Model History
Presented at Baselworld in 2001, the Chrono 4 is the first model with which Eberhard & Co. opened the new millennium, and it did so with an idea as simple as it had never been done before: aligning the chronograph's four counters — elapsed minutes, elapsed hours, 24-hour counter and small seconds — in a single row from left to right, instead of arranging them in the traditional symmetry of three or more sub-dials scattered across the dial.
The solution, protected by both a technical patent and a registered design, is presented by the brand as the first and only chronograph in watchmaking history with four aligned counters: a detail that concretely solves a practical problem in reading elapsed time, often unintuitive on traditional chronographs once you go past 60 seconds or 12 hours.
The Chrono 4's success led over the years to numerous case and material variants — from steel to 18-karat gold to titanium, in diameters ranging from 40 to 46 mm — up to the "21-42" collection presented in 2021 to celebrate the model's twentieth anniversary. The Chrono 4 remains today one of the most recognizable and continuously produced lines in the Eberhard & Co. catalogue, to the point of becoming, together with the Extra-fort, one of the two pillars of the brand's chronograph production.
Technical Specifications
Main Executions
The Chrono 4's four-aligned-counter layout is protected not only by a technical patent but also by a registered design deposit: a relatively rare case in watchmaking, where aesthetic innovations are protected with the same care usually reserved for mechanical solutions alone.