Today, people are spending more time than ever before on outdoor sports activities. Be it skiing, running, canoeing, fishing or hunting, people are outside whenever they can be.
So, sports watches are one of the best choices for their active lifestyles. Luckily, this is the year of the sports watch. More and more companies are designing, introducing, promoting and selling sports watches than ever before. Sports watches are the U.S. Army Jeep of the watch industry, if you will – they can climb higher, dive deeper, go faster and run longer, so they are the perfect compliment for active people. And sports watches are not just for men. Companies are introducing these watches for women in record numbers as well. The great thing about sports watches is that they are refined enough to wear to work or out to dinner, but tough enough to get down and dirty – and you never have to worry about them, ever.
Sports Watch Design
Sports watches are bigger than normal watches – larger, thicker and bulkier, with good reason. They are designed and constructed to withstand shocks, take bumps and bruises in stride, and remain water-resistant for all kinds of sports usage. That’s no problem, however, since the trend in watches for the past few years is that bigger is better. Some of the great sports watches on the market include the iconic Royal Oak from Audemars Piguet, the Nautilus from Patek Philippe, the Hublot Big Bang and many more.
Chronographs
How To Operate Your Chronograph
In a two-pusher chronograph, like the Vacheron Constantin Malte Tonneau Chronograph Special Edition for the U.S. market, the operation is very simple. To start your chronograph, press the top pusher once, until you feel it click. The chronometer hand will start moving.
To stop the chronograph, press the same pusher again until you feel it click. The chronometer hand will stop moving. To reset the chronograph hand, press the bottom pusher once, until you feel it click, the chronograph hand and all the subdial hands will return to zero.
The chronograph, a function that measures elapsed time, has to be the most popular complication in the watch world, and many sports watches feature one. Though many people don’t use their chronographs much, they do come in handy to time runs, bike rides, swims or the time it takes to cook your egg in the morning. The addition of a chronograph is another reason sports watches are larger, as there has to be room on the dial for the elapsed time counters. There were some incredible new chronographs introduced this year, from some of the best companies in the business. Patek Philippe transitioned its new in-house chronograph into its regular line this year. This watch is robust and reliable, exactly what you want in a chronograph. One of the most anticipated introductions this year was the IWC Da Vinci chronograph, which features a display of the chronograph hours and minutes in a sub dial at the 12 o’clock position, at the same time simple and intuitive.
The most mysterious new introduction is the Memoire 1 chronograph from Maurice Lacroix. Billed as the first mechanical chronograph with a memory, it is still shrouded in mystery as of the date of this writing. Maurice Lacroix also brought its Le Chronograph manufacture movement into its regular collection (it was a limited edition in 2006).
TAG Heuer introduced what might be the most complicated quartz chronograph ever – the Caliber S, which times to 1/100th of a second. The timekeeping is very simple as the second, hour and minute hands perform their same functions in the chronograph mode, making it very simple to read, and you can go back and forth between time and chronograph mode without having to stop the chronograph. This movement is really a mixture of a precision quartz and a mechanical movement – with 230 parts, it’s as complicated as a mechanical movement.
For women, Chopard offers the Happy Sport Chronograph. The Happy Sport is a fun watch, with the addition of a chronograph for style and function. Ebel has introduced the new Lady Brasilia Chronorgraph as well.
Cars and Motorcycles
Cars have always been linked to watches, but now motorcycles seem to be coming into the forefront. Just this year, JeanRichard and MV Agusta announced a partnership. MV Agusta is a collector’s motorcycle, boasting the highest-priced production motorcycle ever made (over $100,000), and collaborating with JeanRichard on a series of MV Agusta-themed watches makes perfect sense, as both brands are striving for well-deserved recognition in the U.S. market.
In other motorcycle news, Jaeger-LeCoultre and one of the world’s fastest men on a motorcycle, MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, have continued their partnership again this year. The newest iteration is the Master Compressor Extreme World Alarm ’46,’ a world time watch with a mechanical alarm. The 46.5 mm watch is powered by the new Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 912, suspended in Jaeger’s proprietary shock absorbing system.
In car news, Chopard continues to be the sponsor of the famous Mille Miglia race, and this year’s official watch, the Mille Miglia GT XL Chrono, is bigger and bolder than ever. Audemars Piguet’s relationship with Maserati continues, as does Jaeger-LeCoultre with Aston Martin, Officine Panerai and Ferrari (celebrating Ferrari’s 60th anniversary this year) and Breitling with Bentley.
Today’s sport watches are nothing like the black plastic watches so popular twenty years ago. The newest sports watches are precision instruments capable of withstanding incredible shocks and pressure. In addition, the design of sports watches has come so far that these watches not only perform, but they look great on your wrist as well.
