Montblanc - Chronograph Exhibition
WORLDTEMPUS - 10 May 2010
This year commemorates the 190th anniversary of the creation of the chronograph watch. To mark the occasion, the Musee International d'Horlogerie (MIH) in association with Montblanc has brought together some of the finest examples of the art of the chronograph. These watches are drawn not only from the museum's own extensive collection, but also from private collections to form the exhibition "Writing Time: Two Centuries of Chronograph History."
Housed on a raised platform to one side of the main museum floor, the exhibition is dominated by a monolith around which the story of the chronograph is told, while the illustrious collection of watches is arranged around its edge. The exhibition area looks over the main museum, from where the example chronographs can be seen within the larger context of watchmaking history. Viewed in this way, it may seem to constitute only a small part of a much larger whole, but the importance of the chronograph to the current consumer marketplace should not be underestimated.
The word chronograph derives from the Greek words "chronos" for time and "graphein" for writing. The first model created by Nicolas Rieussec in 1821 literally wrote the time by placing a drop of ink at the end of the time period measured. During Rieussec's day, this new technology proved to be very popular - and continues to be so, even though chronographs no longer literally write. Several of the viewing cases on display at the MIH contain impressive examples from the 19th and early 20th centuries and originate in different countries including Switzerland, Germany and England.
The first half of the 20th century saw an explosion of technological innovations, many the result of the World War I and II when the need for precision timing became paramount. It was at this point that the major manufacturers began to produce chronograph models: Jaeger-LeCoultre, Girard-Perregaux and many others are all represented with watches specifically created for aviation, navigation and medical uses.
In the second half of the 20th century, it was sport and the space race that drove the development of the chronograph forward. This was a golden period of design and progress, during which many iconic watches were produced, and the exhibition contains an example of perhaps the most famous Omega watch, the Speedmaster. This superior timepiece had to survive not just everyday use but also the rigours of outer space and continues to be an important part of the Omega range today.
The modern market is also well represented at the exhibition, which culminates in the Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec Anniversary Edition Chronograph. With twin revolving discs that echo the action of the original chronograph from 1821, it provides a fitting climax to an impressive and informative exhibition.
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