Why sometimes chronographs have a 3 minute mark on…
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Why sometimes chronographs have a 3 minute mark on subdials.
When I first got into watches a long time ago & started doing research on chronographs, I thought it was interesting how some of the older watches sometimes had a 3 minute mark on their subdials & if it was a nod to something in particular. Turns out they had actual uses back then.
You see back in the day, long distance telephone call tracking was not as accessible & cheap as it is now & was very expensive so you had to time it under 3 minute intervals as to be charged for only one interval so get your hi, hellos, & goodbyes in under 180 seconds.
Another (and more likely reason) was for Aeronautical Navigation with 3 minutes being 1/20 of an hour with pilots being able to do things like calculating distance, speed, fuel spent, and more under those increments to give a estimation of their aircraft’s ability.
Although it’s essentially a useless thing now in the modern day it’s still a cool tidbit piece of history on why it’s used with some vintage inspired watches still having these marks.
Although you could probably in the modern day time boiling an egg or tea with the 3 minute mark if that’s more your style.
#luxury
When I first got into watches a long time ago & started doing research on chronographs, I thought it was interesting how some of the older watches sometimes had a 3 minute mark on their subdials & if it was a nod to something in particular. Turns out they had actual uses back then.
You see back in the day, long distance telephone call tracking was not as accessible & cheap as it is now & was very expensive so you had to time it under 3 minute intervals as to be charged for only one interval so get your hi, hellos, & goodbyes in under 180 seconds.
Another (and more likely reason) was for Aeronautical Navigation with 3 minutes being 1/20 of an hour with pilots being able to do things like calculating distance, speed, fuel spent, and more under those increments to give a estimation of their aircraft’s ability.
Although it’s essentially a useless thing now in the modern day it’s still a cool tidbit piece of history on why it’s used with some vintage inspired watches still having these marks.
Although you could probably in the modern day time boiling an egg or tea with the 3 minute mark if that’s more your style.
#luxury
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