overall success this chronograph has enjoyed since 2017. As we have seen again and again, running at a frequency of 360,000 vibrations per hour (50Hz) to deliver unprecedented accuracy of one-hundredth of a second has its challenges. To counteract the enormous energy consumption and wear on parts required for these performances, the Defy 21 is based on a dual-balance-wheel architecture and two barrels connected in series that provide a 50-hour power reserve when the chronograph is not activated.
The 9004 movement also boasts a patented reset control mechanism that allows simultaneous resetting of seconds, tenths, and hundredths of a second. Despite its phenomenal speed, chronometry is never compromised, and the movement is certified by the Swiss entity TimeLab.