Breitling
50th Year of the Automatic Chronograph: Who Came First?
Mechanical watchmaking is, for all intents and purposes, an old-school industry. Manufacturing methods may have modernised, in the same way that the Ford Motor Company modernised industrial production with the conveyor belt. However, while cars today are made with electronic internals, mechanical watches still bear the age-old and proven Swiss lever escapement and traditional gear train as its “computer”.
In recent years, watchmaking has invented new mechanical solutions and innovations, but none so important as the invention of the automatic chronograph 50 years ago. It started from a decline in public interest in chronograph timepieces, due to an increasing popularity of automatic and waterproof timepieces.
Hand-wound chronographs seemed backward compared with a wristwatch that would generate sufficient power from a regular work day without having to hand-wind. The race had in fact started in the late ’40s, but the leading watch movement developers of the time (Lemania and Omega, among others) had ceased their efforts or decided it wasn’t worth the time.
By the ’60s, the race had intensified to four key players and further reduced to just three in the running.
The Pioneers
Among collectors and chronograph aficionados, there’s plenty of questioning (even today) as to which was the first automatic chronograph of 1969. But based on common archival information, Zenith’s El Primero was indeed the first to release its prototype. The El Primero was announced on January 10, 1969 and remains a world standard with a column wheel chronograph and a high-paced 5Hz movement.
According to common knowledge, the next to announce was the Chronomatic group of collaborators, on 3 March, which included Breitling, Buren, Hamilton, Heuer and Dubois-Depraz. The project was called “Project 99” and announced its success with a lever-and-cam operated chronograph module mounted on a standard watch movement which would work across the brands.
The 6139 ceased production in the end of 1969, replaced by a new calibre, the 6138. The bicompax chronograph was released in a bullshead case, some featuring a unique octagonal underside — industrial design, anyone?
The Chronomatic was known as the Calibre 11 in Heuer, and the first production pieces were on the market by August 1969. It appeared in several watch models, most notably the Monaco reference 1133, designed for the Monaco Formula One race and made famous by Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans. The Monaco incidentally was also renowned as the first waterproof, automatic chronograph watch housed in a square case.
50th Year of the Automatic Chronograph: The Second Wind
50th Year of the Automatic Chronograph: In the Age of Quartz
50th Year of the Automatic Chronograph: The Drive In-house
50th Year of the Automatic Chronograph: Race to be the Best