HALDA WATCHES
Halda is a Swedish watchmaker based at Tullinge, a suburb of Greater Stockholm. The flagship models of the brand are Race Pilot and Space Discovery.
With its history dating back to the 19th century, Halda Watch Co was revived in 2009 by Mikael Sandström, co-founder of Sjöö Sandström.
History of Halda Watches
Halda Watch Company was founded by Henning Hammarlun in 1887. Established in Svängsta, Blekinge in the south of Sweden, It was the first watch manufacturing facility in northern Europe.
Henning Hammarlund was born in 1857 as the third son to Peter and Hanna Hammarlund in the south of Sweden. In 1870 he constructed his first watch movement made out of wood. In 1880 Henning Hammarlund graduated from Geneva Academy of Horology in Switzerland, the most prominent school for watch manufacturing in the world at that time.
The first Halda pocket watch left the factory in 1889. It took ten months to produce and the production process covered about 3,000 different steps followed by tests. In 1893 The Halda Watch Company was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Chicago in competition with the best watch producers at that time.
In 1896 Halda Watch Company launched Halda Teletimer, a never before seen method for timing phone conversations. One of the prominent customers was LM Ericsson. In 1897 His Majesty the Swedish King Oscar II was presented a unique pocket watch from the Halda Watch Company. The King’s portrait was engraved at the back of the watch‐case. In 1900 Halda Watch Company passed the milestone of 6,000 watches manufactured.
In 1902 Halda Watch Company launched the Halda taxi meter. The taxi meters were a huge export success. For a period of time in the beginning of the century, the Halda taxi meters were the only approved taxi meters in the city of London. In 1914 the company launched Halda typewriter. The typewriter quickly became popular on the Swedish market.
In 1918 due to the war, the demand for exclusive pocket watches declined dramatically and the bank withdraw the loans from the Halda Watch Company and putting it up for liquidation. The factory was shut down on Nov. 30th.
The fascination for mechanical products and the innovative entrepreneurial spirit on which Henning Hammarlund once founded the Halda Watch Company, successively created a base for several other successful companies. Many of them are still active today.
Among these companies are ABU (Aktiebolaget urfabriken) that manufactures high‐class fishing gear, Halda Trancometer AB that produces taxi meters and Haldex AB, a manufacturer of gearboxes and the mechanism behind FWD.
In 2009 the legacy of Henning Hammarlund and the Halda watches is passed on to Swedish engineer and entrepreneur Mikael Sandström. Based on the firm belief in innovative engineering to the benefit of its users, following Hammarlund’s example of never compromising with quality and function, Sandström has set out to present the world with a watch never before seen. In 2010, Space Discovery, the first modern Halda watch was introduced.
The Halda Space Discovery is a wristwatch with a revolutionary concept consisting of a Time Platform and two interchangeable Time Modules to fit any type of environment from space to a classy evening event. It was developed according to a users brief from astronauts and tested in space onboard the Discovery during the NASA STS‐128 mission in August of 2009.
The Halda Space Discovery was exhibited in the Swedish pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai for its “manifestation of advanced and pioneering technical engineering and fine mechanics.”
In 2013, the brand launched the Race Pilot, a Halda Concept based timepiece created in collaboration with Formula 1 drivers. In 2016, the Halda Trackmaster GPS unit was released.
Halda Watch Company also offers exclusive limited edition collections.
The Halda Watches price range is 6,500 Euros to 32,000 Euros.
Featured Timepieces
