Hooke & Huygens is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based at Auvernier, a scenic village in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. The brand is known for its world premiere creation, the ring-shaped watch with exchangeable gems and eight barrels.
In a manual-wound or self-winding watch, the device that stores mechanical energy is called barrel, which houses a mainspring. Depending upon the power-reserve requirement, a mechanical timepiece usually houses one or two barrels.
Going ahead of the traditional watchmaking concepts, Hooke & Huygens has created a revolutionary new mechanical wristwatch with eight barrels, offering a power-reserve of more than a week.
To accommodate eight manually-wound barrels, the brand has designed a ring shaped case structure with a round centre part for showcasing a gem-stone, sphere or micro-sculpture.
The gems are personalised for each watch, they are either 15 mm natural gemstone balls or metal balls, or sculptures in a frame, or gemstones set in a frame.
The patented ring-shaped semi-skeleton movement has 8 manual-wound barrels elegantly connected with gear rings, giving a power reserve of approximately seven days. In addition, it has 41 jewel bearings, 6 ball bearings, and a 4 Hz balance wheel.
Made of stainless steel or 18K gold, the patented ring-shaped case has 44mm diameter and 15 mm thickness. Fitted with sapphire glasses on the front and case-back, each timepiece is water resistant to 100 m.
To indicate the hour and minute, the watch has two pointers that track the dial-ring (finished in black or white) featuring Breguet numeral hour-markers and minute track.
The brand designs, develops, assembles and tests the movements and cases in-house. All custom parts are manufactured around Neuchâtel thus 100% Swiss made.
By choosing the brand name Hooke & Huygens, this small watchmaking firm pays tribute to Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens, the great scientists known for their inventions in the field of precision watchmaking.
Due to the complexity in manufacturing, the brand produces only limited numbers of watches. Each timepiece comes with 6 interchangeable gems: labradorite sphere, blue quartz sphere, white cubic zirconia brilliant-cut, steel ball, H&H ball logo, and a personal gem.
Regarding the personal gem, the brand is offering various choices like Diamond, Emerald, Eudialyte, Jasper, Malachite, Obsidian, Quartz, Ruby, Sapphire, Tiger Eye, Turquoise and etc.
The customer can also select suitable spheres (metallic or ceramic) or sculptors listed by Hooke & Huygens. In the metallic spheres category, the available options are aluminium, bronze, titanium, tungsten, palladium, gold (rose, white or yellow), platinum and steel.
The spheres are also available in pearl, silicon carbide and zirconium oxide. Additionally, the brand is offering sculptors in bronze, gold, palladium, platinum, silver and stainless steel.
The walnut watch box also includes additional leather straps featuring 20mm width and quick release system.
The Hooke & Huygens watch prices start at CHF 26’400 for the steel case and CHF 42’800 for the gold case.
