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Best Watches for Sailing: The Regatta Timer Explained

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All You Need to Know about Regatta Timers in Sailing Watches

With the passion for watches often connected to the spirit of history and tradition, it naturally makes sense to link such emotion to one of the oldest forms of human and mechanical competition - competitive sailing. Thought to date back to the Netherlands in the 17th century, sailing races (collectively called a regatta) are steeped in tradition including the start sequences that generated the need for a yacht timer.

Starting a Race

Unlike an auto race, or even a foot race, a sailboat can neither stand still on a starting grid nor can it accelerate quickly from a stop.

Instead, yachts will be in motion well before the starting line. One could think of it like a foot race where you are allowed to get a running start. The key to a proper start is crossing the starting line as soon as the starting signal sounds (but not before) and while moving as fast as possible on a good heading.

Unique Needs of a Sailing Watch

The starting procedure of a sailing race involves a series of flags and horns, but in essence, it is a 5-minute countdown (in some rarer instances 10 minutes). For that reason, most regatta timers have timing countdowns of five minutes or increments of five.

Here is the breakdown of a start:

5 minutes to start: A flag and horn to signal the start of the countdown. Engage your regatta timer on a five minute countdown.

4 minutes to start: A second flag and horn sounds. This is both a second timing reminder as well as a flag displaying starting rules of the race. If one didn’t start their 5-minute countdown, they can begin a 4-minute countdown now.

1 minute to start: Flag change and final preparatory signal.

0 minutes to start: Starting flag and signal. 

As a member of a sailing crew is likely extremely busy both positioning for a start as well as navigating around other yachts, most regatta timers are designed with high visibility in mind. Looking at both current production and vintage timers, you are likely to see high-visibility color combinations.

Why the Yachtmaster II

Unlike the standard  Yachtmaster , the Yachtmaster II features a unique regatta timing movement which improves upon the process. Our team covered the process of setting a Yachtmaster II in a  previous article .

What makes the Yachtmaster II unique is the “sync” button. Let’s use the 5-minute starting process described above as an example.

5 minutes to start: Let’s say that the designated timer on the boat was currently adjusting a sheet at the time of the signal. By the time they hit the start button on the timer, 10 seconds has elapsed. With a traditional regatta timer, your options are limited and most likely they would just try to mentally adjust the offset.  However with a Yachtmaster II, they can synchronize at the 4-minute mark.

4 minutes to start: The second horn sounds. The wearer presses the sync button, and the YM II jumps  to the nearest minute, thereby putting their yacht on the exact countdown time as the race director.

1 minute to start: They are still in sync.

0 minutes to start: You cross the starting line right as the starting horn sounds.

I Don’t Own a Boat, Do I Still Need a Regatta Timer?

If you’re expecting us to talk you out of a watch purchase, you are clearly in the wrong place. If you need a practical use, we might recommend timing a steak on the grill and thinking about 400+ years of nautical heritage. But first you have to decide: steel or two-tone?

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Yachting Timers & Watches

At worn&wound we’ve long been fascinated by watches that were designed specifically for individual sporting events. This is part of a series on these unique timepieces.

Yacht timers – also referred to as regatta timers, yachting chronographs, or sailing watches – are watches specially designed and made for the countdown to the start of a sailing race. As you can imagine, starting a race on water, with entrants powered by the wind, is not as easy as lining up on a grid, Formula 1 style, or lined up like sprinters at a track meet, waiting for the starting gun. As we just saw in the recent America’s Cup races in San Francisco, the yachts (we use the term loosely in the case of the America’s Cup boats) are already at speed as they approach the starting line. The trick for the skipper is to NOT cross the starting line before the starting gun goes off. If they do, they’re penalized quite heavily (how and how much depends on the rules in effect for the specific race).

So some sort of a count-down timer is useful to the pilot and tactician. Horns signal the start of the countdown period and a skipper can start his yacht timer by the audible signal. He then has an on board measurement of progress to the start of the race, and can sail his yacht accordingly – hopefully to reach the starting line, at speed, just as the starting gun sounds.

Over the decades there have been numerous yacht timers and specialized chronographs produced by the world’s watch companies. Perhaps the most well-known yachting timer today is the Rolex YachtMaster, but there are others, past and present. Current and recent pieces include those from Tutima, Alpina, Atlantic, Omega, Panerai, and IWC, as well as electronic offerings from TAG Heuer, Suunto, Tissot and others.

But the vintage timepieces – the regatta timers of old – are what really get our juices flowing. Sailing chronographs like the Heuer Autavia Skipper, the Regate (sold under three different brand names – Aquastar, Heuer, and Tissot), Heuer’s Yacht Timer (both wrist-mounted and stopwatch form factor), the Breitling Chronomat and SuperOcean (both in regatta timing trim), the Memosail (two are on eBay as we write this), Lemania’s self-branded Regatta Yacht Timer in handheld stopwatch format, and the wonderfully busy Wakmann.

Regatta timers have various ways of indicating the countdown time. There’s typically a multi-colored or numbered disc rotating beneath the dial with the colors or numerals showing through windows similar to a date disc. Five vari-colored dots – usually blue followed by red (Alpina, Regate), numerals against colored backgrounds (Memosail), or a separate chrono hand coupled with colored zones on the watch’s bezel (Tutima, Bretling, Heuer) or indicating time remaining to the start via a separate scale within the dial (Rolex).

Heuer’s Autavia Skipper was part of the legendary Autavia line in the 1970s. It featured the Autavia’s classic tonneau shaped case, a red, white, and blue countdown sub-dial at 3 o’clock, a small seconds at 10 o’clock, and date at 6. Chrono pushers were in the classic locations at 2 and 4, but the crown was positioned at 9 o’clock. The watch featured a 60 minute rotating bezel, and examples are often see with a blue dial & bezel combination.

Heuer’s Yacht Timer from the 1960s came in both a wrist-mounted version and a handheld stopwatch form factor. Color-wise, regatta timer dials are never shy, and the Heuer is no exception. This watch was basically a fifteen or thirty minute stopwatch (there were at least two versions) with a multi-colored dial formatted and printed for the countdown function.

Aquastar’s Regate, also branded and sold as Heuer, Tissot and other brands such as “Racing”  in the early 1980s, used a Lemania movement with a classic five-dot/ window format, with a tri-colored rotating disc beneath the dial. five windows for five minutes, and once the timing started the colored wheel would progressively show thru the windows, changing them one at a time from blue to red to white (or silver).

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Breitling produced watches in regatta timing trim in both the Chronomat and SuperOcean lines. The Chronomat featured a center mounted minute with a multi-colored inner chapter ring. The SuperOcean used the center-mounted totalizing hand with a multi-colored bezel. These black-cased watches featured Venus 178 or 188 movements, modified to handle the unique needs of a yachting chronograph.

Lemania’s self-branded Regatta Yacht Timer is another handheld stopwatch format timer. The timing function is the familiar series of five windows with a colored disc beneath, but with the letters S-T-A-R-T replacing the third color (similar to the Memosail).

The Wakmann , yet another 1970s piece, looks almost too nice to have been a working watch. To us, it looks more like a dress watch for the Yacht Club awards banquet (but then, so does the current Rolex Yachtmaster II). The timer’s motor is a Lemania Caliber 1341 automatic with hour sub-dial at 6 o’clock and running seconds at 9 o’clock. Countdown chrono minutes and seconds are indicated by center mounted hands with orange tips. The display has a lot going on, with a date window at 3 o’clock, a white stationary chapter ring with days of the month, a multi-colored chapter ring with days of the week (moveable via a secondary crown at 10 o’clock – line it up with the correct day of the week for the current month), and a third multi-colored chapter ring outside the first two, this one with 15 countdown minutes in the first quadrant and a tachymeter over the following three quadrants. We’d be concerned about reading this in the heat of racing battle. That said, we love this watch for its center minutes totalizer, its unique display of day of the week and month, and it’s cool 1970s cushion styling.

With ultra-modern quartz-based timers available (TAG Heuer produced what was effectively a dedicated smartwatch, specifically to be worn by members of the America’s Cup Team Oracle, which relayed real-time data stream of boat performance to each crew member), and the inevitably harsh conditions of sailboat racing, these wonderful vintage racers have probably seen their heyday (one can’t imagine a skipper actually wearing a Rolex Yachtmaster II in a modern race). But their unique styling, and sheer mechanical timing abilities are works of wonder in any age. We’d wear one, even if it’s only to sail our desk into next week.

by Ed Estlow

special thanks to our friends at analogshift.com for lending us the Wakmann

and Francesco B for use of his Racing Regatta images

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What Is the Purpose of a Yachting Timer?

There are a lot of watchmaking complications out there that aren’t particularly useful for the “mass market” – moonphase complications in particular, but also others. A yachting timer (like the Rolex Yacht-Master II ) for example, is designed to aid in the countdown to the start of a regatta (a yacht or boat race). Oh, I’m sorry. You don’t spend your weekends competing in regattas? That’s ok though, as its function also has other applications in the real world (but more on that later).

The Purpose of a Yachting Timer

When competing in a regatta, getting off of the starting line is a bit of a convoluted process. Powered by wind, there is no “mashing the throttle” from a standstill to get things moving. Thus, a running start of sorts needs to be undertaken, which means a countdown takes place as boats jockey for position in relation to the starting line.

Typically a 5-minute interval (with some variance), the yachting timer complication – also called a regatta timer – was created specifically for timing these countdowns. A sound is typically triggered to announce the starting of this countdown, giving competitors warning to start their timers and prepare to launch out of the starting gates. If you want to dig deeper into that, Cruising World has a great “Racing 101” feature, but you probably get the fundamentals by now at the very least.

