Seiko Solar Gold Dial Gold-Tone Steel Ladies Watch SUP176

"Zenith was not a classic chronograph manufacturer ," Jack Heuer, whose brand is indeed a classic chronograph specialist, reminded me a couple of years ago as I asked him about the race to make the first automatic chronograph that took place in 1969. "They made a technically beautiful product, one of the top movements today, much more complex than ours, of course, which was made based on a modified, existing, self-winding movement."
And it is exactly this difference between the two types of chronograph - beautifully exemplified by Zenith's El Primero and Heuer's Caliber 11 - that we examine today and in coming weeks. Let's start with the El Primero.
 

The El Primero is a column wheel chronograph, meaning that its stopwatch functions are controlled by a sort of ratchet wheel elegantly called the roue a colonnes in French, which generally boasts six triangular protrusions. The French term vividly calls architectural columns to mind, and this description is not far off: these large teeth extend in a rather three-dimensional manner from the wheel. Usually easily visible in action through a transparent case back in a modern wristwatch, their function is to control (activate, deactivate) the chronograph levers according to the impulses received. In other words, the column wheel acts as a tiny computer that translates the wearer's wish (he or she can choose between start, stop and reset) to the depths of the movement.
At its introduction in 1969, the El Primero was not only automatic, it also beat at a high frequency of 36,000 vph. Today it continues to be considered the epitome of the classic chronograph and has been utilized to power chronograph models of many other famous brands, including - but in no way limited to - Rolex.
New column wheels
This year at Baselworld, Girard-Perregaux introduced its very own in-house chronograph, fittingly christening it the 1966 Integrated Column Wheel Chronograph. Caliber GP0 3800-001 comprising 312 components is not automatic, but rather classically hand-wound and needed five years to fully develop. A beautiful detail included by the brand's movement designer Julien Chaignat and his team is the jumping minute counter, which makes for more precise interval read-off. "Developing a chronograph takes a long time," Chaignat explains in answer to the question why only now this traditional brand is introducing its own chronograph movement. "You have to spend time on the implementation and kinematic of the components as well as the sizing of all different springs. Then you have to take into account all industrial aspects of the caliber."

Christophe Claret's Kantharos, also introduced at Basel, is a chronograph whose column wheel stopwatch has largely been ignored in the wake of the realization that the movement also contains a constant force mechanism as one of its many unique elements. The automatic monopusher chronograph is paired with a chiming function (like Claret's DualTow model, it emits a small chime when the wearer pushes start, stop or reset) and disks to display elapsed time (instead of counters and hands).

A Japanese column wheel
Seiko was also one of the brands to create an automatic chronograph in 1969: Caliber 6139. The Ananta 100th Anniversary Chronograph follows not only Japanese tradition with its Samurai symbolism, but also the company's own rich chronograph tradition beginning with that very movement. Caliber 8R28 includes a column wheel and vertical clutch system (like the one in 1969), as well as the company's own unique three-pronged lever, which ensures highly accurate synchronized motion of all three chronograph hands, particularly when they are being reset, which avoids the typical jump when chronographs buttons are pushed.

Seiko's chronograph designs are so good, in fact, that TAG Heuer now uses the design of Caliber TC78 as its base for TAG Heuer Caliber 1887. Though this movement does not include a column wheel - we'll get into more chronograph types in the next weeks - it does prove that the Swiss also respect the good quality of inventive horology that Seiko is capable of producing. "This movement is respected and known and we thought it was a very good basic design," Jack Heuer said. "We got the license, updated it and made a lot of changes, such as in the escapement and things, even increasing the size. It is our movement now."
During the same conversation regarding the 1969 introductions, Jack Heuer reminisced, "Seiko never realized they were in the same race. But they found out at the Basel Fair . Mr. Hattori, the owner of Seiko, came to visit me at the stand to congratulate me for our self-winding chronograph. He had one ready that they were testing the same year in Japan. Seiko had an old tradition of always testing in its own market before going worldwide, you see. He tested in the summer and fall of 1969, and hit the American market the year afterward, in 1970."