Teddy Baldassarre
Chronograph vs. Chronometer: What is the Difference?
One of the first hurdles to clear for newcomers to watch appreciation is the clarification of two very common horological categories: chronograph vs. chronometer. Quite simply, a chronometer (from the Greek chronos, meaning time, and meter, meaning measure) is any watch or clock that keeps reliably accurate time, usually as determined by an outside independent testing agency, whereas a chronograph (from chronos and graph, i.e., to “write time”) is any watch or clock with the ability to track and record intervals of time, aka a stopwatch. This is, again, the simplest way to look at it. But there’s a bit more to both chronometers and chronographs that a knowledge-hungry watch enthusiast might want to digest - including the fact that the terms are not interchangeable but also not mutually exclusive. [toc-section heading="Chronometers Defined"] Our original, classical definition of a chronometer can be traced back to the golden age of seafaring exploration in the 18th Century, when ships required the use of a highly accurate onboard clock that enabled their navigators to determine longitude in order to avoid the perils of running aground or veering hopelessly off course. The man credited with developing the first of these “marine chronometers” was legendary British watchmaker John Harrison; his invention facilitated the celestial navigation used at the time by navigators at sea to determine their ship’s position in coordination with a sextant. Marine chronome...
