Halda Watch Co Sweden: Astronauts and Race drivers wanted

23 February 2014 | Watch Reviews

The history of Halda Watch Co Sweden is amazing, not just because today it represents an avant-garde brand, but also because of its origins dating back to 1887, when Henning Hammarlund, a Swedish gentleman, decided that after having studied horology in Switzerland, it was a good idea to start a production of pocket watches. In 1889, he presented his first in-house produced pocket watches which, four years later, were awarded two prizes at a world exhibition in Chicago. The complete shutdown of pocket watches’ production took place in the 1^st half of the 1900s, not long after the production of pocket watches was reduced, and the brand Halda Watch Co Sweden was forced to invest in different products.

The year 1927 marks the closure of a maison that was reopened in 2009 by a swedish engineer, whose name is Mikael Sandström, preserving the spirit of excellence of a maison whose aim was probably to spread the tradition of Swedish fine mechanics. The 21^st century Halda perpetrates the idea of the pocket watch and applies it to the concept of a timepiece that has no standard today.

The Halda Watch Co Sweden philosophy is to create a modular timepiece, offered in two versions: the Race Pilot and the Space Discovery. They both link two apparently contrasting watchmaking philosophies: a digital perspective and a mechanical one. Unless, of course, you provide a watch connoisseur with the best of the two. Inside the Race Pilot, made of Titanium, the digital module is a high-end wrist computer, which supports data of about 150 race tracks, and contains many mechanisms that allow it to be used as a real race-computer, in fact, it is not a coincidence that it has been developed with the close assistance of pilots and race car engineers.

It is fully conceived and made in-house, software included. It is quite clear that Mr. Sandström is a racing fan, as is the undersigned, since he has created an electronic module as refined as the telemetric system. The second module is mechanical and it is called calibre 685: you got it, this is the calibre Elite by Zenith and, among all timepieces, it is easily recognizable by the small seconds counter placed at 9 o’clock. The Halda Watch Co Sweden Space Discovery is even more attractive:

Its digital module complies with NASA certification protocol and can be considered a technical instrument that can be used as a backup device to onboard machinery: its computer can measure the G force along three axis from the spaceship launch to landing, and can monitor an endless series of information which would require an in-depth post on a space magazine. And probably it would require a second post on an engineering magazine as its case is made of TECAMAX, an innovative thermoplastic that can withstand temperatures close to 400°C, and it is equipped with an AISI 316L bezel and hesalite crystal.

Halda Watch Co Sweden has pretty much created the Speedmaster of the future. Once you land on planet Earth you could replace the digital module with the mechanical one by opening one of the 128 limited edition Space Discovery boxes, something less unexpected than what you might think, as its calibre is not produced on an industrialized base, but it is a fairly unknown movement equipped with a balance wheel which oscillates at 5Hz, finely tuned by master watchmaker Svend Andersen, decorated by Cotes de Geneve, and complete with a 43h power reserve.

Halda Watch Co Sweden watches are certainly made for very few, for connoisseurs, for those who love fine mechanics as well as high end tool watches made in very limited numbers upon request. I'm quite curious to know whether Mikael Sandström is already thinking of creating the “Sea-Diving” watch, a timepiece for those who explore the depths of the sea.