Chronographs and special features
Not all chronographs are sports watches and not all sports watches have chronographs, but the chronograph is one function that suits sports very well. Keeping time is important for all sorts of sports, from running to swimming to biking and more. Chrono-graphs are an especially hot segment in sports watches right now, even for women, though the general feeling is that most people don't use them, but they like to have them. It might be that the pushers of the chronograph look good, or people like the sub dials, or they like the chronograph's sporty nature or the fact they can time things if they want, chronographs are selling strongly with no end in sight.
This is the year of the chronograph for TAG Heuer, as the brand has capitalized on its sporting DNA to develop an amazing range of chronographs. TAG's concept watches from years before are now reality as both the Microtimer and the Monaco Sixty Nine are both on the market. In addition, TAG debuted the Carrera Calibre 360 watch, which features two escapement mechanisms, one for the watch and the other to power the 1/100th of a second chronograph, a truly amazing feat, as well as the TAG Heuer SLR for Mercedes Chronograph.
Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced a stunning new model, the AMVOX2 Chronograph, where the functions are activated by simply pressing on the sapphire crystal (12 o’clock to start and stop, Six o’clock to reset).




AMVOX2 CHRONOGRAPH by Jaeger-LeCoultre
KONTIKI DIVER by Eterna
GOLF WATCH by TAG Heuer


Sports specific
There is a whole segment of watches that are sports specific. Golf, one of the main interests of men, is one area where there is an abundance of product specifically designed for the sport, or designed for the golfing enthusiast to wear when he or she is not on the course. TAG Heuer might have the most technical golfing watch, designed in cooperation with Tiger Woods, while Suunto certainly has the most complicated golf watch, the G6, which helps the consistency of the wearer's swing and interfaces with personal computers.
Romain Jérôme (See The Hunting season is open by Pierre Maillard) makes a golf watch that allows you to keep track of your score through a push button system on the case, the Golf Master Time (GMT) - design cues throughout the watch come from golf - stripes on the lugs are reminiscent of the grooves on clubs, the crown has a dimple effect like those found on golf balls and the folding safety clasp picks up the club symbol on its push-pieces.
Many times a watch is developed for a specific sport, and then becomes so popular that it catches on with the wide world beyond that sport. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso was initially designed for polo players, who were constantly breaking the crystals of their watches while playing. Reversing the watch so that the solid caseback was on the outside protected their crystals and started an iconic product for Jaeger, which this year was displayed in the new Reverso Squadra Chronograph GMT.


TO BE CONTINUED...
In the forthcoming days, the rest of this lenghty survey will be added to our europastar website.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5


Source: Europa Star June-July 2006 Magazine Issue