Attending a regatta and seeing sailboats battling side to side is a wonderful spectacle. But the most impressive is undoubtedly the moment of departure, when the competitors cross the line at full speed, at the very second when the cannon fire sounds. This feat is due to the precision of the watchmaking instruments available to the crews, chronographs incorporating a countdown function.
However, the sporting stakes have not always been the priority of the sailors, who are nevertheless anxious to know the time with precision. For a long time, this requirement was even a vital issue. In the 18th century, observing the sky remained the only way to find your bearings when sailing on the open sea. But if determining the latitude by the position of the stars was easy, the calculation of the longitude was much more of sufficiently precise horological instruments. It would indeed have been necessary to keep, throughout the voyage, the local time of the last port whose meridian was known.
In 1759, an English watchmaker, John Harrison, finally managed to create a suitable watch: from November 1761 to January 1762, his chronometer completed an 81-day crossing aboard a sailboat, presenting, on arrival, a delay only five seconds. It is thanks to the development of marine chronometers of this type, following the example of the pieces produced in particular by Abraham-Louis Breguet or Ulysse Nardin, that the era of legendary explorers could begin.
Nowadays, the reliability of nautical watches is expressed mainly on the wrist of competition enthusiasts. But the link with the past keeps the wind in its sails, as proven by the decision of Richard Mille, one of the main partners of Les Voiles de Saint-Barth, to also set sail for classic yachting. The newly created Richard Mille Cup saw the first event take place in the English Channel in June. The watchmaker has already demonstrated its know-how in the world of regattas through its RM 60-01 model which, thanks to its three-dimensional rotating bezel, indicates the cardinal points and allows skippers to plot their route without a compass.
For its part, TAG Heuer, partner of FlyingNikka, the world’s first offshore foiling maxi-sailboat, is relaunching the Carrera Skipper, equipped with a specific colored display, a piece born in 1968 which had disappeared from the catalog forty years ago. . At Panerai, official sponsor of the Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli for the 37th America’s Cup, there is a Luminor Luna Rossa Quaranta BiTempo. Finally, the French brand Herbelin addresses sailors in its own way by offering the Maréograph watch indicating the time and the level of the tides. Because, before facing the open sea, you must first move away from the coast…§
