Chronograph

Escapement Time Quartz Pilot Watch containing a Japanese movement

Miyota caliber 6S21 quartz chronograph movement

Quartz chronograph and its movement

A chronograph is a specific type of watch that is used as a stopwatch combined with a display watch. A basic chronograph has an independent sweep second hand and a minute sub-dial; it can be started, stopped, and returned to zero by successive pressure on the stem. More complex chronographs use additional complications and can have multiple sub-dials to measure seconds, minutes, hours and even fractions of a second. In addition, many modern chronographs use moveable bezels as tachymeters for rapid calculations of speed or distance. Louis Moinet invented the chronograph in 1816 for use in tracking astronomical objects.^[1][2] Chronographs were also used heavily in artillery fire in the mid to late 1800s. More modern uses of chronographs involve aircraft piloting, auto racing, diving and submarine maneuvering.

Since the 1980s, the term chronograph has also been applied to all digital watches that incorporate a stopwatch function.