Emerald Chronometer

A beautiful app - brilliant in concept & stunning in execution. Wow!

     

From informations provided by Emerald in the app store and on their web site one can learn much more about this app than any reviewer can tell. What those sources avoid bragging about are the intelligence, horological and astronomical knowledge, exquisite visual taste, and programming skill that lies behind and is visible in each of the "watches" of this app. Most display considerable chronologic and astronomic information in a clear manner that must dazzle watchmakers constrained by mechanical means. I suspect that many of these digital gems could be fabricated in a mechanical device but only at a cost dwarfing the tiny cost of the app. And a "real" watch would have a hard time improving on the superb simulations that the watches are. On top of all that, Emerald's folks provide complete and easily understood instructions on using and understanding the watches and what they report. And if that were not enough consider that in some instances, e.g. the recent "Babylon" which may or may not be modeled on a real mechanical watch, Emerald's instructions describes a mechanical arrangement that could produce the same calendar display shown on the Emerald Chronometer in the iPhone. In all instances one can tell whether the (pretend) underlying movement is mechanical or quartz by the motion of the second hand, in tiny jumps if a jeweled-lever watch and in larger discrete steps, a second, if simulating a quartz watch. The Emerald Chronometer was wonderful in earlier iPhones but with the coming of the retina display their appearance to the eye is as crisp as if one were looking at a "real" watch. Some apps merely bring to the iPhone display in a convenient form information culled from the web and available to one making the effort. Few are built up from the ground as this one is and only a very few perform as elegantly and enjoyably as this. Rolex, Patek, Breguet, watch out.