Colección: Men's Chronograph Watches

Men’s chronographs: how they differ

A chronograph is a watch with a stopwatch built in, worked by the two pushers beside the crown. The ones here come from Citizen, Bulova and Caravelle, in light-powered Eco-Drive and battery quartz, and the differences that matter are in the movement: how finely it times, for how long, and what else it does.

How finely they time

Most Citizen Eco-Drive chronographs, such as the Nighthawk, the Navihawk and the Endeavor Chrono, time to a fifth of a second for up to 60 minutes. Bulova’s calibre 6S20, used in the Marine Star Series B and the Wilton, times to a twentieth of a second for up to an hour. Bulova’s Precisionist chronographs, such as the Series X and the Icon, measure to a thousandth of a second. Citizen’s Promaster Skyhawk A-T times to a hundredth of a second for up to 24 hours, and the hand-assembled movement in the Promaster Tsuno Chrono Racer has a flyback chronograph that runs up to 12 hours.

Light, battery or high-frequency quartz

Citizen’s chronographs are almost all Eco-Drive, charged by light, so there’s no battery to replace. Bulova and Caravelle chronographs run on a quartz battery, and Bulova builds high-performance quartz into some of them: the Bulova Lunar Pilot, based on the chronograph worn on the moon in 1971, and the CURV, whose 262 kHz movement Bulova calls the world’s first curved chronograph movement. Precisionist models sweep their seconds hand instead of ticking.

Sport or dress

Size and thickness decide where a chronograph fits. The Bulova Prestige is a 40 mm twelve-sided case about 11 mm thick, and the Bulova Sutton chronograph is 10 mm thick, slim enough for a shirt cuff. Chronographs in the Citizen Brycen line go the other way, with a coloured bezel, a tachymeter and cases of 44 to 44.8 mm. Citizen’s Promaster pilot chronographs reach 46 mm; our Skyhawk, Nighthawk and Navihawk page sets them side by side.

Questions

What is the tachymeter for? It turns elapsed time into speed over a known distance. Start the chronograph at one kilometre marker, stop it at the next, and read your speed in km/h off the scale. Our guide on how to read a chronograph walks through it.

Can I swim with a chronograph? Many here are rated 100 or 200 metres, which covers swimming and snorkelling. A few dressier models, such as the Bulova Sutton and Wilton, are rated 30 metres, for splashes only. Whatever the rating, don’t press the pushers underwater.