Sure, a small percentage of us might get out on a sailboat from time to time. Of that contingent, a few might actually even compete here and there. The thing is, you really don’t need to be out on the water to make use of a yachting timer. Just think for a second about all of the little tasks in your daily lives that could benefit from a short-run countdown timer. Steaks on the BBQ, your child’s time-out, that chat with a work colleague that always feels like it goes on forever (“oh, sorry Susan, I’ve really gotta run”), short intervals of billable time in the office, time remaining in a presentation; if you think about it long enough, you’ll certainly come up with a few more too. You might not need/use it every day, but at the very least, it makes for an interesting alternative to the conventional chronograph.

Famous Regatta Timers

Over the years, a number of brands (other than Rolex) have gotten into the category, especially during the ‘70s. Heuer’s catalog included both the Skipper and later the Heuer Regatta. The former used a 15-minute chronograph sub-dial, with each 5-minute increment/slice being painted a different color – a method both simple and effective.

The Heuer Regatta on the other hand is slightly different. 5 circular cut-outs on the dial change color minute by minute as they count down. Rather than a conventional chronograph setup, the Regatta is more like an Omega Chronostop in the sense that the timer is always running, yet you can instantaneously reset your 5-minute interval on the fly by using its pusher at 2 o’clock.

Beyond these two noteworthy pieces, there were also a number of pretty obscure offerings from Lemania, Aquastar, Memosail, and others, but of course, the big modern entry to the category comes from Rolex, and she’s a complicated thing to say the least. The Rolex Yacht-Master II is hands-down the most interesting, complex, and cleverly engineered yachting timer on the market thus far. Powered by the Rolex Caliber 4161 movement, and good for a power reserve of 3 days, its countdown timer is actually programmable in intervals between 1 and 10 minutes. Confused? Here’s how it works.

First, unscrew the crown (without pulling it out), and rotate its external Ring Command bezel counter-clockwise till you reach an end stop. This is the “programming position.” From here, using the reset pusher at four o’clock allows you to move the oversized countdown timer hand between the 1 and 10 indices on the inner timing track of its bezel. Next, you simply reposition the bezel and screw its crown back down, and from this point onwards resetting the timer on the Yacht-Master II will reset it to the preset interval. At this point, whether you want to time the five-minute countdown to the start of a regatta, or the two minutes per side you want to grill that thick-cut steak for, you’re all set.

About Justin Mastine-Frost

With over a decade of experience as a journalist and editor covering the watchmaking, the automotive industry, and other lifestyle topics, a general obsession with mechanical creations remains the common thread. Having worked for a broad range of industry and general interest publications throughout the years, Justin has developed a sincere appreciation for a wide range of watch brands and styles, as well as an ever-growing interest in the vintage watch market.

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SAVOIR FAIRE Sea change: the evolution of yacht timers

Heuer Aquastar Regate advertising, circa 1964 © TAG Heuer

At TAG Heuer, we’ve always had an intimate connection with the ocean. Our transition into nautical timing birthed some of our greatest stopwatches and timepieces ever. We’ve dug into our archives to uncover the evolution of our yacht timers. From the 1930s to present day, discover a glorious collection of pieces that have inspired both watch collectors and sailing pros.

What is a yacht timer?

To appreciate yacht timers, it’s important to understand that yacht races are defined by one critical moment. The moment when the signal boat blasts a horn and raises a flag to mark the start of the race. There is a 5-minute countdown to the start so the yachts can try to hold a strong position at the start line. This countdown to the start of a race is almost as important as the race itself. If a boat crosses the start line too soon, it is penalized. If it crosses the start line too late, it gives away an advantage to its competitors. 

Under the rules of yacht racing, flags are raised and horns are sounded 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 1 minute before the start and of course, at the start of the race. There may also be important countdowns from the 10 and 15 minute marks. Skippers must be able to control their boats as well as calculate and anticipate the time leading up to the start. By working closely with sailing experts, Heuer developed carefully thought-out yacht timers to measure pre-race intervals, tides and of course, the race.

1930s – stopwatches for yacht timing

Flick through the Heuer archives and you’ll find special stopwatches designed for yacht racing dating back all the way to the 1930s. While the numbers for minutes and seconds on a standard stopwatch count ‘up’, that is they move clockwise from 5-10-15 up to 50-55-60, the minutes and seconds on a yacht timer count ‘down’. Rather than counting up to 60 minutes, the standard yachting timer counts down exactly 5 minutes. The period for the pre-race signals in a yacht race. The numbers for seconds on Heuer’s yachting timers count ‘down’, with the numbers for seconds printed on the dial moving clockwise from 60-55-50 down to 15-10-5.  

Heuer catalogue, 1933 © TAG Heuer

Heuer catalogue, circa 1936-1938 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Solunar Advertising, circa 1940 © TAG Heuer

1949 - the rise of the Solunar

Apart from the countdown to the start of a race, yacht racers also benefit from knowing the times for high tides and low tides. In 1949, Heuer introduced the first wristwatch with a permanent tide indicator. In addition to the three standard hands to indicate the hour, minutes and seconds, the Solunar had a colorful inset disc to show the tide times. Upon arriving at a specific location, sailors, racers, or fishermen could check the local tide charts and use a pusher to set the tide disc. 

This disc then inched forward soon after midnight each day to indicate the times for the high and low tides for the following day. The Solunar laid the groundwork for the development of the Heuer chronographs of the future, which would also incorporate the tide disc.  The origin story of the Solunar is as thrilling as the timepiece itself. You can hear all about it in Season 2 of our podcast A Matter of Time .

Despite its innovative and eye-catching design, our archives suggest that Solunar wasn’t an easy sell. Here’s a quote from a piece of correspondence between Heuer and its then partner Abercrombie & Fitch: ‘This Solunar watch is a big hit, but it also has a big flaw. To sell it you need a “how to set and how to handle it” explanation. Despite a superb color leaflet, the explanation is too complicated, and the sellers in the shops prefer to sell simple watches.’

1950 to 1954 - a new wave of tide chronographs

The Solunar was a three-hand watch (hours, minutes and seconds) with a special tide dial. And it paved the way for a series of chronographs that would incorporate this same type of tide dial in a three-register chronograph, with the capacity to record up to 12 hours. The minute recorder was divided into five-minute segments, making the chronographs especially useful for yacht races. These watches were made over a period of two decades, first as the Heuer Mareograph and Abercrombie & Fitch Seafarer, with the Orvis Solunagraph joining the line-up circa 1970. Each of these chronographs sailed forth to become a collector’s item.

When these chronographs first arrived in 1950, Heuer seems to have felt the need to explain how they worked, so customers could better understand the benefits of owning a watch with a tide indicator. Here’s an advertisement for the Mareograph. It came with two separate sections that explained how you could use the timepiece for yachting as well as fishing and hunting.

1957 - the Ring-Master

While the wristwatches with tide indicators made waves, Heuer introduced an entirely new type of yacht timer in 1957: the Heuer Ring-Master. The Ring-Master stopwatch came with seven interchangeable rings, allowing the owner to quickly install different rings to time different events, like boxing, football and many other sports. Each of the rings were a different color, with different markings. The bright yellow Ring 1 was perfect for yacht racing as it was marked for a countdown of minutes and seconds.  

Heuer Solunar, circa 1950 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Seafarer, circa 1950 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Mareograph, circa 1950 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Ring-Master, circa 1957 © TAG Heuer

1959 - the Giant

Towards the end of the fifties, Heuer made revolutionary changes in its approach to yacht timers. A great example of this is a stopwatch that was listed as ‘The Giant’. First, instead of the five minutes to the start of the race being shown on a relatively small recorder occupying only a fractional area of the dial, the track marking the minutes covered almost the entire area of the dial. This track was marked for five minutes, and each of the one-minute segments was a different color. The case diameter increased from the previous standard 49mm up to 57mm, with the case also having a white enamel coating.  

1964 to 1967 - the Aquastar years

Aquastar was founded in 1962 as a subsidiary of Jean Richard, an established Swiss maker at the time. It became well-known for making watches for use in and on the water. The Regate set sail in 1964 as a watch specifically designed for timing the start of a yacht race. This model’s defining characteristics are five circular apertures across the top of the dial. Graced with a rotating disk, they give the appearance of five red balls that represent the minutes being counted down. The dial on this watch is signed ‘Aquastar’ and ‘Heuer’. Aquastar produced the watch and Heuer distributed it. By 1976 Heuer would have its own branded ‘Regatta’ countdown watches that used the same style of circular apertures. But Heuer’s examples typically timed 10-minute periods, using five red circles and five blue circles.

1964 - for every kind of skipper

Heuer was beginning to harness the potential, and versatility, of yacht timers. The watchmaker began using advertorials to persuade ‘skippers’ from different walks of life to embrace these pieces.

1966 – the Navia goes sailing

Heuer had been making dashboard clocks since the 1930s. The hallmarks of these pieces were their 8-day capacity and rugged cases and movements that could withstand racing, rallying or aviation. Named the ‘Master Time’ in 1958, by the mid-1960s Heuer had modified the dashboard clock to be useful at sea. The ‘Navia’ (referring to ‘naval’ and ‘aviation’) incorporated a waterproof case and offered superb legibility, with Heuer advertising that it was perfect for the open cockpit of a boat. 

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We arrive at the historic moment that inspired Heuer to leave a lasting mark on the sailing world: the America’s Cup in September 1967. Heuer supplied timing equipment for the legendary racing yacht Intrepid , including Heuer-Aquastar wristwatches and handheld yacht timers. Not far from the shores of Newport, Rhode Island, the Intrepid stormed to victory. To commemorate skipper Emil Mosbacher’s triumph, Heuer produced an entirely new chronograph, the iconic Reference 7754.  

The first Heuer ‘Skipper’ used a bright blue, green and orange dial. It was given a Carrera case, with the 30-minute recorder of the Carrera replaced by a 15-minute countdown recorder. This timepiece is highly coveted by vintage Heuer collectors and people with a passion for sailing. This first version would live a very short life. Only a few hundred pieces were created. And then the Skipper chronograph would move to the ‘compressor’ case of the Autavia. The name ‘Skipper’ would live on through several other versions through the 1970s and 1980s.

