Jack Forster
[Elite User]
4381
It's an interesting watch, actually. It's a bit different though. . .
. . .from a normal chronograph. In most chronographs, there is only one escapement which keeps time for the watch and also runs the chronograph. The number of vph of the caliber therefore determines the number of fractions of a second into which the watch can divide time when timing events. (The 36,000 vph El Primero, therefore, can time intervals as small as 1/10 second.)
The 360 actually has two escapements; one of them is for timekeeping, and the second is a very high beat (obviously) escapement which only runs when the chronograph is engaged- IIRC it's basically a completely separate movement and has its own mainspring as well (I could be wrong about that, can't for the life of me remember now.)
To some folks this is a bit of a cheat in that a lot of the points of interest in chronograph design traditionally have to do with how you engage and disengage the chronograph from the power train of the watch- vertical clutch vs. lateral clutch vs. tilting pinion and so forth. Also it's usually thought to be a demonstration of skill to not have running the chronograph have too significant an effect on the rate. The 360 does an end run around both these issues because it's basically a stopwatch and a time only watch- two separate watches really- inside a single case. This is either an ingeniously direct, Alexander-cutting-the-Gordian-knot solution, or a terrible abandonment of everything that makes a chronograph interesting in the first place, depending on your disposition 
. The other sometimes mooted point is that since human reaction time can't respond faster than about 1/20th of a second anyway, the chronograph is of dubious utility. My view is that since mechanical chronographs per se are of dubious utility, you might as well find the one that floats your particular, irrational boat.
Either way, congratulations on your new piece and as they used to say in the Royal Navy, may you have joy of your prize!
Best regards,
Jack
This message has been edited by Jack Forster on 2007-03-03 06:34:12
360,000 vph
It's an interesting watch, actually. It's a bit different though. . .
The two separate movements