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Last week, Hanhart invited 60 guests to their workshop in Gütenbach, located in the Black Forest region of Germany. The schedule for the day was packed, beginning with a factory tour, an 8 kilometers long Black Forest hike, a Hanhart Museum tour, and finally the unveiling of two new 415 ES chronographs.
Felix Wallner and Simon Hall, co-managing directors of Hanhart, guided us through the factory and museum tour. The Gütenbach workshop opened in 1934 as the second production facility for Hanhart. It is now their only manufacturing location. It is impressive that this workshop has been in continuous production since 1934. There is a sense of authenticity, and you can almost taste the oil accumulated over eight decades.
Simon took us to the first floor where the raw parts are made. Hanhart is in a unique position as a watch company since they manufacture mechanical and quartz stopwatches along with wrist watches. The machines are from the 1960s, but according to Simon, they outperform the modern machines in terms of repairs and total cost of ownership. These machines are used for making pinions, wheels, mainplates, and more. Hanhart manufactures 90% of the parts for their mechanical stop watches in this workshop.
Hanhart in the past manufactured more stopwatches than wrist watches. In 2007, they made 20,000 stop watches, but this number decreased significantly as the demand cooled. Simon says that demand is again picking up with annual production of approximately 5,000 stopwatches. The increase in demand is attributed to Hanhart being an OEM supplier of stopwatches to two major watch companies, which due to an NDA Simon couldn’t specifically reference.
Hanhart also indirectly supplies stop watches to the U.S. military via an intermediary watch company. Hanhart is the only manufacturer of stopwatches in the West, with the other two major manufacturers located in Russia and China.
On the second floor is the finishing of parts and assembling of stopwatches. There is only one watchmaker that is responsible for final assembly of the stopwatches. In fact, Simon was a watchmaker on this very floor in the early 2000s, before he took on the responsibility of becoming a co-director. Other employees on this floor are responsible for finishing and testing the raw parts.
Hanhart has a modern CNC milling machine on this floor that is used for making parts for stopwatches and wrist watches. The company is in the early days of making their own dials. Another interesting area on this floor is for the cam modification of Sellita SW500 chronograph movements for Monopusher models. It is also the reason Monopusher models are 100 Euros more expensive than the traditional two pusher chronographs.
On the third floor is the compact watch assembly and repair department, and adjacent to it is the museum. Hanhart has an annual output of between 2,500 to 3,000 watches. Most of the parts are procured from suppliers. The 316L steel cases are from the Koch factory in Pforzheim, movements are from Sellita (including its AMT division for column-wheel flyback chronographs), and dials are supplied from Germany and Switzerland.
Hanhart currently has two master watchmakers and are actively looking to hire a third. They have an advantage in recruiting from two nearby watchmaking schools. Each watchmaker rotates between assembly and service to keep work from getting monotonous, and to gain experience from servicing older watches. When the watchmakers receive the movements, they are regulated to meet Hanhart’s set specifications for rate accuracy of 0 to +8 seconds per day on average over 6 positions. Hanhart does not allow a minus value in the main positions.
I asked about the servicing of vintage Hanhart watches. Only watches from the 1990s until present time are serviced. Hanhart does not have parts for the vintage watches. Apparently, all the parts were acquired by a single individual, who does not wish to sell them to Hanhart. However, there are specialized vintage watch repair shops throughout the world that are capable of making repairs.
The museum is an interesting visit, and I would recommend it. This is my second visit to the museum, and I still find it fascinating to see so many military watches. Hanhart also showcases all the important stopwatches used in various sporting events. Equally important on display are the Fliegerchronograph watches and their legendary movements. In 1938, Hanhart made the caliber 40 monopusher movement, and in 1939, the company introduced caliber 41, automatic bi-compax chronograph with a flyback function. In the same year Hanhart made the popular “Tachy Tele” pilot’s chronograph. For me, the sleeper vintage piece is the San Souci manual winding alarm watch, where the rotating bezel is used to set the alarm time.
We had the pleasure of hearing from Manfred Schwer, who is retired from Hanhart after working there for 40 years. He is now the curator for the museum. He was also responsible for producing the first replica of the Hanhart Fliegerchronograph in 1997, which sold well for the company and inspired them to begin making chronographs again.
After our tour, we welcomed an eight-kilometer casual hike in the serene Black Forest setting with cows grazing in the open pastures. It brought back fond memories from the pre-pandemic Stowa Black Forest hikes, an annual tradition.
The tours and hike lead up to the main event – unveiling of two new 415 ES chronographs. I am already a fan of 417 ES 1954 Flyback Panda, so I was looking forward to the 415 ES Panda and Reverse Panda chronographs. Both the chronographs retain the technical features and case size of the recent 415 ES Iconic & Pure models. However, a few features are different – and for the better.
The 415 ES Iconic & Pure dials with the tachymeter were too busy in opinion. The new Panda and Reverse Panda layouts are simple and clean like the 417 ES. Out of the two dials, the Reverse Panda dial appeared more legible to my eyes when I had them on the wrist. But someone next to me immediately commented that the coolness factor of the Panda is much higher. I think Hanhart’s bright white dials are less legible compared to their “antique white” dials. However, my ideal 415 ES dial would be the simple 417 ES in matte black – high legibility day and night.
The bi-directional steel bezel with ceramic inlay remains the same as previous 415 ES models. They each have 100 meters of water resistance, which is very good for a Pilot’s chronograph. Both models come in a 39mm antimagnetic case rated for 16000 A/m with a closed caseback. The chronographs are powered by the Sellita SW510 M caliber, which is a bi-compax, no-date, manual-winding movement. As mentioned earlier, Hanhart regulates all movements to 0 to +8 seconds per day, as an average across six positions. The power reserve is 58 hours.
Besides the watches, the big news that Felix and Simon announced was a new steel bracelet with micro adjustment capability. All the 415 ES watches at the presentation were on bracelets for us to experience this feature. By pressing a button on the clasp, you can adjust the length by up to 10 mm. Just like the dial, the clasp has Hanhart’s 1960s wing logo. I found the bracelet to be very comfortable, but this is only my first impression. I would need to spend more time with it to give an exact opinion.
The day ended with Felix and Simon inviting two YouTube influencers to give their impressions of Hanhart and take some questions. I will be very honest; I did not recognize them. I must spend more time on YouTube, as I tend to be a bookworm. But the audience enjoyed their responses which left everyone with a positive impression of Hanhart. One question asked of them that I found interesting was about how to make stopwatches trendy again. The influencers gave an honest response that they are not too sure, and it may not be possible to make stopwatches trendy for younger demographics.
The retail price on these new references is 2,690 Euros on a bracelet. More information about the new 415 ES chronographs can be found on the Hanhart website here.