1968 - how to make a strong start

By crafting cutting-edge yacht timers, Heuer enabled teams to not only make a good start, but also a flying finish. Heuer was so dedicated to yacht racing enthusiasts that the brand created catalogs with tips on how to make a good start.

1970 - winning hearts

While the Skipper was making waves for chronograph enthusiasts, Heuer yacht timers continued to be marketed among Heuer’s precision instruments ‘for sports, industrial, scientific applications.’ Here’s an example of an old ad published in The Sunday Oregonian. It highlights the timer’s color-coded central five-minute register.

Heuer advertising, circa 1964 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Skipper 7754, circa 1968 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Yacht Timer advertising, circe 1970 © TAG Heuer

1972 to 1974 - the rise and rise of the Skipper

The design of the Skipper chronograph evolved over the years, as it moved from the Carrera case to a series of Autavia cases. The design of the second Skipper, circa 1970, featured a black dial, an oversized countdown recorder with red, white and blue segments, The Skipper would roll on into the 1970s in the C-shaped cases used by the Autavias, with a variety of manual and automatic configurations, but always with the emblematic 15-minute countdown recorder.

1974 - regulation approved

In 1973, Heuer introduced a new style of wrist stopwatch, called the ‘Supersport’.  The Regatta model, or Reference 775.915 from 1974, was an eye-catching piece, with a bright blue case and the red, white and blue segments on the dial corresponding to the colors used on many of Heuer’s yacht timers. This version of the Supersport was marketed as ‘a wrist speedometer built on the basis of International Yacht Racing Union regulations’. 

Heuer advertising, circa 1976 © TAG Heuer

1978 - style and substance

Crafted to be durable at sea, the Heuer yacht timer Reference 503.915 was housed inside a lightweight shockproof fiberglass case to withstand the elements (and look good doing it). Heuer called this its ‘Fibershell’ case.  At 62mm across the case, this yacht timer was easy to grip (being larger than even The Giant, from 1959), while the unique shape of the case ensured that the sailor would have a ‘safe, sure grip’ under any conditions. 

1983 - regatta royalty

Heuer had offered ‘Regatta’ wristwatches in the 1960s and 1970s, but in 1983 the Regatta moved to a dramatic new series of cases, borrowed from the Autavia. At over 42mm across the dial, the cases were coated in either black, olive or pewter. Each Regatta was graced with colored discs (red and blue) to countdown two 5-minute sequences. The other, even more colorful, wrist yacht timers gaining in popularity were the Reference 503.512 and the Heuer Surfer.

1983 to 1986 - time for action

‘Time for action’ was TAG Heuer’s call to action in the 1980s. The tagline was stamped across several catalogs at the time, showcasing the brand’s wide range of versatile timing equipment that attracted sporting professionals and enthusiasts from across the world. From motor racing to athletics to, of course, sailing. The 1983 catalog featured the final version of the Skipper as we knew it then, housed in a large version of the Autavia case.

TAG Heuer "Time for action" advertising, circa 1986 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Yacht Timer, circa 1978 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Yacht Timer, circa 1982 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Yacht Timer, circa 1983 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Yacht Timer, circa 1984 © TAG Heuer

Heuer Surfer, circa 1984 © TAG Heuer

1990 to 2014

By releasing yacht timers like the TAG Heuer Searacer (in the late 1990s), the Aquaracer Calibre S Regatta (circa 2005) and the limited edition TAG Heuer Aquaracer 500 Meter Countdown Chronograph for Team Oracle USA at the 2013 America’s Cup, the brand continued its steady relationship with sailing.

2023 - a return to the high seas

Today TAG Heuer is once again expanding its horizons and reconnecting with its sailing DNA. Through its new partnership with Flying Nikka – a racing yacht at the leading edge of high-performance sailing technology – the brand is back sailing the high seas at the highest level.

2023 - the comeback king

This year also marks the return of the legendary Skipper . Reminiscent of the unforgettable 1968 Heuer Skipper, this new iteration is yet another exhilarating landmark, further strengthening TAG Heuer’s bond with the ocean. A relationship that began almost 100 years ago, in the 1930s, but will undoubtedly last forever.

CBS2213.FN6002 TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Skipper

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11 Nautical Watches For Sailing Your Next Regatta In 2021

Sailing requires precision, so a watch that’s designed to have accurate timing is one of the most important things in a yachtsman’s outfit.

Watchmakers have focused on this art for centuries. A company like Breguet, for instance, has been specializing in nautical watches over 200 years, making chronometers for the French Royal Navy. There’s the Marine Équation Marchante 5887, which is currently priced at over $200,000.

More brands soon followed and evolved, maintaining craftsmanship, precision, and hefty price tags. Some of the first brands that stand out include Aquastar, Breitling, Tag Heuer, Omega, and Rolex.

One of the most important things to look for in a sailing watch is a countdown timer. It is extremely important for a skipper to measure the interval that leads to the start of the race/regatta, which can be extremely challenging due to the wind conditions and current.

Ideally, you want a countdown timer that automatically converts to a race chronograph when it hits zero, like the one on the Tissot Sailing Touch Watch.

This article will feature both old and new brands, as well as different price points from affordable ones to luxury options. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most efficient models on the market today.

Best Sailing Watches

Optimum time series 12 sailing watch: budget pick.

If you are looking for an affordable yet functional sailing watch, one of your best bets is the Optimum Time Series Sailing Watch.

This watch has a silicone strap (which can be personalized with different highlight colors), a stainless steel buckle, and a large display. You have the option to use its three-row display for easy viewing of the time and the timer at the same time.

The shock resistance OS Series 1231R has new and improved features like a clearer display/contrast and high contrast dot matrix display. Its USB-powered charging is convenient too. This one has a more casual, laid-back design, and is water-resistant up to 5ATM. It also has the Sync Button which allows you to get back to the race if you miss the gun. It’s not the most durable watch on the market, but it is priced as a budget watch.

Timex Intelligent Quartz Yacht Racer Watch

The analog Timex Intelligent Quartz Yacht Racer boasts of a pre-programmed date feature that only needs to be set once—you don’t need to adjust it for decades thereafter. This one was built especially for the sport, timing the race from start to finish.

This watch is water-resistant up to 330 ft, so it can also be used for swimming and snorkeling, and the newer models also have the Indiglo feature.

One of the things that a number of users have pointed out is the size of the watch. It’s 46 millimeters in diameter and is 14 millimeters thick, so it is usually preferred by users with bigger wrists. The price tag is very reasonable, making it an excellent entry-level watch for a first regatta.

Tissot Men’s Sailing Touch Watch

One of the most important features of the Tissot Sailing Touch is a countdown function, which turns into a race chronograph once it reaches zero. The watch also has a compass, barometer, and a tide feature (informs you of the time of high tides and low tides, and if they are coming in or going out).

This watch can assist you when competing in regattas, as it has a regatta timer that will let you position yourself on the starting line.

Some of the other design highlights include luminous markers and hands, a sapphire crystal interface, a backlight, and two time zones. The time is analog, which can also be displayed on the LCD. It also has a perpetual calendar. You can choose from a number of bezel colors too (red, blue, and silver).

Garmin Quatix 5

If you’re looking for a watch that has multisport functions, this should be at the top of your list. Garmin is a trusted brand when it comes to smartwatches for sports, so you’re sure that you’ll have some of today’s best technology.

The Garmin Quatix 5 is built on the powerful Fenix 5 platform, a smartwatch designed for use in the water.

This powerful GPS marine smartwatch has a heart rate monitor (it’s wrist-based, so you don’t need to use a chest strap). Aside from the boat features, this model also has functions for a wide array of sports (ie. running, hiking, biking, swimming, etc.)

Garmin has dozens of models for different sports and fitness activities, but the reason why the Quantix model made our list is that it has a Garmin SailAssist™ Capabilities that allows the user to have a virtual starting line. There is also a tack assist and a race countdown timer.

This one is excellent on water, but it’s equally efficient on dry land too. Its simple design is also excellent for daily wear.

Suunto Ambit

Another powerful multisport watch, the Suunto Ambit3.

Suunto is another brand that you can count on for use both on water and dry land. If you’d like a brand new Suunto for sailing, this multi-sport watch is compatible with sailing-specific apps available on the Movescount, a website and community that helps Suunto users to customize their watches.

A Suunto model that is excellent for these apps is the which relatively more affordable than the previously-discussed Garmin Quatix.

The Ambit 3, an outdoor and adventure watch, has ABC features (altimeter, barometer, compass), GPS, route navigation, heart rate feature, and weather information. It is also known for its excellent battery life, with 200 hours and 1-minute accuracy. Design-wise, the all-black design is much more subdued than some of the bright, luxury sports watches on this list.

The brand’s sailor-specific watch, the Suunto Elementum Ventus was one of our top picks in the past but this one is actually not being produced anymore, but you may still find second-hand models on the market today. Occasionally one will pop up on eBay ( if you’re in the UK/EU you could also search watchshop.com).

The Suunto Elementum Ventus is a smartwatch with a sleek and sophisticated design, sapphire crystal glass, stainless steel case, and leather strap. Some of the sailing features include a sailing timer, chronograph, compass, and weather predictions.

Now that we’ve got the more affordable models covered, it’s time to focus on the luxury brands.

Corum Admiral AC One 45 Tides

This brand also has a rich history. Swiss brand Corum has been around since the 1950s. It’s a prolific company, regularly producing new, limited-edition models. One of its most popular releases is the Admiral’s Cup line of watches, which started production in the 1960s.

The Admiral AC One 45 Tides, the updated model. has gone through a number of updates but stays true to its original design.

