For those in the know, Habring² is one of the more interesting watchmaking outfits of the last decade. Husband and wife duo Richard and Maria Habring create relatively under-the-radar watches in Austria, with interesting complications like split-seconds chronographs and jumping seconds mechanisms. This is high taste level stuff. The couple’s latest creation, the Erwin, has an in-house movement and a jumping seconds mechanism, a first for the brand, and, just a few months after the watch’s release, U.S. distributor Martin Pulli gives us a great new aesthetic option with the Erwin Scientific Dial.
Back in October, Habring² introduced the Erwin as a sort of hybrid of two previous creations, the in-house Felix and the earlier ebauché-based jumping seconds models. The Erwin starts with the same in-house base caliber as the time-only Felix but with the addition of Habring²’s own jumping seconds mechanism. The resulting movement is the A11S and the watch, at first glance, looks like an extremely simple three-hander with nothing too exciting going on. And that’s certainly not a bad thing. I’ve long been a fan of Richard and Maria Habring’s restrained aesthetic and quietly awesome watchmaking.
The Erwin starts with a 38.5mm stainless steel case that’s very slim at just 9mm top to bottom. Everyone has their own perfect size, but for me 38.5mm is spot on. It’s not quite small enough to feel vintage, but is restrained enough to sit nicely on my small wrist. The flat, polished bezel frames the dial nicely, but is slim enough so as not to distract from the main event. The crown is easy to operate – important, since this is a manually-wound watch – and the domed sapphire crystal adds an extra touch of three-dimensionality.
With this edition though, it’s all about that dial. The two-tone silver dial has a straight-grained center section and a circular-grained outer edge, so, despite the color not being different, you get two totally different effects. The styling is sort of a modified sector dial, with the sector being rendered in black, along with the chapter ring at the outer edge. Arabic numerals in bright red sit between the two at the five minute increments, adding a little levity. Finally, there are the bright blue numbers marking the hours at the poles and matching blued steel hands. In particular, the curvature of the jumping seconds hand adds a lot of elegance to the overall look. It’s those tiny details that really matter on a watch like this and you get a lot of attention to detail for the $ 5,900 asking price.
Turning the watch over, you get another interesting view in the A11S caliber. This is a fully in-house movement by Habring², which used exclusively ebauché movements with in-house complication modules before releasing the Felix (and thus the A11B caliber) in 2014. It’s a hand-wound movement with an a-magnetic escapement beating away at 4 Hz and a 48-hour power reserve. The finishing is nice, including bevels on the edges, perlage on the mainplate, and nice brushing and engraving throughout. But what really makes this movement special is the architecture. Mounted on the three-spoked bridge at the center is the jumping seconds mechanism, which you really get to see doing its thing. I really appreciate that the movement so thoughtfully displays its function through the sapphire caseback instead of just showing a more generic view.
This new Erwin has a brother as well – the Felix Scientific Dial. While the Erwin comes with center seconds, the Felix has a small seconds display positioned at nine o’clock. Here we get the same color scheme, same dial finishing, and same hands, just with an oversized sub-seconds register sitting on the left side of the dial. Also, remember, this one does not have jumping seconds, just a normal running seconds mechanism. It does also have an open sapphire caseback, showing the A11B movement, Habring²’s first in-house caliber. Personally, I like sector dials with less clutter and the jumping seconds complication makes a ton of sense here, but the Felix is still a nice alternative and a little less expensive at $ 4,900.
Alright, there’s one other watch I have to bring up here. And that’s the Habring² x TimeZone Erwin Jumping Seconds, ref. TZ21. This watch is the forum’s second collaboration with Habring² (the previous being a crown-activated chronograph) and it’s also in the style of a vintage sector dial. However, while the so-called Scientific Dial models are totally new designs inspired by older watches, the TimeZone watch is directly inspired by a particular Patek Philippe ref. 96 Calatrava. While there are a lot of similarities between these two sector dial Erwins, I think most people will have a clear favorite between the two and the watches won’t end up competing with one another in any real way. Let us know which you like better down in the comments.
Maybe it’s a part of the bigger trend toward vintage design in modern watches that we’ve seen chugging along for years now, or maybe it’s its own little micro-trend, but whatever the reason, sector dials are hot right now. Everyone from Laurent Ferrier to Jaeger-LeCoultre is onboard, and I’m certainly not arguing with them. The Erwin Scientific Dial is a fantastic watch with an interesting complication, a unique-looking movement, and great styling, all at a reasonable price. There’s just not much to argue with here at all.
The Habring² Erwin and Felix Scientific Dial watches are not limited editions but are limited production coordinated by U.S. distributor Martin Pulli. They retail for $ 5,900 and $ 4,900, respectively. For more, visit Habring² online.
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