George Graham was an English Clockmaker who will forever be remembered as one of the most important forefathers in watchmaking. To his credit he was responsible for several technical design improvements to the pendulum clock, including the mercury pendulum and the mechanical device that shows the relative positions of the planets and moons in the solar system known today as the Orrery in 1704. His most credited achievement would be his modification and vision of the adaptation of the anchor escapement also know as the Graham or Deadbeat Escapement.
Look, I know that most of you out there don’t want to be bored with the explanation of how this escapement works, because you feel like you have to know fluent Clingon to understand, but hey I am going to elaborate in jive anyway because I feel it’s important to know. In an anchor escapement the motion of the pendulum pushes the escape wheel backward during part of its rotation. This recoil hinders the motion of the pendulum, causing inaccuracy, and reverses the direction of the gear train, causing digression and introduces intense forces into the system, which leads to friction and wear and tear. The advantage to the deadbeat escapement is that it totally eliminates recoil and promotes far greater accuracy with the pallets having a totally separate curved locking device on them, concentric about the pivot the anchor is released and activated. As a result of the extreme forces of the pendulum’s swing, the escape wheel tooth rests against this locking device, providing no impact or shock to the pendulum, which prevents recoil from occurring. Now, I hope that didn’t make your teeth hurt. This deadbeat escapement is used in the most modern clocks today and is the inspiration behind the many practical design elements in watch making.
Today this British brand Graham, has been revived and is now hand crafted by the Swiss. Even though these watches are built to perform using clever devices on the side of the case and are made out of only the best materials and the size is right at 46 mm, this watch is cumbersome and uncomfortable. It is good to be different and be in a league of your own, however to be so out there that the message of the integrity and value gets lost in translation doesn’t substantiate the pricing no matter how exclusive. I mean I tried one on for a laugh, and it was just a laugh. The device for the chrono stuck out and was almost offensive to the point it put me off and I immediately said to myself it doesn’t matter that it’s unique, it hurts to wear this thing. I mean shit, I have a tough enough time from the large onion crown of my IWC Big Pilot making a dent on my wrist and I tolerate it because it is the most incredibly perfect watch, but the Graham Chrono Fighter is just down right ugly on the wrist, because it is just a temporary novelty that will pass like a fart in the wind.
At the end of the day collectors want watches they can wear and not just watches that they can admire. What’s the point of spending thousands of dollars on a watch your going to end up trading in or selling because it fills that need of unique in the beginning but then as six month’s later you realize it lacks versatility and comfort because it’s too obtrusive. Lets face it people, watches are meant to be worn. It’s a shame really that a brand like this with so much history and integrity in watch making hasn’t really managed to be represented properly making me ask What Happened to Graham?
watch pic courtesy of http://www.horomundi.com
portrait pic courtesy of http://www.bitishmasters.com
JOHNNY FLYBACK 
Totally agree. I saw them at Heathrow and the salesman said it was the next Panerai…..sad. Good job with the blog.