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s.j. lim
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Impression of my 2nd Habring2 watch

I bought my 2^nd Habring² watch in Singapore on 8^th Oct 2009. It is a Worldtimer with the special jumping second. My 1^st Habring² watch was bought in 2006, a SHH model released in Singapore Sincere H.H.

And the unique features of this particular Worldtimer watch are:

a)   the customized city names and

b)   printing on the inner backcase crystal.

And it is a joy to own this exclusive watch by Richard Habring.

I am very happy to own it because it relates me to the place called “Kulim” where I grew up. The watch has “Kulim” printed in red as 1 of the 24 city names. It also has the house number “05” as the engraved watch serial number “05-2009”. It also relates me to the 8 wonderful months I spent in Austria, with the backcase printing capturing the time period “May 05 to Jan 06” and location “Villach, Austria”.

As an independent watchmaker, I am happy to say Richard has been very gracious and meticulous in the process of customizing the design. As reported by others earlier, he always makes sure the design meets customer requirement by sending the draft first. And his interaction with customer makes one feel honored. And this was all done with no pretentious feeling. And this feeling relives in my mind as I come to know the Austrian when I stayed there from May 05 to Jan 06.

Technically, the watch has the pleasing dial design of the Habring² individualistic rail track designed with 12 triangular markers. The white enamel dial shows the 10 luminous hour markers, Harbing² logo and the big date window. The centre silvered sun-ray rotating disc is printed with 24 city names. Although the disc colour somewhat merges with the hands colour, it look harmonious with the rest of dial design. I did not like the unequal city name length as in the original design. Richard accommodated my equal length design, of which I changed 12 city names to suit my need. I have travelled and lived in these 7 cities, of which Villach (small city, near Richard’s watch atelier in Austria, Frisco (San Francisco) and Phoenix were outstanding.

I read about mechanical watch with jumping second in magazine (ref World Wrist Watch Magazine No. 22, dated May 2003) that talked about vintage pocket watches sold to China in 19^th century. These watches had “Chinese Duplex” escapement mechanism. Examples were 1860-1880 made by LeRoy & Cie. Another example of a 1850 pocket watch with “Crab tooth Chinese Duplex” jumping second

More recent examples are:

a) Rolex Tru-beat in 1955 

b) Chronoswiss Sauterelle in 2009 

**OUTSIDE LINKS DELETED PER FORUM RULES****

Much has been written about Habring² jumping second design. Habring²’s Worldtimer with jumping second design was modified from the ETA A07/171 movement. He called it A07W. It works flawlessly. I look forward to long term reliability too. I don’t expect problem, since this dead-beat jumping centre second design was released by Richard since Basel 2007.

Watch accuracy monitored for 3 days lost total of ONE second; which work out to be average minus 0.33 sec/day. Watch had wrist time of about 12 hours/day, while other time, it just stay flat on its back. The relative time check was based on Longines VHP quartz watch with caliber L546 rated at +/-10 seconds/YEAR.

Watch is 42mm diameter, 15mm thick and 105g weight.

Attached photographs show part of the sequence of development of this unique watch:  

a)   the original Habring² Worldtimer design

b)   the CAD design of personalized city names

c)    the disc printed with personalized city names

d)   the frontside of the watch built, 1520h Austria time

e)   the backcase of the watch

Thank you, Richard.

Regards,

S. J. Lim

Kulim/Penang, Malaysia.

Note: Kulim is the town where Infineon has a silicon wafer fabrication factory that manufactures automotive electronics used in both premium and regular German and Japanese cars.