What happens if you press the lower button while the chrono hand is running? Would it damage the movement or just zero it momentarily?
Won't a column wheel movement prevent that though? I've heard that pushing the reset button while the chrono is operating will damage a cam-lever movement, but I thought that column wheel movements were designed so that this couldn't occur.
If it is a vintage speedy with a calibre 321 it will use a column wheel. Speedies with the 861/1861 movement use cam wheel mechanisms, more reliable and easier to service, though still NASA approved.
The design of the movement is such that pressing the bottom pusher won't cause any problem. Of course if you press hard enough you will overcome the safety stop features and damage the movement, I can't remember any speedy movement that had damage from abuse crossing my bench. Rob
Thanks all. Sorry, I should have said it is a new Moonwatch, in the big black box, so cam rather than column wheel
Yeah, my question about column wheels was more in general, though I did not know that cam-lever movements (or at least the 861/1861 ) have safety stop mechanisms. Learned something new!
Safety stop mechanism may be too strong a word, but the design of all chrono's is such that when in the start running setting, the reset mechanism is disabled or prevented from interfeering with the movement if pressed normally. Of course there could be some early chrono's that didn't have this feature, but I can't think of any at the moment. Rob
Thanks for the information. Was thinking about this the other day. I have a 9300 based chrono which is a column wheel. Omega does tell you not to press the reset button while the chronograph is running. I don't think I could ever do it by accident because I've always been extremely paranoid about it. Also why I make sure to tell people to not press the buttons when I let them see my watch.
I don´t think any manufacturer would sell products that you could actually break by pushing the buttons that are there in order to operate the darn thing...
Maybe a good analogy is hitting the "start" button on your car while the engine is running. Modern cars might have an interlock to prevent damage, but some older cars do not. Ask me how I know.........
Perhaps you should consider a "Flyback" chronograph and then you have a reason for hitting the lower button while the chrono is running. I like these: Brequet Transatlantic. Zenith makes nice ones too.