Völkermarkt, june 2009
The essence of 20 years tourbillon development:
The Habring² “Tourbillon 3D“ and the “Tourbillon 3D open face”
It was in September 1989 when Richard Habring - beside his wife Maria the technical
mastermind of today’s Habring² - presented his very first tourbillon watch after spending
more than 600 hours to design, develop and produce the single piece.
A tiny inline movement of about 35mm using a balance wheel of about 12mm diameter,
equipped with a traditional tourbillon carriage following the studies of Abraham Louis
Breguet who was the initial inventor of such a system, roughly more than 200 years ago.
Well done so far and a great goal to achieve but not enough to recline for Richard - as he
has not been fully satisfied with the result at this stage. Looking back it was more a kind of
spark for the things to come. Over the years Richard became, with his further studies and
designs, one of the very few hardcore specialists regarding tourbillons whether traditional,
modern, double or two-dimensional.
Richard’s groundbreaking design idea in the early 90’s - to use for the first time high
precision ball bearings instead of tiny and fragile pivots for the tourbillon carriage bearing -
opened the door for IWC’s icone from 1993 - the supercomplicated “Il Destriero Scafusia”.
Many years later Habring Uhrentechnik OG - Maria and Richard Habring’s own company
and home of Habring² - well known for it’s expertise on tourbillon designs and developments,
is one of the main consulting firms to be asked when the word “tourbillon” is raised in the
watch and clock business. What remained since early 1800 and Breguet’s era is that the
tourbillon is still recognised as the crowning achievement of watchmaking art.
By having explored dozens of different designs - exploring the pros and cons of every single
execution - one guideline was clearly obvious for Maria and Richard Habring’s actual
top-model - the Tourbillon 3D: Extreme reliability paired with classical attractiveness. Given
that all Habring²-models are first of all reliable watches for daily wearing, even the tourbillon
had to follow this guideline.
The 36,6mm diameter movement contains a huge 15mm diameter tourbillon carriage hosting
the traditional balance wheel with weight screws of 13mm diameter with it’s Incabloc shock
absorbers. While the flying tourbillon with it’s ball bearing is solidly attached to the tourbillons
bridge, this tourbillon bridge itself overtakes with it’s nicely skeletonized form the job of a an
shock absorber, here for the entire tourbillon carriage. The tourbillon carriage itself - made of
fully non-magnetic material - is with it’s size probably one of the biggest in a wristwatch ever.
The modern bridge movement is finished according customers demands, either with
classical polished angles and circular ribbings or the so called “Carinthian” hand engravings.
An art which has in the mostsouthern austrian province Carinthia - where Habring
Uhrentechnik and Habring² are located - more than 400 years of history.
The Habring² Tourbillon 3D is equipped with a eponymous 3-dimensional dial containing two
layers with a distance of almost 2mm, which gives a maximum view of it’s heart - the
tourbillon - and to spotlight parts of the hand’s gears. Furthermore for the “tourbillon 3D open
face” the lower level of the dial is left out and replaced by the movements front beauty
showing equivalent finishing work to that on the back - and spotlighting even more parts of
the setting mechanism. Various colour combinations - either for the two-layer dial or the
single hour indicating dial ring are available on request.
The entire beauty is finally covered with a higly domed double side antireflective coated
sapphire crystal - cut out and ground of a solid sapphire block.
Some technical specifications of the HABRING2 ”Tourbillon 3D” include:
- 50 Meter water resistant case with 42mm diameter and a height of 12,5mm,
consisting of three parts, solid domed and double side antireflective coated sapphire
crystal.
- exclusive hand wound “manufacture” tourbillon movement with 36,6mm diameter and
a total height of 6,5mm, 17 jewels, power reserve of approx. 44 hours, adjusted to
chronometer specifications.
- Individual executions according to customers wishes
Beside all those technical issues, the Habring² Tourbillon 3D with it’s reasonable
recommended retail price of Euro 17.000,-- in stainless steel and Euro 27.000,-- in 18kt pink
or white gold is probably one of the most attractive deals in the tourbillon watch history.
Every Habring2 comes with a booklet with easy to understand use instructions and a
three-year warranty.
For additional information please call +43-4232-51300 or see our homepage
www.habring.com
The tourbillons of pre-Habring² era can be found under www.tourbillon.org
HABRING
Uhrentechnik
Hauptplatz 16
9100 Völkermarkt
AUSTRIA
www.habring.com
