So, the other day, I got into this whole thing with a tachymeter. Never even heard of it before, to be honest. It’s this scale thing on some watches, usually around the edge, you know? Turns out, it’s for measuring speed or something. I mean, who knew, right?

First off, I had to figure out what this tachymeter thing even was. I found out it’s like a calculator on your wrist, but for speed. It’s printed on the bezel of the watch – that’s the ring around the face of the watch. You use it with the second hand to figure out how fast you’re going over a certain distance.
Then, I started playing around with it. I mean, I had to start the chronograph, that’s the stopwatch function, at the beginning of whatever distance I was measuring. Then, stop it when I got to the end. The number the second hand points to on the tachymeter scale? That’s supposed to be your speed. Sounds simple, but it took me a while to get the hang of it.
Next up, I tried to find a real-life use for this. I mean, it’s not like I’m a race car driver or anything. But then I realized I could use it to measure my walking speed. So, I marked out a kilometer in my neighborhood, started the chronograph when I started walking, and stopped it when I finished. I did this a few times, just to make sure I was doing it right.
- Start the chronograph at the beginning of the distance.
- Stop it at the end.
- Read the speed off the tachymeter scale.
To check if I was getting it right, I did some digging and found a formula: T=3600/t. T is what the tachymeter says, and t is the time in seconds. So, I did the math for my walks, and it seemed to match up pretty well. It was actually kind of cool to see it all work out.
The formula was something like T=3600/t. Not sure I totally get the math, but basically, you divide 3600 by the number of seconds it took you to cover the distance. That gives you the speed. I checked my watch readings against this formula a few times, and it seemed pretty spot on. I guess I was doing something right!

I ended up spending a whole afternoon on this. It’s not every day you learn something new about a watch, right? Plus, it was kind of fun to figure out. It felt like being a kid with a new toy, except this toy helps you measure speed. I still don’t know when I’ll use it again, but hey, at least I know how it works now.
So yeah, that was my adventure with the tachymeter. I went from not knowing what it was to using it to measure my walking speed and actually understanding the whole process. Not bad for a regular day, huh?
Conclusion
In the end, I didn’t just learn about a watch feature. I think I got a bit more curious about everyday stuff that I usually take for granted. It’s funny how a little thing like a tachymeter can open up a whole new way of looking at the world. Maybe I’ll start noticing more of these little details around me. Who knows what else I might learn?