Fortis B-42 Marinemaster Alarm Chronograph vs. Zenith Pilot Doubletime Alarm Chronograph
The history of mechanical alarm wrist watches is quite interesting and extensive. First true alarm wrist watch was developed by Vulcain in early 1940's, until today more than 50 different movements were developed and almost every serious watch company issued at least one of the model with alarm complication (but the fact is that only few of them developed it's own movement, they mainly used one of the "standard" movements). So it is a bit unusual fact that despite all of the variety of the mechanical alarms, only two companies developed chronograph movement with alarm function - Fortis and Zenith. What is even more surprisingly is the fact that no other company tried to launch a chronograph alarm watch which would use Fortis or Zenith movement. And that is not the end of the surprises. First alarm chronograph was developed very late, namely the first alarm chronograph was developed for Fortis by Paul Gerber after the Russian space agency ordered such a chronograph only in 1995!