Chronographs
The term chronograph is one that is often misused; it is frequently confused with chronometer. The two are actually very different (although a chronograph can of course be certified as a chronomater).What Is A Chronograph?
A chronograph is a timepiece - usually a watch - which also has stopwatch functions. Antique and vintage chronographs are of great interest to collectors whilst today many people still choose a chronograph, often Swiss. Companies as diverse as Cartier, Seiko and Breitling produce a huge range of chronographs to choose from.
At its simplest the extra function of a chronograph will be a simple stopwatch - press to start, press to stop. More advanced features can include lap timing and "flyback" (where the hand can return to zero and continue counting).
Older chronograph watches sometimes used the ordinary second hand for the stopwatch function, resetting it to the correct position after use. Modern chronographs usually have separate dials dedicated to the stopwatch function(s).
The most obvious use for a chronograph is, of course, sporting events. Today many people buy them simply as fashion statements. In this case there is usually no real need for the extreme accuracy provided by automatic quartz and the choice is more of a status symbol.
On quartz watches the chronograph readout(s) can be either analogue or digital. You can also buy them in a "mixed" style: analogue hands for the normal time, a digital display for the stopwatch features.
Quartz based chronographs can easily be acurate to 1/1000th of a second - beyond the best reaction time of most of the people pressing the button!
Mechanical chronographs are generally less precise in their measurement - in 2006 TAG Heuer were awarded the Red Dot Design Award for their Calibre 360 Concept Chronograph, described as "the first mechanical wrist chronograph to measure and display time to 1/100th of a second".