Doctor’s orders
The Chronographe Médical, limited to 99 pieces, echoes the functional watchmaking and chronograph heritage of Angelus watches. Indeed, this chronograph is designed specifically for a profession and its needs. Its dual pulsometer and asthmometer scales make it a practical tool chronograph, with a notably original display of the two scales.
Technical Specifications
Functions
Movement
- Calibre:
- A5000 (view calibre)
- Jewels:
- 23
- Diameter:
- 29.40 mm
- Thickness:
- 4.20 mm
- Power reserve:
- 42 hours
- Frequency:
- 3 Hz/21,600 vph
Dial
Case
- Material:
- Stainless Steel
- Diameter:
- 39 mm
- Thickness:
- 9.22 mm
- Crystal:
- domed sapphire with an anti-reflective coating on both sides
- Back:
- sapphire crystal, with an anti-reflecting coating
- Water resistance:
- 3 bar (30 metres/100 feet)
Strap
- Material:
- Golden brown Novonappa® calfskin
- Buckle:
- pin buckle, stainless steel
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Gallery
First inoculation
In the 1960s, Angelus launched its “doctor’s watch”: a wrist-worn, hand-wound chronograph with a distinctive dial. It featured a dual scale for reading vital signs during patient examinations: a pulsometer – to measure the patient’s pulse – and an asthmometer – to record respiratory rate. This rare piece, which follows the 1950s and 1960s trend of specialising chronographs for specific functional or professional needs, has been modernised by Angelus to appeal to contemporary tastes—without any side effects.
Measuring Device
The pulsometer function indicates a patient’s heart rate without calculation. On the Chronographe Médical, the pulsometer scale between 1 and 3 o’clock is based on 10 beats. As soon as the chronograph is started, simply count 10 beats, then stop the mechanism. When compared with the pulsometer scale, the chronograph hand indicates the number of beats per minute.
The asthmometer displays the respiratory rate per minute. The Chronographe Médical is based on five breaths. After starting the chronograph, count five breaths before pressing the pusher again. The chronograph hand will indicate the number of breaths per minute on the inner scale graduated from 40 to 10.
dosage
The pulsometer and asthmometer functions, and how they are displayed on the dial, remain unrivalled. Not only is the combination still unique, but its display is also one of a kind. The two scales are positioned to maximise their legibility and clarity. The typeface used is particularly wide, contrasting, and impossible to overlook. Two large arrows highlight these scales; one, curved and crossing the minute circle, is entirely unique.
Residency programme
Because of their importance, the pulsometer and asthmometer scales are given pride of place on the dial, pushing the minute track and the hour markers in towards its centre as well as the appliqué hour markers, which are half indexes and half Arabic numerals. This layout shows that this timepiece was intended to be a tool, with visual precedence given to its utilitarian functions. When combined with the fact that the chronograph function only measures 60 seconds, this piece becomes a specialist model. It is fitted on a full-grain calfskin Novonappa® strap in a beautiful shade of golden brown that develops a patina over time and is one of the finest skins used in leather goods.
Motor skills
Inside the Chronographe Médical x Massena LAB, Angelus integrates a specially configured version of its A5000 calibre, adapted to reproduce the architecture of classic single-pusher chronographs. The movement is controlled by a single mushroom-shaped pusher at 2 o’clock, which sequentially starts, stops and resets the chronograph through a traditional column-wheel mechanism. The choice of manual winding not only keeps the movement slim and mechanically pure but also echoes Angelus’ early chronograph calibres, placing the user in direct interaction with the heart of the mechanism.