Chronograph watches explained: Omega Speedmaster, TAG Heuer Monaco and more

A chronograph is a watch with a built-in stopwatch. The top pusher starts and stops it, the bottom one resets it, and the small sub-dials count the minutes and hours that have passed. It is the most mechanically involved everyday complication, which is why a good chronograph is a small engineering object as much as a watch.

The words you will see on a chronograph

• Sub-dials: small counters for elapsed minutes and hours, and often a running seconds hand.
• Tachymeter: a scale on the bezel or dial that turns elapsed time into speed over a known distance.
• Flyback: one press of the lower pusher resets and restarts the chronograph at once, useful for timing consecutive intervals.
• Column wheel or cam: two ways of controlling the start, stop and reset. Column wheels give a softer push and are found in more expensive movements.

Omega Speedmaster

The Speedmaster launched in 1957 and in 1965 NASA qualified it for all manned space missions after a series of extreme tests. It has been associated with the Moon landings ever since. Today the family ranges from the manual-wind Moonwatch to automatic models such as the Speedmaster Racing. See every Omega watch in stock.

TAG Heuer Monaco

Heuer introduced the Monaco in 1969, named after the Grand Prix, with a square water-resistant case that nobody had put on a chronograph before. Its racing connection has never faded, and the blue dial remains the signature version. Browse TAG Heuer.

Hamilton, Breitling and Longines

Hamilton's American Classic Intra-Matic chronograph brings 1960s proportions back with a modern automatic movement, while the Khaki Aviation and Pilot Pioneer lines take the brand's military and aviation side. Breitling's Avenger is built as a tool chronograph with a large, legible dial, and Longines offers the Spirit Flyback for pilots who time repeated intervals. See Hamilton, Breitling and Longines.

Chronographs under €1,000

The Seiko Prospex Speedtimer uses solar power, so it runs from light without battery changes in normal use. Tissot's PRX Automatic Chronograph puts a mechanical chronograph in the integrated-bracelet case of the PRX. Both are good ways into the complication. Compare them in the chronograph category.