Independents

ztirual
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Habring2: His & Hers

Hello,

I thought I'd show you pictures and tell you a little about 2 watches recently acquired from Habring2.

The 2 watches are the result of a long and fantastic dialogue with Maria & Richard. I wanted a watch from Habring2 but soon realised the possibility of something in my eyes even more interesting: the making of 2 watches. One for myself and one for my wife. The project became commonly referred to as 'His & Hers' when communicating with the Habrings. Whilst I was more than happy with Habring’s then standard 42mm diameter case, my wife would never contemplate nor like wearing a watch of such dimensions. The project therefore almost aborted from the outset if it wasn't for Maria's and Richard's acceptance a couple of months later to consider making a smaller, 36mm diameter case.  I must add that I believe that Richard and Maria had the idea of producing a smaller cased watch before embarking on our project, but somehow it never materialised. I am of course truly grateful of them for taking this bold decision and hope that they will be rewarded for that in the future. Neither were we the first to receive a 36mm watch. I understand that a couple of costumers in the Far East got theirs delivered before ours. I wanted the 2 watches, his and hers, to be as identical as possible. It might seem a little bit corny but I liked the idea of each of us wearing a purpose made watch that were nearly identical- whilst wearing mine I would come naturally to think of hers and of her and hoped wishfully for the reverse also to be true...  Somehow it made even more sense for the watches to be signed Habring2, as manufactured by the only watch making couple I know of.  It turned out that I became deeply fascinated by the Habrings Foudroyante with dead second, an automatic model with complications that wasn't available in 36mm. The 36mmm line, starts with a very fine manual 'Time only'. These were two watches that on paper have very little in common. I would require something special from Habring2 to give them a family resemblance.

The wait for the making of the watches was long but delicious. Every so often I would get a line written from Maria informing me of the advance in the slow process of having a new type of watch made and tested. New type of case, new line of movement in Habring2 series of movements, new size of dial, hands, crystals, etc... The first line of Foudroyante, a model made in 2010 was sold out, mine is one of the second generation made in 2011.

Back in November last year, that is nearly 8 months after my initial contact with the Habrings, I presented my wife with mock-ups of the watches on order. It was a fairly nervous occasion, as you can imagine, and the present was received with mixed feelings at the beginning. When she realised that there was no way back (I cannot recall if a deposit had already been paid) she warmed up to the idea and turned her attention to the project. Two days later she started making sketches of how she meant the watches should look like and I realised that I had to give her full licence to do what she wanted, if the watches were to mean for her as much as they did for me. The result was a total re-design of the dial, which became much streamlined. A couple of exchanges of e-mails with Maria and Richard and the final design of the watch was set. This back and forth between us and the Habrings, was very important in the case of our watches. At some stage I even wondered whether they would accept some of the radical suggestions that we were making. I realise now that whilst they were more than happy letting us come with new ideas, they were always in control of the whole process, making clear what was and wasn't possible and using their skilful eye to perfect and tweak what we had drawn into an harmonious whole.

Here are the pictures. I hope you will enjoy them.

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