ISA Caliber 8172/220

The ISA caliber 8172/220 (aka 8712A) is a quartz chronograph watch movement. On their site, ISA calls the caliber 8172 a “Special Chrono”.

Resetting the Chronograph Hand to Zero:

After a battery change, it is common for a quartz chronograph hand to be off center. If this happens to your watch, try the following instructions. Please comment below if it works for you.

1. Pull the crown out one click to position II (date setting position)
2. Press pusher A (the top pusher) to advance the chronograph second hand forward. Holding this button in will advance the hand faster.
3. Press pusher B (the bottom pusher) to advance the chronograph minute hand forward. Holding this button in will advance the hand faster.
4. Push the crown back in.

Replacement Price:

At the time of this post, this movement was found at replacement prices of around $34.95 USD.

Caliber Commentary:

From a review by Jeff_C:

The watch comes equipped with a Swiss quartz ISA 8172-220 chronograph movement. The center second hand is used with the chronograph function and remains stationed at 12:00 when not in the chronograph mode. The sub dial at 1:00 displays the seconds. The sub dial at 6:00 has a nice day pointer complication that changes days at midnight and the dial at 10:00 is used to display minutes when in the chronograph mode. The watch has a 30 minute chronograph function. One feature I discovered that I enjoy is the resetting of the main second hand. Unlike many other movements that “snap” the chronograph second counter back in place, the ISA 8172 allows the second hand to “slowly” reset to its stationary position.

From a post by Penguin Pete:

ISA initially made mostly bottom end quartz modules; read no jewels and cost $1.00 to replace. From what I’ve read; around 2006; they reorganized; stopped mass producing cheap quartz modules and began making higher end chrono and multi function modules. The few reviews I’ve seen all suggest these newer modules with chronograph complications are pretty good.

Another from donciccio:

The ISA movement in question is a decent movement. Date @ 4 , day @ 6, 30 min chrono @ 10 , 3 jewels. I’m not a big fan of ISA per say , but as far as this one goes its not bad. Wholesale price on a replacement is about $35-$40.

Additional Images:

This photo is the same movement above but with the plastic movement holder. This is also what holds the chronograph pushers.

Additional Resources:

• Caliber 8172 Instruction manual from ISA
• Caliber 8172 Datasheet from ISA

UPDATE – 10/2016: ISASWISS has announced that they are closing their business and will no longer be producing or supporting ISA movements.