02/ WHAT LIES BENEATH

The dial’s aesthetics may be what initially catches your eye, but it’s the intricate mechanisms beneath the surface that make everything work in harmony, like the submerged legs of a graceful swan. The complex workings of the chronograph are a mystery to most, but dissect one and you’ll find that it makes more sense.

When they’re activated by the pusher, levers under the dial pull the wheels of the chronograph into motion. Among the most important of these is the column wheel, which rotates with every click of the pusher. This, in turn, moves the clutch, a device that controls the transfer of energy to the mechanism.

These are usually horizontal, but the true watch snob wants a timepiece with a vertical clutch. Although not as pretty to look at, its gears are always interlocked (with a horizontal clutch, the gears work separately), resulting in a far smoother pusher action and less wear on the movement.

But that’s not all a chronograph can do. It may also include a timer to record your laps: a gear train is driven by two mainspring barrels, which spring back and start timing once a third button is pushed, while the other hand clocks the seconds. This is the ultimate horological multitasker.