Focus On : Excelsior Park Excel-O-Graph chronograph watch

Excelsior Park Excel-O-Graph

Dear friends, you’ve probably noticed our enthusiasm for vintage pieces.

Focus On highlights references, well-known or lesser-known,
with that extra touch of soul thanks to their history, their design, or their functionality.

Today, we’re going to look at a very unique piece: the chronograph Excelsior Park Excel-O-Graph.

The Excel-O-Graph: A small, but very real, computer

Excelsior Park isn’t a stranger in the domain of chronographs. First founded in St-Imier in 1866, the brand has rather vague origins. Two different companies with similar names, Jules-Fréd and Jeannereat, claimed the same specialisation – the chronograph – and the same date of creation.

Excelsior movements were of such high quality that they were demanded by other fine watch brands like Gallet, Zénith or Girard Perregaux. The Swiss watchmaker made chronographs and counters until the 1970’s.

Innovative for the period, Excel-O-Graph was originally made for aviation (with clear similarities to the Breitling Chronomat), but also for marine navigation (Yachting counter) and science & engineering (the rotating bezel).

This watch is reputed for being no less than one of the most accurate professional chronographs of the 20th century, and was marketed with a slogan comparing it to a real computer.

One emblematic movement, numerous versions

Several different versions of the chronograph existed such as Sinn and Gallet, proof that a partnership existed with Excelsior Park.

Here we have before us a chronograph that is much sought after by collectors, and whose most desirable (and rarest) version is most definitely the one produced directly by Excelsior, creator of the movement: the ExPark 40-68.

The 40-68 movement is the movement of the emblematic chronograph in the same manner as Lemania 321 (e.g. Pre-moon Speedmaster) or Valjoux 72 (e.g. Rolex Daytona 6263).

An attractive and “Pop”-style watch

Given its perfect mint condition, we can qualify this watch as a rare species… and some may even consider it as the Holy Grail of collectors.

With an undeniable sex appeal and the look of a Navitimer – midnight blue dial, Yachting counter, tritium markers – the watch represents all that we love most in vintage pieces.

A wise man once said: “It isn’t you who finds the watch, but the watch that finds its way to you.” Amen.