I first became aware of Richard Habring a few years ago when researching IWC and read a discussion on the design of the Deep One. At the time I thought Richard was an older designer because of the references to his tourbillon and complication work at IWC. Little did I know he was one of their youngest complication designers. His early tourbillon work reminded me of Vincent Calabrese’s minimal approach. Here are his first tourbillon models #01 and #02 from the Habring web site (click on the picture to jump to a history of the Richard Habring tourbillon’s from 1989 to present):

1989 – Little Carriage Clock #01

1990- Pocket Watch with In-Line Movement #02 

A key element to Richard’s design is his ability to simplify the movement and/or complication.

Back in mid November 2004, I read the article by Marcus Hanke on Maria-Kristina and Richard Habring, “Made in Austria”. I liked his manufacturing and technical approach and the joint effort between Richard and his wife Maria-Kristina. I have pared down my collection to a few special time pieces and decided to purchase a Habring2 Time Only watch with the tourbillon upgrade. Rather than waiting for the watch to arrive then publish the birthing process, I wanted to capture the discussions we have had to date and solicit any suggestions or comments on the current approach.

Richard Habring has a good command of the English language which has made the correspondence easier for me. My second language is basic Spanish, which is not very useful dealing with most watchmakers. The last time I tried to convert from English to a second language was with Christiaan Van Der Klaaw. I was trying to verify an aspect of an Eclips I purchased and somehow ended-up being sent a catalog instead (by the way, his catalog includes a series of great photos). I was afraid that by translating to German I would end-up mis-communicating my intentions.

In the article by Marcus Hanke, I noticed that Richard Habring had an interesting watch on his work bench. It looked like the Time-Only with an enamel dial. This ended-up being an early ETA 6498 prototype with a dial he had in his shop. The case style would remain the same for the Time Only series. Richard sent me a picture:

I would like to start with the basic Time Only watch. I’m inserting one of the pictures from the Habring website (www.habring.com).

The Time Only uses a standard ETA 6498-1 calibre. The case is 42mm in diameter, sapphire crystals front and back. Richard modifies the movement around the escapement. The base plate has an opening milled out around the balance wheel for the tourbillon to be added at a later date. The buckle that wraps around the travel pouch is an extra watch strap. He also includes an extra set of seals, crown, and hands. One of the notable items with the Time Only watch is the regulation. Richard tries to reach a range from +/- 0 to +5 s/day. Richard is willing to work with his local clients to assist in maintaining a regulation that compensates for their wearing habits. For customers that live outside Austria, Richard has friends, watchmakers, who can take care of maintaining the regulation for wear, if needed. This service we can offer in the US (Manhattan) - Japan (Tokyo) and Hong Kong. Richard is also working to include Singapore.

The Time Only can be upgraded and I asked Richard about what was available. The first is the addition of a date function. I find his date feature very nicely layered. Here is his CAD design:

Another upgrade is a power reserve. This is still in the design stage but the idea is to place the indicator on the reserve side of the watch. This is a similar apporach to his tourbillon #6.

The next upgrade is with the finish. Richard is working with a specialist to include a skeleton approach to the basic ETA 6498-1. What Richard would like to offer his customers is the opportunity to gradually add skeleton upgrades. These would be modular upgrades that can be added at any time. Richard also offers various grades of finishing, depending on what the client wishes and can include custom bridge work. Here is an example of his custom bridges (based on the ETA 6498) including a traditional ¾ plate:

His last upgrade is with a tourbillon. This is what the Time Only is prepared to eventually receive. What I like about the ETA 6498 is the 14mm balance wheel which translates into a nice sized tourbillon. As a hobbyist with watch repairs, I find the 6498 at 16.5 ‘’’ a comfortable movement to work on. From the Habring website, here is a picture of the basic movement. I am comparing this to a standard 6497 calibre from ETA.

