One of the most rewarding things about this hobby once you start to really see a lot of watches is coming across something that tells the time or gives you information in a different way. It?s actually quite rare to encounter a watch that really does something different. Horology, as a technical pursuit, is famously slow moving, and the mechanics that go into modern timekeeping haven?t really changed that much over the past century, or even longer. So you end up with time telling interfaces that are largely fairly predictable, making a wandering hours complication or any of the more adventurous creations by the likes of MB&F that much more satisfying. One watch that falls into this category that doesn?t get nearly the attention it deserves is the Nicolas Rieussec line of chronographs from Montblanc. To be more precise, the actual time telling here is pretty straightforward, but the chronograph is executed in a way that?s noteworthy enough for fans of the complication to take notice, with a result that?s surprisingly legible and intuitive. 
Before we get into the watch, it?s important to have just a small bit of background on its namesake. Nicolas Rieussec, who lived from 1781 to 1866, was the royal watchmaker to the King of France. He served at a time when horseracing was gaining in popularity, and developed an instrument suitable for timing races that would place a drop of ink on each of two rotating timing counters whenever a horse crossed the finish line. ...