With the 35th America’s Cup underway in Bermuda – and Britain’s own Ben Ainslie gunning for the title – we take a look at the current crop of sailing chronographs
By James Buttery

Ulysse Nardin Marine Regatta

The idea of a starting cannon in competitive sailing is somewhat misleading: by the time it has sounded, the race may already have been won or lost. While wind dictates a rolling start, the rulebook insists boats do not cross the starting line before the cannon has been fired, so yachts jostle for best position before the race, making a reliable countdown vital. Ulysse Nardin has revisited a well-worn concept and engineered the heck out of it with no fewer than 650 components. The Marine Regatta appears fairly pedestrian with an adjustable 1-10 minute countdown scale. But it has a secret weapon; a bi-directional central seconds hand that counts down, anti-clockwise, to zero before instantaneously reversing direction and serving as a 12-hour race timer, with minutes and hours subdial. In a nutshell:
The Marine Regatta adds a different, and very intuitive, dimension to an established complication and brings a complicated watch in at a seriously competitive price.

£12,700
Rolex Yacht-Master II

Rolex?s Yacht-Master II has been refreshed for 2017 with blink-and-miss-them new dial markings ? a triangular lume pot at the 12 o?clock and a rectangle at the six o?clock ? as well as receiving a new hand set to incorporate the ?Mercedes? hour hand and ...