I received an email from a gentleman looking for an automatic chronograph for under $75. We exchanged a few long emails and a phone call before he understood the problem. You cannot manufacture an inexpensive mechanical chronograph, because they have too many complications.
What is a Chronograph?
You use a simple chronograph as a stopwatch combined with a standard watch's functions. Such a watch usually has at sweep second hand the user can start, stop, and return to zero by pressing on the winding and setting stem.
Today, chronographs have additional features and hands to measure seconds, minutes, hours and even tenths of a second. Since the 1960's, chronographs have rotating bezels with tachymeters, so that the user can make rapid calculations of speed or distance.*
*(Most watch companies inscribe the rim of an analog watch to compute a speed based on distance. The spacings between the marks on the tachymeter dial are therefore proportional to 1/t where "t" is the elapsed time over a measurable distance.) You don't need to know that.
Three Subdials Do Not Make a Chronograph
A plethora (a large number) of watches for sale on eBay have three subdials that show the day, date and month. You can call it a chronograph if you want, but that's like calling a manikin a person. People use manikins for display and don't expect them to behave like humans with the exception of an episode of the Twilight Zone.
Mechanical Complications
The watch industry has a term for any function on a watch, other than displaying time of day. They call such functions or additions - complications. Complications range from displays of the date, to extremely rare works of horology that combine numerous functions such as those of a stop watch as mentioned above.
Each complication requires another mechanism added to a basic hand wound watch movement. An automatic or self-winding watch uses a complication or additional mechanism to wind the watch as you move your arm.
Chronographic "Totalizers"
When a second hand reaches one minute, it engages the minute hand to move. Minute hands that progress to an hour then engages the hour dial.
I guess if you're going to call something a complication, then you might as well confuse people with additional annoying jargon. A chronograph has a series of mechanisms or complications referred to as totalizers. Weird, huh?
Complicated? Yes, but
Think about all the assemblies required to make a mechanical chronograph, much less one with a self-winding or automatic complication. How do you make one of those at a low cost? Answer: You don't unless you sacrifice so much quality that your manufacturing defect rate offsets the cost of doing it correctly the first time.
One can manufacture popularly priced Chronographs using a quartz movement.
Sellers market quartz chronographs in different styles. For example, a Casio G Shock chronograph looks like a mountain climber's rugged sports design. Citizen and Seiko make some that appear like luxury dress watches and often with the appearance of a Rolex Daytona.
Automatic Mechanical Chronographs
Modern Chronographs became available in 1969, when a Heuer, Breitling, and Hamilton team won the patent and released an automatic or self-winding movement. Prior to that, the industry only produced wind-up mechanical chronographs.
The Rolex Cosmograph Daytona
Prior to the release of the automatic chronographs, Rolex manufactured a mechanical, manual winding chronograph in 1963 known as a Cosmograph Daytona. The company manufactured it until 1988. Many people believe it's the most collectible Rolex watch.The rarest of these belonged to Paul Newman and has a dial named after him. Evidently, Newman wore at least one of these watches from 1972 until his death in 2008. Legend has it that Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward, gave it to him when he took up automobile racing.
Note the look.
Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Watches on eBay
Invicta's Speedway
In numerous posts Invicta is quoted as saying, “we have long held firm to the belief that supremely crafted timepieces can be offered for extremely modest sums.”
In this situation, Invicta is saying they produced a homage, tribute or heritage watch retailing for about $125 or 100 Euros. It’s a quartz watch, the crystal is made of hardened mineral glass and case is a high grade of stainless steel. It has a Seiko movement. It's basically a Japanese watch.
Is this a counterfeit watch? No. Seiko has produced watches with famous design since the 1970's. That's one of their business strategies. I own and have owned a few over the years.
Invicta Speedway in my collection on eBay
Advantage of a Quartz Chronograph?
You could say that availability ranks high when thinking about quartz chronographs. That includes price and lack of additional services expenses associated with mechanical chronographs. Rolex may have "cache", but only among a tiny percent of a percent of the population that floats in money or extremely high debt.
In the modern world, men wear watches for adornment purposes or as jewelry. You don't need one to tell time. You have cell phones, clocks everywhere and computers to give you accurate time.
I like this Invicta because it feels good on my wrist, it's attractive and occasionally, I use it's chronograph features. It's not the only good looking chronograph, but it is one.
Ideas about chronographs?
Watch out for sellers labeling their three subdial watches as Chronographs. If the watch lacks a stop watch function - it's a day, date, month watch. If you don't need a stop watch, then buy what you like.
Quartz chronographs make sense. You can find a look you like and it's affordable. I wouldn't shy away from one, because it's not mechanical and I'm a mechanical bigot.I just like my Invicta Speedway.
I have a collection of mechanical chronographs on eBay. You might want to take a look.
A chronograph collection on eBay