Its CO 277 caliber movement, which was meticulously developed for years with the Astronomic Observatory of Geneva and the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Services of the French National Navy. This CO 277 caliber is a unique movement that is specialized for tide indicator is what sets this watch model apart from the competition.

This one has a distinct 45mm dodecagonal titanium case, a brushed titanium bezel, an anti-reflective sapphire crystal case, and a vulcanized rubber strap. What makes this model special is the tides indicator: tide time and strength, lunar cycle, and strength of the currents/ height of the tides.

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master II

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master, a regatta watch, is one of the most popular luxury yacht watches out there. The brand boasts of being “the only chronograph in the world with a mechanical memory,” a watch for water sports and sailing.

TheYacht-Master caliber 4161, is a “self-winding mechanical chronograph movement” developed by the company. The first-ever model of this Rolex was released in 2010. The movement, which comprises of 360 parts, took approximately 35,000 hours to create.

The Yacht-Master II is made of Oystersteel (developed by Rolex), which is powerfully resistant superalloys used in high-technology industries, which makes it exceptional in harsh environments. Users can program the countdown for a duration of between 1 and 10 minutes that returns to its previous setting at reset.

It’s waterproof up to 330 feet or 100 meters, is scratch-resistant and has a power reserve of approximately 72 hours.

Ulysse Nardin Marine Regatta

Another popular name in luxury regatta watches, the Swiss Ulysse Nardin Marine watch. This regatta chronograph has meticulously designed kinematics to ensure that it’s extremely precise.

One of the of highlights the Ulysse Nardin is the way that the chronograph starts. In most watches, the sailor activates the countdown, stops the countdown at the start of the crossing line, and then start the chronograph.

The UN Marine Regatta is designed to automatically switch from countdown to chronograph at the start at the end of the countdown. The company also assures an extended five-year warranty (which started in 2017) for anyone who buys a brand-new model.

Ulysse Nardin has been making precision marine chronometers since 1846, pioneering innovative products that continue to stay relevant today.

Panerai Luminor 1950 Regatta

Panerai has an interesting history. It is an old brand that entered the civilian market in the 90s, but prior to this, it created dive watches for the Royal Italian Navy’s underwater missions during World War II.

This history, and of course its precision, utilitarian features, and beauty has gained the brand passionate fans and collectors to this day.

Made especially for sailing, this classic dive watch has a professional regatta countdown.

The Panerai Luminor 1950 Regatta features a  47mm brushed titanium case with a rubber bracelet, the bezel is polished titanium, and the dial is black with luminous Arabic numerals and hour markers.

Bremont Regatta AC

The Bremont Regatta AC (America’s Cup) is a limited edition model (the company only produced 235 pieces) and is no longer in production.

You can still, however, try your luck searching for sellers on eBay.

Priced at around $6,800 when it was still available, this is relatively more affordable than the two luxury brands above. This series, along with a partnership with Oracle Team USA (OTUSA), were released in Baselworld 2016 with much acclaim. A Blog to Watch quoted Oracle Team USA Skipper Jimmy Spithill as saying (about both AC and OTUSA):

“Naturally, we have a central digital clock on the boat but every sailor still likes to have the time on his wrist, and before a race the countdown to the start is critical. It’s a really tough sport both mentally and physically, and not only does the team need to make decisions under immense pressure but we need to have equipment that allows us to do so,” Spithill said. “With the countdown function being so crucial when racing out on the water, we are really delighted that Bremont has invested in this for us and it’s incredibly special for me that the watches also incorporate some of our winning AC72 which I skippered in 2013.”

Some of the main features of the AC include a titanium case material, automatic movement, sapphire glass, and rubber bracelet. The sleek, classic design of this chronograph timepiece exudes elegance without being flashy.

TNG Classic Tornado Sailing Chronograph

This is one of the relatively newer brands on this list, but you can count on the company to produce a competitive product. One of TNG’s founders is Olympic sailor Herbert Dercksen, who has won multiple times at the World Tornado Championships. Co-founder Frans Dingerdis is also a sailor and marketing specialist.

The TNG (Tack & Gybe) Classic Tornado Sailing Chronograph has a full automatic sailing time that’s ready for a five and ten-minute countdown. This Swiss-made model has a simple, classic look that will look good in the water and for daily use.

Some of the other features of this Swiss-made/Dutch-designed chronograph are sapphire scratch-resistant crystal, a power reserve of 42 hours, automatic winding, 28.800 vibrations per hour, and superluminous indexes/hands. The design is a sapphire scratch-resistant crystal, a stainless steel case, and a screw-in crown and case back.

Sailing watches are clearly not cheap, but considering the time and workmanship that goes into every device, they deserve the investment.

Good luck with your search, whether you’re looking for a watch for your first regatta, or looking for a more high-end watch to add to your collection.

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Sailboat Race Starter and Regatta Timer 4+

James eskew, designed for iphone.

• 2.7 • 14 Ratings

iPhone Screenshots

Description.

--- Half price for a limited time!! --- Sailboat Race Starter is an ISAF Countdown Timer for racing sailboats. It is the #1 sailing app in the App Store and the best selling racing timer in over 30 countries! - Includes sync feature which allows you to calibrate your time with the race committee if you miss the warning signal. - Audible alerts and vibration as timer approaches race start. - Mark both ends of the start line using integrated GPS and the app will determine how far away from the line you are, and how long it will take to get there. The FIRST and ONLY app in the App Store to offer this feature. - Screen stays alive and will not go to sleep during start sequence, unlike similar copycat apps. - BIG display is designed to help you find information at a glance in bright sunlight. - NO ADVERTISEMENTS! NEW: - Time the race after start sequence, by popular request! ----- As featured on Apple iTunes' New & Noteworthy section, Hot Trends section, and NPR. "An essential sailing app." - Sail Magazine "The one app that got our attention." - Scuttlebutt Sailing Club "One of the top ten sailing apps for iPhone and iPad" - theappwhisperer.com -----

Version 16.09

This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon. - Count up after race increased from one hour max to four hours (by popular request!) - Toggle between feet and meters as a unit of measure (by popular request!) - iOS 10 optimizations Please leave a review for every new update! Thank you!!

Ratings and Reviews

Very disappointed.

I’ve had this app for a while and loved it! Now it won’t find satellites. All I get when wanting to mark pin/boat “searching” and if it is “ready” it goes to sleep and all is lost. All my other gps apps work. I did contact the creator and he says he can’t duplicate the condition and offered only basic things like “make sure you’re outside with nothing overhead” I’M ON A BOAT NOT IN A BASEMENT!🤦‍♂️ 2 stars because when it works it’s great but now I have to get another app. Frustrating

Watch app please

Hi, app is good but it would benefit from Apple Watch app with same functionality. When I'm main trimmer and have to use app there are simply not enough hands to hold the phone.

Valuable Tool

Works very well and initiative to use. Recommended chAnge would be red/green screens late/early for better SA by helm. Easier to use than some others.

App Privacy

The developer, James Eskew , has not provided details about its privacy practices and handling of data to Apple.

No Details Provided

The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.

Information

• App Support

Family Sharing

Up to six family members can use this app with family sharing enabled., you might also like.

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Jack Mason JM-N105 Regatta Timer

Sponsored Post written for aBlogtoWatch by advertiser.

After the success of the JM-D103 on Kickstarter in 2017, the team at Jack Mason, a popular watch company located in the heart of Dallas, Texas, immediately set to work on the next project. We took some time to consider each pillar in our watch collection and dream up what the most fully realized version of those watches could be.

With all Jack Mason timepieces, the starting point and central goal is function. For this particular project, we wanted to create a more specific product – one with all of the bells and whistles. So, we’re making our return to Kickstarter to present the first watch of our Pinnacle Series, The Regatta Timer.

Introducing the Regatta Timer JM-N105. With functionality as the central focus for this design, our traditional nautical dial blueprint has been reimagined to prominently feature the regatta countdown timer, an essential part to yachting and extremely accurate timekeeping.

The case features our first ever bidirectional compass bezel for quick orienteering operation. In the event that you find yourself overboard, this dive quality watch features a depth rating of 20 ATM.

The Regatta Timer boasts a Swiss movement, another first for Jack Mason timepieces. The precision carried by the “Swiss made” name is consistent not only with yacht timing functionality, but also with the day to day accuracy of the watch function.

The inspiration for the Regatta Timer was taken from a collection of childhood memories shared with us by a member of our Jack Mason family. The tales of her and her father sailing and racing their many family owned vessels in community regattas inspired us to dig deeper into the history of regatta and the yacht timer. There, we discovered the origin of America’s Cup and the rich history of watches and regatta.

After meticulous research and before we put pen to paper, we decided to break down the yachting category into four main components from which our designs could be influenced: historic, leisure, casual sport, and professional.

The goal was to design a watch for the casual sport customer: a weekend enthusiast or even a yachting fan; someone who understands the heritage story and is emotionally connected in some way to the lifestyle.

With a true sport watch in mind, Creative Director, Peter Cho, envisioned a very specific product, complete with all of the bells and whistles. “When the team started discussing materials and functionality, we decided we needed to create a Regatta Timer that included only the highest quality components – a Swiss movement, sapphire crystal, and a high depth rating. When passion takes the lead on design, it’s pretty amazing to see what comes of it.”

Key Product Specs

• 42mm Case Size, 22mm Lug Size
• 20 ATM Water Resistance
• Screw-down Crown
• Sapphire Crystal
• Bi-directional Compass Bezel
• Swiss-made, Yacht Timer Movement
• Numbered Caseback Exclusive to Kickstarter Backers

Right now, you have a chance to own part of the very limited run of Jack Mason JM-N105 watches at a fraction of the eventual cost. As a top-level funder, you will receive the Jack Mason Box Set, complete with the Regatta Timer on a butterfly closure, solid link bracelet, a new rubber strap design in Jack Mason’s standard navy-blue, and the best-selling tan Italian leather strap. Our projected retail on this package is $795 – offered at more than 50% off MSRP! We’re already over 60% funded – don’t miss the boat! Get your Regatta Timer on Kickstarter now !  jackmasonbrand.com

• Heuer Skipper Grid 2.1
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Heuer Yacht Timers

Heuer built handheld and wrist stopwatches without showing time of day for special purposes: racing, running, regatta-sailing, skiing, golfing and some more.

