Habring2

Habring2 is a very small independent Austrian watchmaking manufacture, founded in 2004 in Völkermarkt, in the region of Carinthia, by watchmaking couple Maria Kristina Habring and Richard Habring (the "2" symbol in the name refers precisely to the duo). Richard Habring had trained at major Swiss manufactures — including IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre and A. Lange & Söhne — and in the 1990s, while working for IWC, he developed a rattrapante (split-seconds) chronograph mechanism (the famous "Doppelchronograph") based on a modified version of the Valjoux 7750 caliber, designed to make this complication more accessible than traditional solutions.

After leaving IWC, and following a period of independent activity making complicated pieces on commission (including tourbillons and chronographs), Richard and Maria Kristina Habring founded the manufacture that bears their name, choosing Austria — outside the circuits and policies of the Swiss watch industry — as their production base. The brand specialized from the very start in classic complications, particularly chronographs and split-seconds (rattrapante) chronographs, initially working on modified Valjoux and ETA mechanical bases assembled by hand by a very small team.

Over the years Habring2 has progressively developed movements that are increasingly independent of Swiss bases, culminating in the in-house A11 caliber family, presented starting in 2014: described as among the first modern mechanical movements developed and produced entirely in Austria, with components sourced from Austrian, German and Swiss suppliers. Production remains artisanal and on a very small scale, historically on the order of a few dozen pieces a year for the most exclusive versions, up to a few hundred for the most widely produced catalog references.