FEATURED: Chronofighter 1695
Movement: 4 Hz. G1745, Automatic
Case: 42 mm 18 K Rose gold; Sapphire crystal glass; Back plate engraved with Royal Greenwich Observatory
Dial: White with 18K Rose gold bezel
Strap and Buckle: Brown alligator skin with 18K Rose gold pin buckle
R.R.P.: £15,700
Graham watches are known for being quintessentially British watches made in
Switzerland. The company traces its origins to London clock maker George Graham
(1673-1751)
who is considered as the
father of modern watch making; he is known as the mastermind of the chronograph
as he invented the start and stop devices of the chronograph. And the dead-
beat and cylinder escapement, the mercury pendulum to compensate the
influence of temperature on pendulums, to name a few. Graham also built
the master clock for Greenwich Royal Observatory which timed most of
the 18th century and lots of science instruments for astronomers and
physicists. Graham was revived in 1995 and is today a privately owned
Swiss watch company. As an independent watch company, Graham SA
creates and manufactures its watches in their own production facilities in
La Chaux-de-Fonds, the watchmaking capital of Switzerland.
Graham watches, with their strong bold lines and sophisticated movements,
combine originality and exclusivity. They have a certain confidence about
them; they’re not shy and retiring. The watches have big movements, big
pushers and slightly bigger hands than most. The movements are first rate
Swiss movements, all engineered or adapted exclusively for Graham. This is
done to create watches with special features and functions: Tourbillon; Split
seconds or rattrapante chronograph; the combination of Flyback or retour en
vol chronograph, GMT/second time zone and big date; column wheel or roué
à colonnes (R.A.C.) chronograph; alarm with GMT/second time
zone. Graham goes to great lengths to build watches
never seen before: To construct a Tourbillon in
an automatic column wheel chronograph and
to engineer it so that it is shock resistant,
was no mean feat by the engineers of
our neighbours, Manufacture La
Joux-Perret SA. Graham pays
huge attention to detail as well as
engineering perfection; cases,
bezels,
crystals,
crowns,
pushers, dials, hands, case
backs, buckles and straps
are all usually pretty big but
designed with great attention
to detail, and with a grain of
English eccentricity.