They are the “trailblazers” of the Heuer Skipper. First on a cord in the pocket, than as a big yacht-timer on the wrist – and at the end as a full time showing watch with the yachting chronograph function on the wrist.

Here are some of the ads of yacht timers of Heuer and some pictures in flesh – please send more if you find pictures and references to complete the page 😉

This is just a start to catalog the Heuer Yacht Timer – you can see the further developement online – stay tuned and enjoy some pictures first!

As my friend Mark found out, the Patent of the 5dots Yacht Timer was made in 1914 from Berna. the first known catalogue of a watch using the 5 circular apertures in the dial and the coloured red indicator disc rotating underneath was made by LEONIDAS, which was a kind of “pre-history” of Heuer too with the merging of the companies in 1964. It should be named here because some of the yachting timer and watches was made by Leonidas in the same time next to another or even in a joint venture before it became Heuer Leonidas.

1930 Leonidas Dealers Catalogue credit: Mark regatta-yachttimers.com

So in the history of all made yachting timers this one was THE most important milestone and the base of many yachting timer of the next timer in the second half of the last century.

Leonidas Yacht Timer Grail

The same 5 dots yacht timer is known with a Abercrombie and Fitch branded dial. Movement was made by Berna. Thats different and maybe earlier then the Leonidas, because Leonidas use the Venus 120 modified with regatta module.

There are some other yacht timer with serif fonts and enamel dial known which need to be researched. The movements should be the key to get the production dates into the right line…. will come next here.

The first found entry of a Yacht Timer made by Heuer is to read in the Catalog from 1936 showing on onthedash.com.

Yacht Timer at left bottom in the 1936 catalog credit: onthedash.com

Movement for reference 912 at top, same catalog credit: onthedash.com

1959-60 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

This old one have a very nice white case and a big crown.

Ref. 33.712 (catalogue 1959-60)

1961-62 Catalogue credit: onthedash.com

In natural the Yacht-Timer looks very colorful and nice!

Yachting Stopwatches – for regatta only!

1962 Catalogue credit: onthedash.com

1963 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

credit: Mark

1968 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

Yacht Timer Reference 403.615

1969-70 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

And yes – here you can see the real Autavia Skipper as first in a brochure – the Heuer Skipper 7764!

1970-71 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

503.812 with Valjoux 7710 from 1971

1972 Brochure credit: onthedash.com

Interesting to read at this ad is: “This exclusive yacht timer is used throughout the world by top skippers, including the INTREPID crew, winner of famous America Cup.” More about a using the first 5dot Heuer Aquastar Felsa 4000N Regatta wristwatch by the crew of the INTREPID you find here . 

1973 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

One not in the known catalogues listed (403.915 with other dial?) credit: Luuk

1974 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

1976 Yacht Timers catalogue credit: onthedash.com

1976 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

Ref.603.612 (catalogue 1976)

1977-78 Brochure credit: onthedash.com

1980 Brochure credit: onthedash.com

Ref 203.512 with genuine box

1982 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

1983 catalogue credit: onthedash.com

1986 Brochure credit: onthedash.com

Interesting facts about the 5-dots wrist-stopwatch you can find here . It seems that this was built by Lemania and labeled with Heuer (and Aquastar).

Yacht Timer 203.505 – heavy, metal, black pvd

The one and only “5dot” stopwatch not for the wrist made by Heuer Ref. 658.915 (catalogue 1986)

The stopwatches sometimes have the typo “Trackmaster” on the dial, see one of the 603.615 too with that. “Trackmaster” (and “Trackstar”) stopwatches were selling by Heuer from 1968 till the 1980´s. Usually they had a cheaper pinlever movement but with regulation tolerance +- 1,5 sec/h. The professional calibres were 7700 with 36.000 bph and a regulation tolerance of 0,5 sec/h. *1

Ref. 603.615 (catalogue 1986) unusual layout with EB 411 but used by other brands too

It seems that some of the Yacht timers were produced over a long time period with the same dial and different cases as the Ref. 653.515. Look at the older catalogues, need to have an exact eye to see some differences for that one.

This post needs to be continued…

Update 17.08.2014 Based on my idea to show all Heuer Yachting Timer year by year printed in the catalogues the mastermind of onthedash.com, Jeff Stein worked it out. He found some catalogpages more and filled the overview with some explaination and put in a very nice overview about the movements. This overview was made by Hans Schrag, a great expert and former (TAG-) Heuer director in the United States. Great stuff!

You find Jeffs excellent post here.

Here is the table of references with movements made by Hans Schrag and published by Jeff – and my additions.

Source: *1 sempervivens on http://forums.watchuseek.com – have to prove.

Blue Spirit | Yacht

The Galapagos Blue Spirit is a First class motor-yacht that used to sail until 2019 as Tip Top III so it has a background of hundreds of satisfied guests that enjoyed a wonderful experience. The boat design displays the expertise the Wittmer family puts into every boat they build. This spacious double-deck cruise has a bilingual naturalist knowledgeable guide. The deck, including the public and private areas, is fully furnished and luxurious. Each private cabin has the facility of lockers and drawers. Some key features of the deck are as follows:

• Lower Deck: It is designed with four cabins that have two lower single berths. This is in cabins 3, 4, 5, and 6.
• Upper Deck: It is designed with two cabins that have one lower double berth. This is in cabins 7 and 8. It also has two cabins that have two lower single berths. This is in cabins 9 and 10.

This wonderful yacht is fully air-conditioned and offers hot water showers, an ample sundeck, lounge, bar, complete snorkeling equipment (included), wet-suits (for rent) and one of its key features is that it has a dual permit that allows its travel programs to offer both naturalist as well as scuba diving cruises in the Galapagos Archipelago.

• Day 1: Baltra Airport & North Seymour Island
• Day 2: Floreana Island: Post Office Bay & Cormorant Point 
• Day 3: South Plaza Island & Santa Fe Island
• Day 4: Santa Cruz Island: Bachas Beach

• Day 1: Baltra Airport & Santa Cruz Island
• Day 2: Santiago Island: Sullivan Bay & Rabida Island
• Day 3: Isabela Island: Vicente Roca Point & Fernandina Island: Espinoza Point
• Day 4: Isabela Island: Tintoreras & Wetlands

• Day 1: Baltra Ariport & Santa Cruz Island

• Type: Motor Yacht
• Passengers: 16, accommodated in 10 cabins
• Last remodeling: Summer 2019
• Lenght: 104 feet
• Beam: 22 feet
• Draft: 5 feet
• Cruise Speed: 12 Knots
• Crew: 10 members: with Multilingual Naturalist Diver guides (1 each 8 passengers)
• Safety and Communication System: (2) 24 miles range Furuno Navnet Radar/Chart Plotter (2) Furuno-FCV620 Eco sounder, GPS, Furuno NX300 Navtex, Furuno SCSatellite Fluxgate compass, Furuno HF-MF/DSC Radio (2) VHF/DSC Standard radios, ACR Epirb, Sart (2) ACR VHF bi directional rescue radios, Ritchie Magnetic Compass, hydraulic helm, barometer, clock, thermometer, helm indicator, searchlight, horn, fire & smoke detector system. (2) You Lung inflatable life rafts for 25 passengers each one (50) life jackets Twin 17 feet Nautica Inflatable boats with 25 HP four stroke outboard motors for 12 passengers each one. All safety equipment complies with International Coast Guard regulations.
• Mechanic Equipment: Twin DEUTZ BF8M 1015 MC 442 HP engines. Twin 55 KW CUMMINS ONAN 6BS.9-D (M) electric generators (M). Village Marine Tec Oil / Water Separator, Tidal Wave HMX HEADHUNTER Marine Sanitation Device sewage treatment system (MSD)TW. Westphalia Separator Mineral oil Systems. WMSQ-2500 Reverse Osmosis desalination system.
• Upper deck: 2 cabins with one double lower berth (cabins: 7 & 8) 2 cabins with two single lower berths (cabins 9 & 10)
• Under deck: 2 cabins with one double lower berth and one single upper berth (cabins: 1 & 2) 4 cabins with two single lower berths (cabins: 3 to 6)
• Cabin Facilities Private bathroom (toilet, shower, washbasin and vanity), Locker and drawers, Safety box, Air conditioned
• Social Areas Bar, Dining room, Lounge, Sun deck
• Diving Equipment Compressors, Nitrox Membrane System Air

Why travel with us?

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Regatta Yachttimers

An overview of sailing regatta watches, stopwatches.

Before wrist watches were used as an aid to start a sailing regatta, this was done with handheld mechanical stopwatches. At the beginning of the 20th century, brands like Breitling, Excelsior Park, Leonidas and Le Phare all developed a Yachting movement with a 5 minute counter, and a sweep hand counting the seconds backwards from 60 to zero. These movements were used in various other watch brands as well, eg. Gallet, Heuer and The Paget. Later versions of the Yachting stopwatches had a 10 or 15 minute countdown, and some models could be worn around the wrist with a strap.

Abercrombie & Fitch

In 1892 David T. Abercrombie started a small waterfront shop in New York, USA, under the name ‘David T. Abercrombie Co’. In 1900 Ezra Fith became his partner, and in 1904 the company’s name was changed into ‘Abercrombie & Fitch Co’. From the beginning the company was specialized in outdoor clothing and excursion products, and offered top-quality gear for hunting, fishing, camping, safaris, climbing, driving, flying and other outings, calling itself ‘Greatest Sporting Goods Store in the World’.

