Regulators
RULE
BY MICHAEL THOMPSON
As it celebrates its
35th anniversary,
Chronoswiss
introduces five
new regulators
in an ode to its
historic technical
specialty.
A 2018 debut: The Chronoswiss Flying
Regulator Open Gear
FROM THE VERY START, CHRONOSWISS STOOD APART AMONG
INDEPENDENT WATCHMAKERS. FOUNDED IN 1983 NOT IN
SWITZERLAND BUT IN MUNICH BY GERMAN WATCHMAKER GERD-
RÜDIGER LANG, CHRONOSWISS DEFIED THE QUARTZ WAVE OF ITS
ERA TO FOCUS ONLY ON MECHANICAL WATCHES.
After primarily offering chronographs made with vintage mechanical
movements, Lang very quickly began to emphasize the regulator display;
a fairly archaic dial layout that emphasizes a large central minute hand,
with the hour and seconds hands in smaller subdials aligned between the
12 and the 6.
Regulator dials were well known as a display used on clocks.
Watchmakers within ateliers consulted such clocks, often centrally
located in the front of the workshop, as they regulated watches they
were making. But until Chronoswiss created its manual-wind Regulator
(spelled Régulateur in French) in 1987, and officially debuted it in 1988, no
52 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | SUMMER 2018
watchmaking company had serially produced such a dial configuration for
a wristwatch collection.
CLEAR CASEBACKS
Lang also garnered accolades – and the occasional sideway glance from
purists – for placing a clear sapphire or mineral crystal on the back of his
watches. While the clear caseback is today taken for granted and indeed
demanded by collectors, Chronoswiss was the first company to regularly
provide this view to its customers. Lang in fact placed such casebacks on
his watches as early as 1982.
But it was the novelty – and success – of its first Regulator that defined
Chronoswiss’ rise within the collector community. That initial demand led
Chronoswiss to make an automatic version several years later, followed by
multiple regulator iterations in the decades since.
Chronoswiss also began making equally compelling mechanical