On a watch the hour and minute hands display the time of day but our lives do not obey the hour and minutes hands. Rigid 24-hour days do not form the boundaries of our lives. No one is born exactly at one midnight and then dies at another midnight years or decades later.
We live second by second even though we are not aware of the seconds passing. Those seconds add up to minutes, then hours, days, weeks months, years and decades: a life.
The chronograph measures elapsed time: the sum total of seconds, minutes and hours. The time measurement a chronograph performs may start at any time and in any place. That is the same way that our lives start.
We know when our lives begin. We experience our moment of birth. In the same way a chronograph records the moment an event, such as a car race, begins. But no one knows or can predict how much time will elapse until the race ends. That is also true of a life. No one knows when the STOP pusher will be pressed. What do we know from an early age is that life, like a car race, is full of exhilarating acceleration on the straight, curves that sometimes make it difficult to hold the wheel, the excitement of passing a competitor and the disappointment of finishing in second place or spinning off the track and not finishing at all.
During all these occurrences on the racetrack and in life a chronograph remains serene counting the time until the race or a life is finally over.
One of those life events that no one foresaw occurred when a legendary actor and racer strapped on a Rolex Daytona with a dial then called Exotic. The chronograph measuring the elapsed time that started at that moment is still running.
Text by Michael Clerizo
DRIVER TIME (STUDIO PHOTOS)
