This is an unusual and impressive manual winding wristwatch with BOTH dead-beat center seconds and a flying seconds indicator in a sub-dial. The timepiece incorporates a number of display complications rare in wristwatches, but totally new in a watch without a chronograph. The mechanism is on one hand a dead beat second, (one leap per second like the quartz movement) and on the other hand a jumping second (one leap in the opposite direction of the center seconds, for a total of eight leaps per second). To store and dispense energy with such precision and frequency is extremely difficult to achieve. The beat error of the watch is 2 seconds per day.
The dead-beat seconds allows time to be set exactly to the second with respect to a reference (such as an atomic clock) and the flying second measures increments within the second in units of 1/8. These twin complications represent great value at this price point.
In addition to the mechanical virtuosity, the watch is intricately and meticulously finished. The dial features a brushed steel hour track that follow the round form of the case; the middle of the dial is vertically brushed; and the flying seconds sub-dial is finished with a concentric guilloche pattern. The hour indexes and numbers 12, 3, 6 are rhodium plated and hand applied. The case is stepped, with the substantial lugs showing a subtle roll away from the middle. The metal work is as impressive as the movement.
Richard and Maria Habring are the Austrian couple who founded the company in 1997. Richard designs and creates the watches from a workbench in a workshop that was once the garage of their home in the Carinthia mountains. Richard rose to prominence for developing the split-seconds chronograph movement of the IWC Pilots watches (the so called Dopplechronograph). Maria runs the business end of the company. The Habrings make 150 watches a year, and no more than 12 of any reference in one year. This one is the first Foudroyante made in 2021.
Movement: Manual Wind, featuring Cote de Geneve striped plate and skeletonized balance cock. Jewels 24 Frequency 28,800 vph Power Reserve 45 hours Case Diameter 42 mm Case Thickness 14 mm Accessories: Full set with box and papers. Additional Accessory: Watch comes with OEM bracelet as well as strap.
