Hanhart

The Hanhart GmbH & Co. KG is a German -Swiss watch manufacturer, whose roots go back to the year 1882. The current headquarters is located in Guetenbach in the Black Forest. The manufacturer is known for its mechanical watches, including stopwatches and wrist chronographs.

Business

Hanhart is specialized in the manufacture of stopwatches and high quality chronographs. 1882 founded the Swiss Johann Adolf Hanhart in Diessenhofen, Canton Thurgau, his watch manufacturer and they shifted after 20 years due to lack of watchmakers across the border into the stronghold of watchmaking Schwenningen in the Black Forest. His youngest son, William Julius Hanhart ( born October 31, 1902 - † 22 October 1986) occurs in 1920 with 18 years in the operation of a. 1924 brought William Julius Hanhart the world's first affordable stopwatch on the market, which should provide the expensive Swiss brands Paroli. The success of this clock was the basis for the rise of the company. From 1926 the production range to include wrist and pocket watches has been expanded.

In 1932, Johann Adolf Hanhart died. The realignment of the company in the same year, in the center of which was the object of the retail business, is for the company to success. Employees Hanhart at this time 30 people, there were already 1939 200 1934 originated as an extension of the still existing operation in quality stream in the Black Forest. 1938 developed the Hanhart chronograph caliber 40 monopusher Its life-like replica is now known as Pioneer Mk I among watch lovers popular. Presented in 1939 Tachy Tele were issued to the navy but especially in the Luftwaffe and, due to their reliability and precision during the Second World War, in addition to the manufacturer Tutima watches also with the professional pilots very popular. In addition to these pilot's chronographs of the two- handle model caliber 41 was started in 1940 with the production. Pilot watches became the then principal product of the manufacturer who produced, among other things Pocket chronograph for naval artillery. At that time the company produced, among others, eight different stopwatches. With the so-called Super Quick Schwinger measurement of 1/100 seconds with a mechanical stopwatch was possible. But the watch production had to be restricted to war in favor of the production time fuses for torpedoes.

• Military product line until 1945

A restored original produced from 1939 Tachy Tele

After dismantling began in 1948 again the production of pilot watches. Willy Hanhart, who had gone to Switzerland during the denazification in Germany, returned to the newly established Baden- Württemberg. At the same time, a chronograph was specially developed for doctors and officers. Hanhart was initially employed with slight changes for the re-established German Luftwaffe for the French, in 1955. The German Navy was supplied with precision blades. Hanhart was at that time the only watches supplier of young Bundeswehr. At the same time, the division stopwatches developed in the 1950s, the market leader in Europe and the precision watches sale could be extended to other Western European air forces. The production of the pilot watch and the chronograph for staff officers and doctors of the Bundeswehr took place until 1962. The end of military production line from for Hanhart watch business a little later follows. The further expansion of the stop watch collection continued with the partial withdrawal of the Armed Forces jobs in the 1960s. As early as 1962, Hanhart was the market leader for mechanical stopwatches.

• Mechanical Stopwatches

From the 70s displaced electronic timepiece the mechanical movements. The wider field of work was quartz watches and alarm clocks. As in the 1980s, Japan flooded the market with cheap goods, fell quality products from a Western production in the background. Despite these difficult conditions Hanhart won the 1985 iF Design Award, an award for Good Industrial Design. But business continued to decline. 1992 had to be sold the family business.

Klaus Eble, the son of Willy Hanhart is to steer the brand with a consistent policy from the crisis and to focus on the core business, the production of high quality watches, succeeded. With a new edition of the Technical- collector circles still popular bracelet Pilot watch from 1939 started in 1997. In addition, Hanhart replicas offers its mono-pusher chronograph. The fabricated according to the old models watches feature a rotating bezel. The pushers have to prevent a different distance from the crown and prevent accidental reset, the trigger is red. Also in 1997, the management and production in Guetenbach was merged.

Today Hanhart one of the last watch manufacturers, which produces high-quality stopwatches. Every year, around 150,000 and 25,000 electronic mechanical stopwatches the studios in quality stream. The clocks are used in automobile rallies, athletic competitions and in laboratory technology ( research / photo lab ) and work time recording ( REFA ). Hanhart delivers its products, if necessary, calibrated with certificate. The products are distributed worldwide through authorized jewelers and industrial and sporting goods retailers as well as through company-owned Internet portals.

2008 took in Switzerland, the Hanhart AG based on the original founding place in Diessenhofen (Canton Thurgau ) their work on. To watch and jewelery fair Baselworld 2009 collection was presented, which is based on traditional watchmaking and high-quality Swiss- German manufacturing techniques brings. The name of this chronograph collection is Primus, named after the 1938 appeared on the market success model. The new watch collection retained the old character recognition, the red button. The collection of high quality chronographs comprises the areas of air, earth and water ( Pilot, Racer, Diver ) and is available depending on the model in steel, with black ADLC coating and 18k rose gold.

• Example from the Primus collection

In the collection of Hanhart Pioneer classics are summarized, which are based on the historical Hanhart chronographs of the 1930s. It contains the following models: Pioneer Mk I, Mk II and Pioneer Pioneer TachyTele. At Baselworld 2011, Hanhart presented in this collection, the models Pioneer MonoControl, Pioneer Twin Control and as a top model in the Pioneer TwinDicator ago.

Hanhart 2012 celebrated its 130th anniversary and presented at Baselworld a 2 × 130 piece limited edition model, the Pioneer Stealth 1882. In September 2012, Hanhart Pioneer Race Master before, which takes classic racing car attributes as design elements. First, three models of new, scratch-resistant steel are presented as Race Master GT, GTM and GTF.

2014, Hanhart AG was sold to an investor and thus indirectly the majority of A. Hanhart GmbH & Co. KG in Guetenbach. As part of this change in ownership, the chronograph business was transferred in full to Germany on the KG. This is again controlled by Klaus J. Eble.