I used my fly-back function today

Who has ever found a useful use for the fly-back function? It is a nice, toy-like feature to show to others, but I hardly could explain why it is there. Until today.

I decided to measure the time it took to ride on my bike from home to work. A bit futile, I measured it several times already, I know it is between 9 and 10 minutes, that would not change. But about halfway, just when I had to cross a bridge over water, the bridge was shut down for normal traffic to let a boat pass. Of course my time measurement was meaningless now, but I wanted to know how long it would take before I could go on. So I pushed the bottom button without looking at the watch at all. The moment I could continue my short trip I stopped the chrono, to be inspected when I sat behind my desk at the office. I know you are curious, it took the bridge 2 minutes and 21 seconds to be ready for normal traffic again.

Have you ever used the fly-back function for something remotely useful?

Kind regards,
Paul

The only occasion so far when I missed a flyback (I have Valjoux 7750 and LWO 5100 chronos and used to have an El Primero, neither with flyback) was when my wife had the pains just before our children were due to be born and I was right beside her and wanted to measure the time between each pain. I'll have the IWC manufacture chronograph as soon as it comes with a day-date (or simple full calendar without moon-phase) feature in a steel Aquatimer case, possibly with Silicone escapement parts... Hope never dies...

Sometimes while walking around the track I use it to time individual laps while keeping track of the overall time walked.
But no, generally, the el cheapo Casio or Timex is better for that stuff.

You don't generally wear a cheapó when you'll just about to have a new child, do you? :) IWC usually does the job, back in 2000 and 2002 this was my Fliegerchrono 3706 from 1998 (I still have this classic watch...).

@Roberto,

Since my kids are grown men I doubt I will be timing any contractions anytime soon. LOL! And I leave my good watches at home when I jog or play tennis.
I doubt many collectors buy a Doppel for the timing functions. And the last thing I want to do is run into a chain link fence with my Carlson or DFB while chasing a tennis ball.

Egg boiling. One soft, one slightly firmer. Success is only guaranteed with an IWC doppel. If you are boiling four eggs, you will need at least two IWC doppels. I am sure there are other uses for the function but they will not be as important as perfectly boiled eggs.

well put Rave :)

I often give speeches of a specified duration at meetings (the Chinese system) and use the chrono function on my Fliegerchrono 3706 (2003) to time the length of my speech during preparation.

And the results are much better if the egg boiling times are measured with a platinum case IWC doppel. :-)