Habring

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Basel 2009 Day 4- HABRING²

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My meeting with Maria and Richard Habring took place, like many industry professionals, in the lobby of the Ramada Hotel. Comfortable and well lit, we had 2 meetings, the first to discuss our business proposition, and the second to look at all the watches they had brought.

I knew from our first meeting 3 years ago that these were good people, who shared similar ideas about the watch world we both exist in. The watches that Maria and Richard create in the small town of Völkermarkt near Klagenfurt, Austria are well designed, very good value and will stand the test of time. They are the world's smallest manufactory of mechanical watches, a position they relish. It allows them to work with clients to develop custom pieces and keeps the exclusivity of a HABRING². Annually only a maximum of 50 timepieces will leave their atelier; very high QC being important, a bigger number of watches would naturally make that task difficult to impossible! Richard's former positions within several of the large watch companies, provided him with the background for his creative watchmaking to flourish. He loves a challenge, so when IWC asked him to develop and rugged and dependable split second chronograph, his canvas was the venerable Valjoux 7750. His adaptation is found in the now famous Dopple Chronograph & Portuguese Split-Second Chronograph. Tourbillons being his area of expertise, when IWC needed to complete their grand complication, the Il Destriero Scafusia, with a tourbillon escapement, Richard was given the task.

So Richard's first tourbillon for HABRING², he chose a solid base calibe, the ETA 6498, and went to work on this. Designed with Richard's years of experience, he wanted a rugged calibre that would stand the test of time, and will last many years, with regular servicing of course! One of his initial hand made Tourbillons has been running well for over 4 years, having been worn and tested by Dave B, the owner who had his Time Only HABRING² converted to a Tourbillon. The watch pictured below here, is one of the serially produced HABRING² Tourbillon pieces. I use the word serially almost tongue in cheek, as they are extremely limited in production. Richard is now happy with the design, and therefore has had the cages made for him to his exacting design specifications, in order to reduce the costs associated with hand making them! The two dimensional dial was a design contribution from Dave. I think it shows the watch off very well. A large balance wheel inside the cage is quite mesmerizing to watch.

Here is the HABRING² Tourbillon with silver dial with rose gold appliques:

Here the back of the Tourbillon in the most simple of finishes. Additional hand engraving is an option, for other finishes, just ask and if it is possible Richard & Maria will endeavor to create it!

So naturally, the HABRING² Tourbillon is the main stay of the complicated watch collection. This year several variations of the existing Automatic with Jumping seconds were shown to me, having had additional complications added. A quite good looking Triple Date Moonphase with several dial options. I received a black dial version at the end of last year, but was waiting to see the rose gold applique on silvered dial. This was a great watch. There is now a GMT version on the Jumping seconds sporting a 24hr chapter and hand. Also a WorldTime Jumping Second Automatic.

Here is the Triple Date Moonphase:

And here is the WorldTime Automatic Jumping Seconds, with Luminous Rhodiated Hands and applique markers:

The other much talked about piece is the COS, short for Crown Operated System, a chronograph that has only the standard crown. The chronograph functions of start, stop and reset are actuated by twisting the crown in one direction to start, twist again to stop and then the opposite way to reset the chrono hands to zero. The makes for a very clean looking watch that has I think a unique complication. The base canvas with which Richard works his magic is the Valgranges or AO7 calibre from ETA, that is essentially a larger diameter 7750. Similarly the AO6 movt. can be ordered, here essentially the automatic 7750 without the chronograph parts, this is what powers the HABRING² Automatic watches, with the addition of Richard's Jumping Seconds complication.

The COS is steel with blued appliques and a white lacquer dial:

And here with the grey dial in the stainless steel case:

This piece pictured above is polished steel, last year it was released in brushed Ti as a manual version also. A standard Automatic chrono is available with quite a wide variety of dial options.

This one has the blued hands and appliques on a cream dial:

We rounded off our meeting in good spirits, knowing our relationship was stronger than ever, and having a clear idea of how to proceed going forward. I'm always reminded when spending time with Maria & Richard, how high the value proposition is for the collector looking to get a well designed and created watch, by one of the great talents in Independent Watchmaking. Personal service is also an area they excel in, that one off design you've been thinking of having commissioned, can almost certainly be created with their expertise and help!