The Habring² 6498 Basic Movement

ETA 6497-2 (from the ETA Technical Communication 6497-2/6498-2)

The ETA 6497 has the seconds subdial at 9 o’clock; the 6498 has the subdial at 6 o’clock. I am using this example to highlight the regulator. Richard Habring replaces the standard regulator with a 6496 “Triovis” regulator. This will be reused on the tourbillon. The 6497/8 has a nice pocket watch proportion relating the balance wheel to the rest of the movement. The example above also provides a good comparison between the stock angular bridges from ETA and the smooth lines on the custom bridge work in the prior paragraph. Here is what Richard does to the main plate in the Time Only to prepare it for the Tourbillon (this uses the ETA Technical Communication (Standard) and modification from Richard’s drawing):

You can see the modification where Richard mills out the area behind the balance wheel. When the tourbillon is added, Richard will reverse the escapement and enclose it in a carriage for viewing from the dial side.

Escapement reversed with carriage – back side

Tourbillon from dial side – note the “Triovis" regulator retained from the Time Only movement is now on the dial side

I am taking Richard’s exploded view of his tourbillon to highlight what he modifies or creates from new.

What impressed me is how simple the flying tourbillon has been designed. 50% is reused from ETA calibres and 50% is either modified or new.

When ordering the tourbillon, Richard asks about what material I wanted to use. He has used titanium in the past, which provides for a very light durable material with a nominal temperature expansion. I prefer brass, which is gold plated, as incorporated into his 2002 Radiomir “Golden Cage”. Here is the Habring2 Time Only CAD file from Richard Habring with the addition of the tourbillon:

Habring² Time Only with Tourbillon

You can see that the addition of the minute tourbillon takes up substantial acreage on the dial. This highlights how well the 6498 escapement shows off this upgrade. Since the tourbillon Richard builds is all by hand milling equipment (no computer controlled machinery), I wanted to make sure I could view all of his work. I was also surprised to see the second subdial had been removed from his CAD file. Before addressing the task of highlighting the tourbillon, I wanted to add the subdial back to see how this would affect the dial. I asked Richard about the loss of this feature. He could accomidate keeping the subdial, if this is what I wanted. As soon as I modeled the dial with the seconds subdial, I realized this was a really bad idea. Here is a CAD model supplied from Richard Habring:

Habring² Time Only with Tourbillon

In my opinion, by keeping the seconds subdial you cross over the tourbillon and add more to the dial than is needed. Plus the minute tourbillon cage provides a full rotation every 60 seconds, the same as the subdial. This was one of those moments after I put the simple model together I scratched my head and wondered why I even thought of keeping the subdial. I expected someone to hit me in the back of the head and say “don’t do that again”.

Next I wanted to go back to the task of making sure I could see the entire carriage. After a few emails, I found out the diameter of the dial carriage opening is 15,3mm and the tourbillon cage in 14,8mm (the balance is 14mm). This was a perfect viewing fit.

The carriage was still below the dial plane, as is with most tourbillon designs. With a 2 dimensional dial, you can add a tourbillon bridge; this brings the tourbillon to the front of the dial plane. But this is a flying tourbillon, so only the incabloc is at the dial plane. If Richard is going to spend all the time necessary to get the tourbillon built and regulated, then I wanted the feature to stand out. The first suggestion from Richard was to expose the center hour wheel. This would open up more viewing area. I liked the idea, but I didn’t see this as bringing the tourbillon beyond the dial plane. The next suggestion was to use a raised dial ring and provide a 3-dimensional face. I personally like adding some depth to the dial. With the tourbillon being below the hour wheel, I have no idea how Richard can provide this additional dimension, but this was the form I wanted. This is where we left off. Richard needed to get back to his other clients and will provide some additional ideas later this year.

In addition to the tourbillon, I have asked for the power reserve to be included on the back side of the watch. With this concept the dial remains uncluttered. I could keep the watch wound and just feel the spring tension to determine if it needs to be given a few additional turns. However, the power reserve is one of those features on a mechanical watch I use and enjoy. How the final version will be executed still needs to be defined.

One item I will note about Richard is there does not appear to be any problem he cannot solve. He may not have the design today, but he will imaginer a concept and come up with a solution. He is busy these days finishing all his orders. Richard has received enough requests for his tourbillon’s that he is booked for 2005. Richard will be building a jump second watch based on the Chezard 116 movement, which has an interesting hack second system. He has provided some photos and data that I will share in a later article.