The first two-pusher chronograph

The need

With a single pusher the sequence is fixed: start, stop, reset. A timing cannot be stopped, read and then continued.

Made by

Breitling, under Willy Breitling.

What was new

Start and stop on the pusher at two o’clock; return to zero on a new pusher at four o’clock.

Worth knowing

It made adding up several intervals possible, a pilot timing the legs of a flight, for example. Nearly every mechanical chronograph since uses this layout.

Historian’s noteThe claim is Breitling’s own, and no patent has been published. Longines 13.33Z watches of about 1929 with two pushers and a flyback have been identified, which would put the layout several years earlier.

SourcesBreitling