Page 29 from the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, summer 1957.

In the mid 1940’s Heuer began producing watches and stopwatches for Abercrombie & Fitch, mostly with a special feature (of which the Seafarer chronograph is the most well-known). The summer 1957 catalog shows a ‘Yacht Race Timer’ stopwatch with a 5 minute countdown.

Three different versions of a Abercrombie & Fitch yachting stopwatch.

Abercrombie & Fitch, left signed A&F yachttimer, right signed Abercrombie & Fitch Co Yacht-Timer with the Heuer shield added. Obvious these models are related to Heuer.

Aristo / Apollo

Aristo’s history began in 1907, when watchmaker Julius Epple founded the ‘Julius Epple K.G.’  (officially registered in 1936). in Pforzheim, Germany. Later the name changed into ‘Aristo Uhren- und Uhrgehäuse Fabrik’   and again later into ‘Aristo Watch GmbH’ .

At first Aristo used movements from Glashütte and Urofa, but in 1934 the movement factory Maurer & Reiling was taken over and Aristo started to produce their own movements (signed JE for Julius Epple).

Other sub-brands by Aristo that released a Yachting Timer stopwatch were for example Apollo (registered in 1927) and Aristo-Park, both registered by Aristo Import Co. Inc., New York USA, for the American market. You can download page 293 from the 1930’s Sporting Goods Journal Book here , where Aristo Import Co. is offering their Aristo-Park No. 3 Yachting Timer with 5 minute countdown. With a special attention to  the build in box in the movement concontaining 8 useful spare-parts.

Apollo Yachting Timer, 4 different versions with old and new Apollo logo. Third model with a caliber BFG 411 movement, engraved Apollo Import Co.

Balma / Balmaster

Balma Yachting Timer with unknown movement.

Balmaster Sports Yachting, but no countdown. Second one with a countdown of 15 minutes. And a version branded Beauwyn Sports Yachting.

Baumgartner

In 1899 Arnold Baumgartner founded his watch-movement factory ‘Manufaktur Baumgartner’ in Grenchen, Switzerland. The company first specialised in producing cheap movements. When both his brothers Ernest and Emil joined one year later, the company name was changed into ‘Baumgartner Frères’ .

After getting several patents in the years to follow, the company became successful and changed to a partnership in 1916, thus changed the name into ‘Baumgartner Frères S.A.’ In 1926, together with some 25 other manufacturers of watch movements (like Landeron, Lémania, Valjoux, Venus), Baumgartner joined the Ebauche S.A. holding company.

As of 1962 the Baumgartner company does stamp their movements with the BFG logo and its caliber number, which obviously makes their age easier to determine. In the years to follow Baumgartner became successful in particular with the production of many Roskopf movements. At least  five of their calibers (410, 411, 412, 417 & 611) were used as Yachting Timers, not only by the bigger brands as described in this overview, but also by numerous smaller watch brands.

Balco Yachting Timer with a 5 min countdown. Probably with a BFG movement.

Berco-stop Yachting Timer (BFG411?).

Chesterfield Yachting Timer, with the BFG 611 movement signed Chesterfield Watch Ltd.

Chesterfield Yachting Timer, with the BFG 611 movement signed Dolmy Watch Ltd – RC167.

Chronosport Yachting Timer (BFG411?).

Two times Commodoor Yachting Timer, with different crown and dial, with a BFG 417 movement. The inside of the caseback is stamped ‘Wakmann Watch Co’.

Degon Yachting and Huntana Yachting Timer (both BFG?).

Dolmy Yachting Timer with a caliber BFG 611. Both the case and movement are engraved ‘Dolmy Watch LTD’.

Dolmy Yachting Timer with a caliber BFG 411, alternatively branded Chesterfield-Dolmy.

Endura Yachting Timer with a 5 min countdown. The inner lid is engraved with ‘Endura Time Corp. – Swiss made’. Movement probably BFG.

SR Eurastyle Yachting Timer with caliber BFG 411, two slightly different dials.

Stadion Super, Presta and Fuldex, all three for Yachting and Rowing, with a ‘strokes per minute’ scale (BFG?).

Hoffritz Yachting Timer (BFG411?).

Itraco Yachting Timer with a caliber BFG 410.

Levrette with a caliber BFG 417.

Luxa Yachting Timer (BFG411?).

Rocar Yachting Timer with an unusual BFG 410 movement. Mind the extra reset pusher at 10 o’clock. It functions both as a reset as a flyback pusher!

Star Yachting Timer, with slightly different dials (BFG411?).

Thalco Yachting Timer, different dials and hands, with a caliber BFG 611 signed E. Schlup – Abrecht.

Tim Yachting Timer with a caliber BFG 611 special movement.

Tim Yachting Timer with slightly different dials.

Velona Yachting, caliber unknown. To be worn around the wrist.

Wakmann Yachting Timer, with a caliber BFG 411 movement. The caseback of this stopwatch is marked Dolmy Watch Ltd.

In 1961 Wakmann registered the brand name Dynameter. Here the Yachting Timer with ref. 209 (BFG411?).

Breitling / Montbrillant

In 1884 the young Léon Breitling, at the age of 24, manufactured his first counter chronograph at his workshop in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. He had founded a small watchmaking firm called ‘G. Léon Breitling’ , and specialized himself to the field of chronographs and timers. These precision instruments were intended for sports, science and industry.

In 1892 Léon Breitling moved the company to La Chaux-de-Fonds to larger production facilities. The company name is then changed into ‘G. Léon Breitling SA, Montbrillant Watch Manufactory’ after the street name Rue Montbrillant of the new location. Due to some disagreements with relatives about Breitling as a brandname, the company used the name Montbrillant as brandname (registered in 1899).

When Léon dies in 1914, his son Gaston takes over. And his son Willy takes over the company in 1932, after Gaston died in 1927. In these years Breitling still focussed on chronographs for sport and military purposes, and especially the chronograph for aircraft was developed.

The Paget 5 minute Yachttimer with an early Montbrillant movement.

Two unmarked yachting stopwatches in the 1923 Montbrillant catalogue.

It was not until the end of the 1920’s that the name Breitling began to appear on the dials, later on followed by serial numbers.

As of the 1930’s Breitling no longer produced movements by their own, but instead the company used calibers from Felsa, FHF, Venus, Unitas, etc. that were refined in their own factory.

Read more about the later Breitling Yachting wristwatches in the Brand list here .

Two versions of a Breitling The Leader with an unmarked Montbrillant movement, resembling the ones in the 1923 Montbrillant catalogue. The second one has the name Breitling on the dial and is probably from around 1925. Both stopwatches have the name Benzie of Cowes on the dial.

Benzie of Cowes, established in 1862 as The Yachtsman Jeweller, still there on 61 High Street, Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

Breitling Tel-Rad ref. 1575 with a red countdown scale for 60 seconds in de center. With a Valjoux 362 movement. Circa 1959.

Yachting Breitling ref. 1509 with caliber Valjoux 321, circa 1960’s.

Yachting Breitling with caliber Valjoux 320, circa 1970’s.

Breitling Sprint Yachting with caliber BFG 411, ref. 1.410, dated 1971.

Breitling Yachting Timer, dated 1972. With ‘Sprint’ (left, ref. 04560) or ‘7 Jewels’ on the dial.  

Chronosport

Chronosport wrist stopwatch with caliber Valjoux 7770, circa 1980.

Chronosport Startmaster with one pusher.

Chronosport Yachting with 15 minute countdown in an ABS case, with different case-backs.

Excelsior Park

The history of Excelsior Park starts in 1866 when Jules-Frédéric Jeanneret and his partner Francois Fallet established their watch company ‘ Jeanneret & Fallet ’ in Saint-Imir, Switzerland. They produced mainly stopwatches and chronographs.

Jules-Frédéric Jeanneret had three sons: Albert, Henry and Constant, who all came to work for the company. When Fallet left the company, it was renamed into ‘ J.F. Jeanneret & Fils ’. But already before Jules-Frédéric died, Albert and his brothers started their own company ‘ Albert Jeanneret & Freres ’ in 1889.

In 1891 the brand name Excelsior was registered by Albert Jeanneret & Freres, as he patented (No 3364) a sports stopwatch under that name showing on the movement side a bridge in the shape of a J (for Jeanneret) which will become a trademark for Excelsior Park later. You can download the Swiss patent No 3364 here .

Two years later, in 1893 Albert left the company to continue with Fritz Moeri, and Henry and Constant went on as ‘ Jeanneret Freres ’. The remaining brothers split up around 1900. Constant started ‘ Constant Jeanneret-Droz ’, and he would later buy Leonidas. Henri started ‘ Henri Jeanneret-Brehm ’, with the brand name Excelsior Park. In 1918 the company’s name becomes ‘ Les Fils de Jeanneret-Brehm, Excelsior Park ’.

In 1922 Excelsior Park patented a small box inside a movement to put spare parts in. That would also become a kind of trademark for the brand. This idea however has been copied by Leonidas and Berna in particular.

In 1923 ‘Les Fils de Jeanneret-Brehm, Excelsior Park’ registered the Park brandname and the ‘Park Watch Import Co’ company for the American market.

From 1918 through 1983 Excelsior Park manufactured a wide range of stopwatches, branded watches and watch movements for Certina, Gallet, Girard Perregaux and Zenith. They manufactured two yachting movements derived from their calibers JB 1 and JB 2, mainly used for themselves and for Gallet. In 1984 the activities stopped as result of a bankruptcy.

Excelsior and Excelsior Park Yachting Timer.

Four times Excelsior Park Yachting Timer, all with a caliber JB166 movement. Three different crowns and slightly different dials; version 4 to be worn around the wrist.

