"Chronograph Wristwatches: To Stop Time" by G.-R. Lang & R. Meis, a brief review.
I stumbled upon this large, 1999-copyrighted text some time ago, but forgot about it before I got around to ordering. Only recently I discovered it again at amazon and promptly forwarded the funds, about $65 delivered. What arrived is a chronograph connoisseur's delight! After a quick perusal of the book I did a search at scwf to see if anyone had mentioned or reviewed it previously--nada. So...
A few particulars:
As I mentioned, "Chronograph Wristwatches" is rather dated and is not exhaustive in its coverage of chronos. Nevertheless, the authors present such a varied wealth of information this hardly matters. Though I know nothing about Herr Meis, Gert-Rudiger Lang is the founder and owner of Chronoswiss, a German watch company (which builds and sells Swiss watches) and was apprenticed to a watchmaker in his youth. Hence, he knows what of he speaks... so to speak. But, a note though, since this massive tome (250 9x12-inch pages) was originally written in German and translated into English there are a few wording errors, ones for which it is hard to determine if they are typos, translation errors, grammatical errors, or
But, unlike some such texts, I have found remarkably few of these and the context makes it clear what was intended. They in no way detract from the book's value to chono-fans!
The book:
The text starts with an incredibly detailed history of chronograph development, appropriately focusing on wristwatch aspects of that process. It gives an unbelievable amount of historical and technical detail including the presentation of patent drawings and describing how each development worked. Every part of the chronograph is discussed in amazing detail, not only movements but also dial indications over the years, along with case design and construction. For me, I was amazed at the types of chronos one never sees anymore.
The historical and technical data are followed by an example of a set of repair instructions. This info brings us to page 75 and presents an incredible number of diagrams and description. Then, from page 75-219 we have MANY pictures of both complete chronographs and calibers with attendant info for each. There are both color and black & white presentations. Personally, I found it intriguing how common "no name" chronos were over the years; indeed the cover watch is one of these jewels!
I said that the book is not exhaustive. As a collector and reader of many watch books and magazines, I was not surprised to see no mention of Seiko in the race to develop and bring to market the first automatic chronograph in 1969 (and, by most accounts--even in Swiss-oriented sources--Seiko is often credited with having the first example actually on the market). Thus, imagine my surprise and delight when I turned to page 205 and found it completely filled by two 7016s and a 6139!!! Wow! There is even a 6138 bullhead on a later page, along with a Citizen 8100 and some 8110s, again including a bullhead. I mention the bullheads, in particular, since this style is my favorite design, having over 30 of varying brands, vintage and new.
What of the remaining 31 pages of the book? They are mostly devoted to a "Caliber Directory" with close-up caliber pictures and descriptions (including Citizen and Seiko, again), a bibliography and index, concluding with a grossly outdated "Price Guide."
There you have it. Do you want this book? Do you need this book? Trust me, if you are a serious mechanical chrono-freak the easy answer is, OF COURSE!
(Btw, there is the briefest mention and examples of electric chronographs, but hardly enough to warrant purchase if that is your "thing." And, one final point... I wrote this review with a text editor and copied/pasted it to the Forum. So, if you find there are weird word spacings within the text, that seems to be the reason. I hope it doesn't render the review unusable if it happens. Thanks!)
