Of chronographs and breakfast eggs

peasant

I like my (boiled) breakfast egg done in a certain way. Solid egg-white, with the yoke just solidified at the edge but still runny in the middle.

On our electrical cooker at home the perfect egg is achieved by dropping it into just boiling water, turning off the cooker and taking the egg out after exactly 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Six minutes and the egg-white is still runny, give it seven and the yoke starts to solidify ...so 6.5 minutes, please.

Having recently aquired a mechanical chronograph which I wore this morning while on kitchen duty, I was (I think justifiably) looking forward to the perfectly timed egg.

The water came to the boil, the egg was carefully immersed in the boiling liquid, while I pressed the start button on the chrono ...not without lovinglingly admiring the precise clicking action, I must admit.

Having activated the chronograph function naturally I did not take any notice whatsoever of the actual time, as this was deemed unecessary.

BIG MISTAKE, as it turns out.

Unthinkingly I had immersed the egg at some minutes past the hour and then gone on with other breakfast preparations. When checking the chronograph some minutes later, the minute hand had moved over the elapsed minutes dial, obscuring the hand :eek:

It was impossible to tell if it was 5, 6 or even seven minutes that had passed.

I took the egg out at 30 seconds past the minute ...but as it turned out (several minutes later when the big minute hand had finally moved out of the way) it was after 7 and a half minutes not six and a half.

Breakfast ruined ! :mad:

Useless piece of kit ...I need a digital chrono !



(or perhaps an egg timer )

Reloc8

Argh !

I agree - the only possible solution is another watch.

Nolimits

While I can see that you have an almost foolproof system, for my boiled eggs this has been invaluable if anyone else is interested http://www.amazon.co.uk/Egg-Perfect-Colour-Changing-Timer/dp/B0000CFGB5

sparrowcar

Did you also know that the time it takes to boil an egg differs depending on the altitude you are at.

See here for guidance

http://www.altitude.org/boil_egg.php

CarltonBrowne

I have a Lemania stop watch permanently available in the kitchen for this precise purpose; found on Ebay with a broken crystal for £4. Stop watches, even with military markings etc, go for a steal on Ebay. I have a picture somewhere which I'll dig out. When the season comes around I have an asparagus recipe that involves semi-soft quail's eggs where timing is even more important.

peasant

I have a stopwatch too ...it has some strap issues though

Zagato

Did you ever get a russian chrono? There's a russian one similar enough to the german one you got last year on WUS

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/fs-aviator-chrono-2x-atlantic-militec-tritium-h3-diver-breil-depthmeter-637698.html

CarltonBrowne

Mine's also a 30 second jobby; you already seem to have this covered. You've also got the advantage that you don't have to ask yourself every morning whether you need to boil an egg that day.

peasant

Zagato wrote: »

Did you ever get a russian chrono?

I've got two Chronographs ... one half Russian, one fully Russian.
Both can be equally guilty of spoiling brekfast eggs due to rather wide hands obscuring the sub-dial

Marcusm

peasant wrote: »

I like my (boiled) breakfast egg done in a certain way. Solid egg-white, with the yoke just solidified at the edge but still runny in the middle.

On our electrical cooker at home the perfect egg is achieved by dropping it into just boiling water, turning off the cooker and taking the egg out after exactly 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Six minutes and the egg-white is still runny, give it seven and the yoke starts to solidify ...so 6.5 minutes, please.

Having recently aquired a mechanical chronograph which I wore this morning while on kitchen duty, I was (I think justifiably) looking forward to the perfectly timed egg.

The water came to the boil, the egg was carefully immersed in the boiling liquid, while I pressed the start button on the chrono ...not without lovinglingly admiring the precise clicking action, I must admit.

Having activated the chronograph function naturally I did not take any notice whatsoever of the actual time, as this was deemed unecessary.

BIG MISTAKE, as it turns out.

Unthinkingly I had immersed the egg at some minutes past the hour and then gone on with other breakfast preparations. When checking the chronograph some minutes later, the minute hand had moved over the elapsed minutes dial, obscuring the hand :eek:

It was impossible to tell if it was 5, 6 or even seven minutes that had passed.

I took the egg out at 30 seconds past the minute ...but as it turned out (several minutes later when the big minute hand had finally moved out of the way) it was after 7 and a half minutes not six and a half.

Breakfast ruined ! :mad:

Useless piece of kit ...I need a digital chrono !



(or perhaps an egg timer )

INitial reading made me think that there was something wrong with the watch. I think this is a classic blame the worker not the tools scenario!!

squonk

I think this is a real example of a First World problem

peasant

squonk wrote: »

I think this is a real example of a First World problem

In relation to breakfast eggs certainly

But generally speaking this design with the elapsed minute counter isn't a particularly clever one. Unless the main hands of the watch are see-through, there is a chance that you won't be able to read an important measurement because it's covered by one or even two hands. So basically ...if you want to be sure of your measurement at first glance ...use a designated stopwatch instead. So why get a chronograph at all (other than it looks purdy) if it can't really do what it's meant to do at all times (of the day)?

I haven't got a picture of the main hands obscuring the minute counter (and I'm not going to stage one now) but the attached pic of hands obscuring the small second dial should help explain what I'm on about.




baaah ...it just dawned on my why this particular watch (originally issued to Soviet navy graduates) has those blue markings through the center ...they show the area the main hands of the watch mustn't be in when you want to use the stopwatch accurately (in order not to run your ship onto a reef for example, or when you want to time a torpedo run ...that kind of thing) :D