Left: Park Yachting Timer with 5 min countdown. Movement unknown. Right: Dial branded A. Lecoultre, with a JB166 movement marked ‘Park Watch Co”.

Unusual 5 min. Yachting Timer with just one hand counting down the seconds. 300 Seconds in one turn! Movement derived from the JB-1 (see under Gallet).

See here (version 20170502) for an overview of some different Yachting models with an EP movement. And here you can download some pages from the 1950 catalogue, showing the JB 1 and JB 2 movement, specifications on the spare-parts box in the movement, and the various Excelsior Park Yachting Timer models at the time.

Gallet / Security / Select

Gallet is the world’s oldest Swiss manufacturer of timekeeping applications, dating back to 1466 when Humbertus Gallet settled in Geneva as a clock maker. As of then the company went on as a family run business. In 1826 it was officially registered as ‘ Gallet & Cie ’ by Julien Gallet, who moved the company from Geneva to La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

Best well known during the 20 th century became its line of MultiChron chronograph wristwatches. On their website Galletworld.com they claim to have made the world’s first Yachting stopwatch with a regatta countdown timer in 1915. But I doubt whether this is true (see The Holy Grail section here ).

Gallet MultiChron Yachting Timer, both as hand- and wrist-stopwatch.

In 1911 Gallet started to cooperate with Henri Jeanneret-Brehm, and when he started the Excelsior Park brand in 1918, the Gallet company started to focus on the American consumer using EP movements. Léon Gallet’s sister had married Jules Racine who had settled in New York, where he would represent the Gallet brand.

But as the American market would prefer their own domestically styled brands, new names (37 totally!) were created. For example Security and Select, both using an EP stopwatch movement. In later Yachting models movements of Baumgartner Frères were used.

Gallet ad with two of their Yachting stopwatches, and two wristwatches of a later date.

Gallet Yachting Timer, with a caliber EP 1 movement marked Jules Racine.

Gallet Yachting Timer with 5 minute countdown.

Gallet 5 minute Yachting Timer with only one hand, movement derived from the JB-1.

Gallet Yachting Timer with 15 minute countdown. Left with a different crown and ring, and a slightly different dial. Right with the addition ‘by Racine’ on the dial for the American market.

Gallet Yachting, 15 minute countdown, with a caliber EP 1 movement marked Jules Racine. With a leather strap to be worn around the wrist.

Security Yachting Timer, with 30 minute countdown subdial, movement marked ‘Jules Racine & Co’

Select Yachting Timer with a caliber BFG 611 movement, right with ‘Racine’ on the dial.

  Select Yachting Timer, with a caliber BFG 417 movement, and with ‘Racine’ on the dial.

Racine Select Yachting Timer in an ABS case, caliber BFG 417, probably of a more recent date. Right a version to be worn around the wrist with a strap.

In 1882 Johann Adolf Hanhart opened a watch and jewelry shop in Diessenhofen, Switzerland. In 1902 though, the company moved to Schwenningen in Germany, and so Hanhart became a German manufacturer.

In 1920 his sport-loving son Wilhelm Julius Hanhart took over the company, and a few years later in 1924 he started with the production of cheap mechanical stopwatches together with another watchmaker. This turned out to become a great success. From the 1950’s on the company concentrated on the production of mechanical stopwatches, and even today Hanhart is still selling stopwatches for all kind of sporting events.

Caliber tabel in the 1959 Hanhart catalogue.

In their 1959 catalogue, which you can download here , Hanhart shows a single-pusher Yachting stopwatch with a 5 minute countdown, driven by the Caliber 48/Y movement.

Hanhart Yachting with a 5 minute countdown. Three versions with a different logo on the dial.

Hanhart Yachting with a 10 minute countdown and different crown, and a Hanhart Yachting Sportcraft.

Two times Hanhart Yachting in an ABS case and with a 15 minute countdown and a pusher between 10 and 11 o’clock for reset. The left model has ref. number 1217115.

In the 1960’s Hanhart was the first to produce stopwatches with an ABS case. Today, the ‘Hanhart 1882 GmbH’   company is still in operation, and based in Gütenbach, Germany.

Read about the Heuer history in the Brand list here .

One of the earliest listings of a Heuer Yachting chronograph is shown in the 1936 catalogue ‘Chronographs and Timers’ by Ed. Heuer and Co, to be found at Jef Stein his wesite OnTheDash, see here . Shown here is a Yacht Timer with a 5 minute countdown function, ref. 912.

Heuer Yacht Timer, ref. 912, listed in the 1936 catalogue ‘Chronographs and Timers’.

Heuer Yachting, ref. unknown, similar to the ref. 3912 as in the 1959 catalogue (see below). The movement, equal to the one in the above drawing, is clearly marked Ed.Heuer&Co with the Heuer logo.

Since the 1959 catalogue Heuer Yachting stopwatches are shown on a more or less yearly basis, starting with the reference number 33.712 with a 5 minute countdown and an eyelet for a strand, and the reference number 3912 with a 10 minute countdown and a wrist-strap.

The first one has an A.Schild 1564 movement, the second one an A.Schild 736 movement. Later versions of the Heuer Yachting stopwatches use a Lemania, a Valjoux or a Baumgartner Freres movement.

Adolf Schild S.A. (also known as ASSA) was a Swiss ebauche and watch movement maker operation from the 1890’s throughout the 1970’s. The company became one of the largest movement makers in Switzerland by the 1920’s! In 1926 ASSA combined with A. Michel AG and Fabrique d’Horlogerie de Fontainemelon (FHF) to create Ebauches SA . But the quartz crisis in the 1970’s would hit Adolf Schild hard, and to survive it merched with the ETA group. In 1983 Adolf Schild S.A. disappeared from the market.

For a very comprehensive overview of all the Heuer yachting stopwatches that were released between 1959 and 1986, please check the Heuerchrono.com website by Henrik  here or the Onthedash.com website by Jeff Stein  here .

Heuer ad from 1964.

Heuer Yacht Timer ref. 33.512, with caliber AS 1564, circa 1962. Heuer Trackstar Yacht Timer ref. 603.612, with caliber Valjoux 7710, circa 1976. And Heuer Yachting Timer ref. 603.615, with caliber BFG 411, circa 1980.

Heuer ad in magazine Yachting, November 1984. Showing four Yachttimers, three stopwatches and one chronograph wristwatch.

Ilona Yachting with a 15 minute countdown, movement unknown. See one similar model under Stadion.

The Ingersoll brothers Robert Hawley and Charles Henry started their American ‘Ingersoll Watch Company’  in 1882 in New York City. After initially selling low-cost items as rubber stamps, the first Ingersoll watches were introduced in 1892, and were supplied by the Waterbury Clock Company. In 1896 Ingersoll introduced a watch called the Yankee  , setting its price at $1. This made it the cheapest watch available at the time.

In 1904 Ingersoll opened a store in London, Great Britain, and introduced the Crown pocket watch for 5 shillings, which was the same value as $1 at the time. These were produced by a British subsidiary ‘Ingersoll Ltd’ .

Although very successful, the Ingersoll Watch Company went bankrupt in 1921 during the recession that followed World War I, and was then purchased by the Waterbury Clock Company. They sold the London-based Ingersoll Ltd in 1930, making it a wholly British owned enterprise. Eventually this would become the ‘Timex Group USA’ .

Ingersoll Yachtsman with center minute hand and small seconds subdial.

Ingersoll Yachtsman with both minute and second counter from the center.

3 x Ingersoll Yachtsman, branded Henry Jones London EC4, Sowester and Seatimer.

2 x Ingersoll Yachtsman, branded Temsail and Seabord Yacht Timer.

Ingersoll Yachtsman of a bit more recent date.

The brand name Le Phare was first introduced in 1867, when Charles Barbezat-Baillot and Henry Guy started their company in Le Locle, Switzerland, under the name ‘ Guye & Barbezat ’. They produced complicated watches as chronometers, chronographs and repeaters. Guye died ten years later in 1877, and in 1890 the name of the company changed into ‘ Barbezat-Baillot, manufacture La Locloise ’.

 After receiving several awards at international exhibitions for reliable and affordable repeater watches, Le Phare was so successful that the company changed its name into ‘Manufacture d’Horlogerie Le Phare’   in 1903. The same year the company started to produce stopwatches.

The company specialized itself in producing repetition chronographs, and later Le Phare would become the second largest Swiss producer of chronographs. In 1914 the company was acquired  by George Perrenoud, but after the first world war repeater watches became less popular and numerous changes in the management were to follow.

Around 1915 Le Phare has made a regatta movement with a 5 minute countdown, derived from their most popular caliber 114VCC.  An unbranded version of the Yachting stopwatch could have been manufactured by Le Phare themselves, but several versions in different cases where launched by The Paget. As a Swiss brand The Paget was registered in 1897 by Weill & Cie, located in La Chaux-de-Fonds (they had an office in London). The brand was transferred to the same company in 1917.

One unbranded and two times The Paget – Tiffany & Co Yachting stopwatch with a 5 minute countdown, all with a Le Phare 114 Special movement, circa 1915.

See here for an overview of some different Yachting models with a Le Phare movement.

Read about the Lemania history in de Brand list here .

In the mid 1980’s Lemania introduced this 5-dot Lemania Regatta stopwatch, ref. 1002, to be worn on the wrist, and driven by a Lemania caliber F10 6280 movement. The indicator disk changes from blue to red to START, which makes it a 10 minute countdown timer.

The same Lemania F10 6280 movement is used in similar versions by Aquastar, Heuer and Omega.

In the same period, mid 1980’s, Lemania introduced this big size Ø 60 mm hand-stopwatch with ref. 1001, again using the 5-dot countdown system. The indicator disk is equal as in ref. 1002, and changes from blue to red to START. Inside is a caliber BFG 412 movement, which was also used by Heuer for a similar version (ref. 658.915).

