TIMEPIECES: Graham Chronofighter Oversize GMT Black Steel

Posted by ESM on December 21, 2011 in Timepieces | No Comments »

We’ve been seeing ads for the new Graham watches all over town.

Surprisingly, the billboard is almost the actual size of the watch (well almost – the watch is 47 mm).

As we see it more and more we’re starting to like the bulkiness of it all, especially with the clasp for the (nuclear bomb-esque) controls of the chronograph and time-setting.

You must feel like the U.S. President getting ready for war when you use the chronograph timer.

But I bet you’re asking yourself this one very important question: “Who the hell is Graham and do they make good watches?”

Don’t worry friends, ESM did the due diligence for you.  Well, at least the online due diligence.

According to Graham’s website:

Graham is an unrepentantly English name for an exquisitely English watch. If you’re interested in the minutiae of watch making, Graham was the surname of George Graham, born in 1673, master watchmaker who lived in Fleet Street in London.

Like many Brits before and after him, Graham was more interested in generating lots of ideas than in making money. He created several inventions but never patented any of them.

For example, he created the first stopwatch. He devised a mercury pendulum system for making clocks more accurate in very hot and very cold weather. He also invented the dead-beat escapement which made clocks more accurate in general and built the master clock for Greenwich Royal Observatory. The escapement he invented is today simply known as the Graham Escapement and still used in high-precision pendulum clocks. It is actually a predecessor to the Swiss anchor movement almost universally used in wristwatches.

Graham became a veritable pillar of the scientific and clockmaking establishment and in 1721, he was elected as aFellow of the Royal Society and contributed over twenty papers to its scientific journal, the Philosophical Transactions. George Graham became Master of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1722.

So what they’re trying to say is, their heritage has been around for a while.  Like over 300 years.

Here are some more details about the Graham Chronofighter Oversize GMT in black steel:

• Chronograph (seconds, 30 minutes counter). GMT / second time zone. Big date with double discs at 12 o’clock
• Hours, minutes, seconds
• Calibre G1733, automatic bi-compax chronograph, 28’800 A/h (4 Hz), Incabloc shock absorber
• 28 jewels
• Power reserve: 48 hours
• 47 mm steel case
• Steel with black PVD left hand fast-action start/stop trigger and reset pusher
• Steel and sapphire bezel – Black and silver with GMT scale
• Domed sapphire crystal, anti-reflective coating on both faces
• Smoked sapphire case back
• Water resistant to 330 feet /100 m
• Black dial with silver counters
• White Super-LumiNova central, seconds counter hands and numerals, white skeleton GMT hand with white Super-LumiNova head and red contour, red chrono and minutes counter hands
• Integrated black croco strap

For more information about Graham watches and their Chronofighter Oversize GMT in black steel, you can check out their official site at http://www.graham-london.com/en-gb/collection/chronofighter/oversize-gmt-steel/2ovgsb39a.aspx.

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