There is perhaps no more versatile complication than the chronograph. 

From race cars to rocket ships, boats to battlefields, you are likely to find a chronograph being employed to measure a plethora of tasks and times. From the Greek khrónos (“time) and gráphō (“to write”), a chronograph is a watch that has the ability to record time, generally via the addition of small sub-counters that register minutes and hours. 

Though many storied brands produced notable chronographs during the complications heyday from the 1930s through the 1970s, numerous other firms fell by the wayside during the Quartz Crisis, folding completely and disappearing or being rolled up into conglomerates that pillaged their stores of parts. 

This particular watch, the Pilot Heritage Chronograph from Swiss brand Alpina, calls to mind the best of vintage pilot’s watches from the 1930s and 1940s and adds modern proportions and technology. In outstanding, like-new condition, it’s fitted to a 41.5mm stainless steel case and features a sapphire crystal, signed crown, polished bezel, a Swiss Sellita-based automatic movement, and a black dial with applied Arabic indices with telemetry snail scale. The design is finished with a black leather strap with a signed buckle and even comes with its inner and outer boxes, warranty card, and warranty/instruction booklet. 

If you’re after a vintage-styled chronograph — and a mechanical one, at that — without the fuss of a vintage movement, you could do much worse than this handsome Alpina!