Instruments · Stopwatch
Heuer Chronograph Stopwatch Rattrapante, 1960s
- Maker / attribution
- Heuer (maker)
- Date
- 1960s
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Stopwatch
- Dimensions
- Case 65 mm
- Stock no.
- 40991782
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Analog/Shift (40991782)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Heuer Chronograph Stopwatch Rattrapante (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Analog/Shift (dealer), New York (stock number 40991782), this is a stopwatch by Heuer, made in Switzerland, dated 1960s. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Instruments collection. Recorded dimensions: Case 65 mm. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Analog/Shift
Sure, Analog:Shift is a business built around the love of watches — mostly mechanical watches. But, in essence, it’s our love for timepieces and timekeeping in general that are the common themes throughout the items we procure. And that includes the love of clocks in general — pocket watches, travel clocks, and more. This particular piece, a Reference 11.404 Heuer Chronograph Stopwatch, dates to the 1960s. It features a 65mm stainless steel case with a large winding crown at 12 o’clock equipped with an inset chronograph pusher. A ‘mushroom’ pusher located at 11 o’clock manages the secondary chronograph function, making this neat vintage timing device a ‘Rattrapante’ capable of keeping time to 1/5 of a second over 12 hours. The dial features a peripheral 0 -100 timing scale in red over a white track and gloss black center that houses a set of ‘Arabic’ hour indices, a pair of recessed subsidiary registers, a matching white-tipped ‘stick handset and two center chronograph seconds hands. Packed with a shockproof Valjoux 9 manual-winding movement, this piece also includes a signed protective shell casing and lanyard. If this stopwatch was good enough for Juan Manuel Fangio or Steve McQueen, then it’s good for us!
Historical context
Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
Tool watches for divers, pilots and astronauts; electric watches anticipate the electronic age.
Electronic instruments, quartz frequency standards and the first atomic clocks transformed precision timing in laboratories and broadcasting.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking
Atlas type guide
Timers, stopwatches, chronoscopes and time recorders
Instruments for measuring short intervals or recording when something happened form a large and practical branch of horology. Sports stopwatches and split-seconds timers, laboratory chronoscopes (such as Hipp's, which measured thousandths of a second for psychology and ballistics experiments), metronomes for music, watchmen's clocks that recorded patrol rounds, and the time recorders that clocked factory workers in and out all derive from clock and watch technology.
These objects matter historically because they show timekeeping leaving the observatory and the drawing room and entering industry, science and sport. Many were mass-produced, and their dials, scales and patents chart the rise of electrification and industrial management.
What to look for
- Scales graduated in fifths, tenths or hundredths of a second, or decimal minutes for industrial use.
- Start, stop and reset push-pieces; a second hand that can be stopped independently (split seconds).
- Recording devices: paper discs or tapes, printing mechanisms, keys or punches.
- Patent numbers and dates on the dial or case, which give a terminus post quem.
Dating clues
- Hipp chronoscopes were made from the 1840s into the twentieth century.
- Employee time recorders spread from the 1890s (Bundy, IBM, International Time Recording Co.).
- Quartz and electronic timers replaced mechanical stopwatches in sport from the 1970s.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Flyback chronograph
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