Unworn Chronoswiss Boardmaster Dashboard Clock Set Aluminium

The dashboard clock was once the most considered instrument on a great motor car. The Chronoswiss Boardmaster is the rare modern argument that it should still be.

Available now at Black Tag Watches (Aventura, Florida), this unworn three-instrument set — references CH7691, CH6701, and CH9501 — is offered complete with its original Chronoswiss presentation box, instruction manual, warranty book, and the full set of mounting hardware.

What Is the Chronoswiss Boardmaster?

Three Mechanical Instruments Built for a Cockpit

The Chronoswiss Boardmaster is an on-board dashboard clock set: three solid aluminium mechanical instruments designed to be mounted side by side into the cockpit of a serious motor car. Each unit is manually wound, Swiss-made, and finished and assembled in Munich to the standards Chronoswiss has maintained since Gerd-Rüdiger Lang founded the maison in 1983. Lang himself is an enthusiastic vintage-car rallyist and the architect of the Chronoswiss Classics motoring event; the Boardmaster came directly out of that background. It is not a watch scaled up for a dashboard — it is an instrument designed from the start for in-dash installation and use at speed.

Why Unworn Examples Are Disappearing

The on-board mechanical clock is one of the quieter casualties of contemporary watchmaking. Chronoswiss is one of the very few independent Swiss makers still producing this category in any volume in the modern era, and the Boardmaster was already a small-volume reference within that catalogue. Unworn three-piece sets with original hardware are quietly leaving circulation. This example is one of the cleanest remaining configurations available on the secondary market.

Case & Dial Design: Solid Aluminium, Built for Speed

Case Architecture and Mounting Specification

Each of the three instruments is housed in a solid aluminium case measuring 120 by 60 mm and standing 22.5 mm thick — proportions dictated by cockpit-depth mounting rather than wrist wear. The side-mounted crown on each unit is sized to be operated wearing driving gloves. The anti-reflective sapphire crystal is a meaningful upgrade over the acrylic that period dashboard clocks typically carried. A knurled rotating bezel with a single luminous marker on each instrument allows the driver to record a target time, a start point, or a stage interval without sustained attention away from the road.

Dial Legibility and Finishing

The dials are matt-black lacquered metal with Super-LumiNova C3 indices, Arabic numerals, and large faceted hands. The reading logic is consistent across all three instruments: high contrast, no decoration, no distraction. There is no concession to aesthetics that would compromise legibility at speed under variable lighting conditions — which is, in the Boardmaster’s design terms, the only metric that matters.

Movements: Three Calibres, One Shared Standard

Bordtimer — Calibre C.671

The Bordtimer (reference CH7691) is powered by the Chronoswiss-exclusive manual-wind calibre C.671, an 18-jewel Swiss movement with fine index-regulator adjustment, Incabloc shock absorption, and a stoppable central seconds hand for synchronisation against a reference time standard. It is the set’s primary timekeeping instrument.

Stopmaster — Calibre C.951 (Based on Minerva 19/56)

The Stopmaster (reference CH6701) is built around the calibre C.951 — based on the Minerva 19/56, the Villeret-made stopwatch movement considered one of the most respected names in twentieth-century chronograph engineering. The C.951 delivers 1/5-second precision and a 12-hour totalising register. For collectors of pre-owned mechanical instruments, the Minerva-derived movement is the horological heart of the Boardmaster set.

Stop Clock — CH9501

The third instrument (reference CH9501) provides a second stop-clock function with central 60-minute and 12-hour hands, allowing the driver to time two independent intervals simultaneously. All three movements are manual-wind, exclusive to Chronoswiss, and produced in the small-volume tradition that has defined the maison since the 1980s.

Movement Specifications

Instrument

Reference

Calibre

Jewels

Key feature

Bordtimer

CH7691

C.671, manual

Stop-second, Incabloc

Stopmaster

CH6701

C.951, manual

Minerva 19/56 base, 1/5-sec

Stop clock

CH9501

Manual

—

60-min + 12-hr centre hands

Condition, Provenance & Mounting Hardware

Complete Original Delivery

Condition is unworn. The set is supplied with every element of its original Chronoswiss delivery: presentation box, instruction manual, warranty book, and the full set of bolts and nuts required for permanent in-dash mounting. For a contemporary on-board mechanical clock set — a category almost no other Swiss maison still produces — an unworn three-piece configuration with original hardware and complete documentation represents the best possible provenance. The mounting plate accepts all three instruments side by side, producing the cockpit arrangement Chronoswiss originally designed for vintage rally use.

Condition and Accessories

Detail

Information

Condition

Unworn

Box

Original Chronoswiss presentation box

Papers

Warranty book, instruction manual

Hardware

Full mounting bolt and nut set

Mounting plate

Included

Full Specifications — Chronoswiss Boardmaster Set

Specification

Detail

Maker

Chronoswiss (Munich / Lucerne)

References

CH7691, CH6701, CH9501

Case

Solid aluminium

Dimensions

120 x 60 mm, 22.5 mm thick

Dial

Matt-black lacquered, Super-LumiNova C3

Crystal

Anti-reflective sapphire

Bezel

Knurled rotating, luminous marker

Bordtimer calibre

C.671, manual, 18 jewels

Stopmaster calibre

C.951, manual, 7 jewels, Minerva 19/56 base

Stop clock calibre

Manual, central 60-min + 12-hr

Condition

Unworn

Box & Papers

Full set

Hardware

Mounting plate, bolts and nuts

Why Buy the Chronoswiss Boardmaster Dashboard Clock Set?

A Category the Modern Industry Has Stopped Producing

The mechanical on-board dashboard clock has no meaningful contemporary equivalent. Jaeger and Heuer once supplied the world’s serious motoring brands; Smiths and Lemania fitted instruments into Bentleys and racing specials. Today, Chronoswiss is one of the very few independent Swiss makers still producing this category — and the Boardmaster is a small-volume reference even within that narrow field. Against contemporary on-board instruments at retail — almost all now quartz, digital, or generic — this set offers something the contemporary market essentially does not produce: three mechanical Swiss instruments, hand-assembled in Munich, ready for installation.

Who Buys the Boardmaster — and Why

Auction results from Antiquorum, Bonhams Cars, and Artcurial over the past fifteen years show the Boardmaster set is acquired primarily by classic-car collectors restoring or commissioning a particular cockpit, rather than by conventional watch buyers. For a collector restoring a classic, commissioning a new build, or furnishing a study cabinet with serious mechanical instruments, an unworn example with full original hardware is the only configuration worth considering — and increasingly hard to locate.

Available at Black Tag Watches — Aventura, Florida

Black Tag Watches is a pre-owned luxury watch and instrument dealer based in Aventura, FL, specialising in rare, certified, and fully documented timepieces and mechanical instruments from the world’s leading Swiss makers.

View the Chronoswiss Boardmaster Dashboard Clock Set — Full Details & Pricing

A three-instrument mechanical dashboard set from Chronoswiss — unworn, complete, and built for a kind of car the modern industry has stopped designing instruments for.