After reading this post, I have a feeling you will too – for one of the watches produced by Richard and Maria Kristina Habring of, fittingly enough, Habring. Mr. Habring definitely has the chops, starting out at IWC, and working his way along a path that brought him to producing his own pieces.
Habring offers a handful of models, but each is limited to a maximum of twelve pieces per year. So, we start off with a sort of limited exlclusivity. Then, when you realize that each watch truly is custom built (you make a variety of choices, including the movement, case, hands, complications, etc), you’ve got a watch that, for all intents and purposes, is a one-of a-kind.
Today, I want to narrow our focus to one specific model, the Jumping Second. A jumping second hand is more closely associated with quartz watches – but the mechanical version has been around since the 18th Century. As with all of Habring’s watches, these are assembled by hand using a mixture of in-house and Swiss parts.
Where this company really shines is how customer-oriented the process is. Once you’ve contacted them, the watch truly is built for you, and you alone. For example, if you were to chose this Jumping Second model, you’d have a choice of the following:
- Case: 42mm (stainless steel, titanium, or gold) or 36mm (stainless steel only)
- Dial: Silver, black, great or white, with with rhodiated, rose gold, or blue appliques
- Movement: choice of automatic or manual wind
- Additional complications you can choose from: date, power reserve display, 2nd time zone or world time display, full calendar display, tourbillon
You might be thinking to yourself that this level of customization is all fine and dandy, but what about when it comes time to service the watch? Fear not – you don’t necessarily have to send it back to Austria. Each watch ships with a kit of spare parts; plus, given the other “standard” pieces used in the manufacture, you should be able to find a good watch shop that can service the piece for you.
In the end, this seems like a very interesting avenue to go down if you’re in the market for a custom watch built specifically to your desires. The one thing I cannot comment on is price. They don’t list pricing on their site, and I imagine a lot of it will be impacted by the choices you’d make. If you’re interested, you can get a PDF of their full catalog, which also includes information on the company their philosophy, here.