Pictures from a Danish watersports brochure.

Lemania 1 ATU. with a 10 minute countdown, and a similar version as Tissot Navigator, with a strap to be worn around the wrist. The access to the movement is possible by taking of the glass. To do so you have to take off the crown, and blow air-pressure in untill it pops out. All as instructed on the case-back. The movement is a Lemania caliber 4100 (labeled as Tissot 4100 in the Navigator).

Lemania Yachting, with a 10 minute countdown. Similar dial as the ones above, and the same instructions for access to the movement with air-pressure shown on the ABS caseback. With unknown caliber.

Leonidas / Sportex / Arco / Clebar

In 1841 the Swiss watchmaker Julien Bourquin opened his workshop under his own name in Saint-Imier. When he died in 1897 his son Ferdinand took over, and renamed the company into Ferdinand Bourquin, Successeur de la Maison Julien Bourquin . Specialised in stopwatches and chronographs, Ferdinand Bourquin registered the Leonidas brand name in 1902.

After Ferdinand Bourquin died young (1903), his widow joined with Constant Jeanneret-Droz, one of the three sons of the Excelsior Park founder Jules-Frédéric Jeanneret. In 1910 the company was renamed in the Leonidas Watch Factory S.A. , and finally Constant Jeanneret-Droz took over completely in 1912. As he brought the necessary know-how Leonidas produced quit outstanding chronograph movements.

Although Excelsior Park first came up with the idea of a small compartment in the movement with spare parts, Leonidas changed the design and registered their ‘invention’ in 1929, see the Swiss patent CH131402 here .

See for an early 5-dot Yachting stopwatch from around the 1950’s in the Holy Grail section here .

In 1964 Leonidas merged with Ed. Heuer and becomes Heuer-Leonidas S.A. with Jack W. Heuer as managing director. But after Heuer became TAG Heuer in 1984, the name Leonidas disappeared completely.

Leonidas Yacht-Timer, ref. 603612 with white dial, and with black dial. Movement probably Valjoux 7700.

In 1944 Leonidas registered the Sportex brandname, using the cheaper Roskopf movements. After the merge with Heuer, Heuer-Leonidas used the better Baumgartner Frères movements and sold the Sportex stopwatches amongst others in the USA. Most likely the brand Danforth was related to Heuer-Leonidas as well.

Sportex Yachting Timer, with a caliber BFG 411, with white or black dial.

Also in 1944 the brandname Arco was registered by Leonidas, and later on in 1958 Clebar.

Arco Yachting Timer, 2 versions with slightly different dials.

Clebar Yacht-timer, movement unknown, circa 1960’s. And with a similar dial Anjax Yachting. No idea where this brand belongs to.

In 1858 the brothers Hyppolite and Charles-Yvon Robert founded the company H. & C. Robert   in Villeret in the Bernese Jura, Switzerland. In 1878 their sons Charles and Georges took over the management and in 1885 also Yvan Robert joined. The company’s name then changed to Robert Frères Villeret . The company began registering several brand names, for example ‘Mercure’, ‘Ariana’, ‘ Tropic’ and ‘Hertha’.

As of 1895 Robert Frères Villeret   began with the production of watch movements and pocket watch cases in nickel and silver versions, and in 1908 with chronographs and stopwatches.

In 1923 the brand name ‘Minerva’ was registered, and the company was renamed to ‘Fabrique Minerva, Robert Frères SA, Villeret’   in 1929. The company named (numbered) each major caliber sequentially, starting with nr 1 and so on, preceded by the size. So their first movement was named 18-1.

Minerva’s caliber 19-14 with a 30 minute counter was used in many sports stopwatches. For the Yachting versions only a small modification was necessary to have it with a suitable timer. Exceptional for some of Minerva’s movements is the use of coil springs, see the above picture of the caliber 19-14. You can download a spare-parts list here .

For economic reasons the Robert family left the company in 1935, and eventually in 2006 Minerva becomes part of Montblanc in the Richemont group.

Minerva Yachting with round crown, in bad condition.

Minerva Yachting, different cases, with later crown.

Minerva Yachting Timer, with additional text ‘The Crow’s nest’.

Read about the Omega history in the Brand list here .

Omega Yachting, with a caliber Omega 9010 movement, 1965.

Omega Yachting ref. 6309, with a manually wound caliber 8010A movement.

Two times Omega Yachting, with a 15 minute countdown.

Seiko Yachting with a Seikosha cal. 9011 (or 1106?) movement. This big size ∅ 57 mm stopwatch has a red (or yellow) canvas strap to be worn around the upper leg. Circa 1960’s.

Smiths Yachting Timer, movement signed Smiths Industries Limited.

Smiths Yachting Timer, another 4 different versions. But the last one shows Made in Switzerland.

Smiths Yacht Timer in ABS case, alternatively branded Sowester.

Stadion Yachting Timer, 3 versions.

Three times Stadion Super with different logo, right with a caliber BFG 411.

Unbranded versions

Unbranded Yachting Timer worn around the wrist, with unknown movement, 1941.

Unbranded Yachting Timer, dial and caseback marked ‘Camerer Cuss – London’, with unknown movement.

Unbranded, Yachting Timer, different versions. Right with caliber BFG 417.

In 2021 Bruce Mackie sent me a couple of pictures of what he claimed to be a very rare unbranded Yachting stopwatch. At first glance it seems like a fairly standard timer with a subdial for 15 minutes. Maybe the only uncommon feature is the nautical tachymetre along the outer edge of the dial, which is in miles per hour when measuring over 1/4 of a mile. Sofar nothing spectacular.

But when you turn it over, there’s no nickel caseback but instead a second face showing a beautiful Yacht timer! And when you start the countdown, this timer actually runs backwards (counterclockwise). Incredible. I fully agree with Bruce, this is definately one of the most rare and uncommon yachting stopwatches I have ever seen.

From the Rarebirds.de website I copied this picture of two very rare Universal Geneve yachting-stopwatches to be worn with a strap around the wrist (33 mm steel case). Probably around 1930’s. Both have a 5 minute regatta countdown timer.

Rare set of Universal Geneve regatta wrist-stopwatches, with white and black dial.

Yema Yachtingraf.

Back to the Homepage.

This stopwatch section of the website is frequently updated, so please visit again!

• Many thanks to Bruce Mackie for sending me the pictures and information of your double sided Yachting stopwatch.
• Many thanks to Sergio, #Rolexman85, for your picture of the Abercrombie & Fitch \ Heuer stopwatch
• Many thanks to @rehomerelook for permitting to use the picture of the A&F (Heuer like) stopwatch.
• Many thanks to Ara Boghigian for sending me the pictures of your Heuer Yachting stopwatch.
• Many thanks to Bob Ryan for sending me the pictures of your Yachting stopwatches.
• Many thanks to Greg Hamilton for your contribution to my collection.
• Many thanks to Manfred Zwehn and Joel Pynson for all your information about the Yachting stopwatches.
• http://www.goldschmiede-zwehn.de/index.htm
• http://www.invenitetfecit.com/index.html
• http://uhrenpaul.eu/
• http://www.mikrolisk.de/
• http://hans-weil.faszination-uhrwerk.de/index.html
• http://www.watch-wiki.net/index.php?title=Main_Page
• http://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Hauptseite
• http://blog.onlineclock.net/history-of-stopwatches/

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Coordinates of elektrostal in degrees and decimal minutes, utm coordinates of elektrostal, geographic coordinate systems.

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Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia

Strange Glow Over Moscow Skies Triggers Panic as Explosions Reported

B right flashes lit up the night sky in southern Moscow in the early hours of Thursday morning, new footage appears to show, following reports of an explosion at an electrical substation on the outskirts of the city.

Video snippets circulating on Russian-language Telegram channels show a series of flashes on the horizon of a cloudy night sky, momentarily turning the sky a number of different colors. In a clip shared by Russian outlet MSK1.ru, smoke can be seen rising from a building during the flashes lighting up the scene.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify the details of the video clips, including when and where it was filmed. The Russian Ministry of Emergency situations has been contacted via email.

Several Russian Telegram accounts said early on Thursday that residents of southern Moscow reported an explosion and a fire breaking out at an electrical substation in the Leninsky district, southeast of central Moscow.

Local authorities in the Leninsky district told Russian outlet RBC that the explosion had happened in the village of Molokovo. "All vital facilities are operating as normal," Leninsky district officials told the outlet.

The incident at the substation in Molokovo took place just before 2 a.m. local time, MSK1.ru reported.

Messages published by the ASTRA Telegram account, run by independent Russian journalists, appear to show residents close to the substation panicking as they question the bright flashes in the sky. One local resident describes seeing the bright light before losing access to electricity, with another calling the incident a "nightmare."

More than 10 villages and towns in the southeast of Moscow lost access to electricity, the ASTRA Telegram account also reported. The town of Lytkarino to the southeast of Moscow, lost electricity, wrote the eastern European-based independent outlet, Meduza.

Outages were reported in the southern Domodedovo area of the city, according to another Russian outlet, as well as power failures in western Moscow. Electricity was then restored to the areas, the Strana.ua outlet reported.

The cause of the reported explosion is not known. A Telegram account aggregating news for the Lytkarino area described the incident as "an ordinary accident at a substation."

The MSK1.ru outlet quoted a local resident who speculated that a drone may have been responsible for the explosion, but no other Russian source reported this as a possible cause.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Moscow with long-range aerial drones in recent months, including a dramatic wave of strikes in late May.

On Sunday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the region's air defense systems had intercepted an aerial drone over the city of Elektrostal, to the east of Moscow. No damage or casualties were reported, he said.

The previous day, Russian air defenses detected and shot down another drone flying over the Bogorodsky district, northeast of central Moscow, Sobyanin said.

There is currently no evidence that an aerial drone was responsible for the reported overnight explosion at the electrical substation in southern Moscow.

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