A single-page, hand-built buying guide that ranks mechanical chronograph watches from the summit down — price falling top to bottom, with colour showing what's actually keeping time. The premise: a true mechanical chronograph is expensive to build, and that cost is the whole story of the ladder. Below a certain rung, "nothing keeps mechanical time — everything under it is a chronograph wearing the clothes."
The summit is the Hamilton Khaki Field Auto Chrono (H-21, 60h); the ladder climbs down through Tissot, Christopher Ward, Farer, Seiko, Citizen, Timex and the discontinued/used-market routes (Seagull, Yema), ending at the cheapest honest "field-chrono look."
It's a static site — open field-chrono-ladder.html
directly, or serve the folder:
python3 -m http.server 8000 # then visit http://localhost:8000index.html is a redirect to the ladder page.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
field-chrono-ladder.html |
The ladder — all content, styling and layout, self-contained |
index.html |
Redirect to the ladder page |
images/ |
Watch imagery |
Personal project / opinion piece — a reference for a watch purchase decision, not affiliated with any brand. Prices and availability noted on the page are as-of authoring and will drift.