Starting 2007, all Habring² models have been based on the wheelwork of the ETA Valjoux 7750/7760 (auto/manual wind). Due to the widely-publicised withdrawal by ETA in 2011 – and to safeguard their own production – it seemed only logical to us to create an equivalent replacement under own steam. 

This task also included the escapement, balance wheel and hairspring in addition to the entire wheelwork, winding mechanism and hand adjustment mechanism. Whilst our competitors attempt to close the gap to the previous ETA prices – with the help of industrialised processes and large, generous investments in machine pools – we have struck a different path: We are making use of our small business structure and focus on adding even more manual value to our watches.

All components of the A11-family are produced with the help of skilled specialists in the DACH-region, most of them small family owned businesses. The produced lots varying between 100 and 500 parts/year with a cost structure which ranks inbetween 3 and 8 times of the prices formerly witnessed by ETA. All components of the A11 are produced under direction and following production drawings issued by Habring Uhrentechnik OG.

There is no doubt that the design of the A11 had to be close to that of the previous base to enable the inclusion of all of the existing functional modules created over the past years like dead-beat-second (2007), the unique Chrono COS (2008), the bidirectional automatic winding (2009), the iconic Foudroyante (2010) and finally the split-second-chrono aka Doppel (2012). A11 is, however, by no means a clone or copy of the Valjoux, but rather boasts a range of detailed developments that still feature the previous interfaces to the functional modules.

A full lecture on the A11 can be found here: Producing A Proprietary Watch Movement

The A11 features improvements to the wheelwork, the motion train as well as a more elaborate décor/finish. The inhouse assembled antimagnetic escapement with it’s manually counted hairspring provided as raw by Carl Haas grants high precision performance supported by the tangential screw fine adjustment and KIF shock protection pursuant to DIN and NIHS.

Thanks to the A11 all owners of Habring²-watches from the era between 2007 and 2017 can be assured that their watches will remain maintainable in the future though ETA discontinued to provide spare-parts to a wide range of brands including Habring². Due to the mentioned constructive near either the entire parts can be switched, or the respective tooling used for reproduction. Every single part necessary will make the elder calibres A07, A08 and A09 even more Habring² then before.