Why I Bought It: The Endurance by Habring² For CronotempVs Collectors

The brainchild of @scaramanga__, the Endurance takes inspiration from a trio of sources. First, there is his own father, who joined the Spanish navy during his country’s civil war. Growing up with a parent who was an experienced seaman in a bygone era, @scaramanga__ came to appreciate the crucial role that analogue instruments of yesteryear – marine chronometers, barometers and the like – used to play in the lives of those at sea.
 

Then, there is the story of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 to 1917. Having read a book about it, @scaramanga__ was fascinated by the epic resilience shown by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew in the face of adversity after their ship Endurance was sank by ice while they attempted to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. It gave @scaramanga__ the idea to create an instrument – a watch – that could have been used on this, the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
 

Finally, there is the Mondia Top Second. Although not a big vintage watch enthusiast, @scaramanga__ felt the top-second complication deserved to be revisited. But in his eyes, such an indication would be more useful on a tool watch used in testing conditions, to show that the watch is still working. Conditions such as those faced by Shackleton and his men.
 

@scaramanga__ says: “The goal was to make a watch with all the advancements that one could have wished for in a timepiece a century ago. Something any officer on a polar expedition like the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition would have worn in the first quarter of the 20th century.”

In addition to at least one indicator to show the watch is working well, something that helped the wearer distinguish between night and day would also be essential, given that much of the time in the North and South poles is spent in total darkness or never-ending daylight. Likewise, the watch would need to withstand the extreme cold.
 

Who would be able to make such a retro-explorer’s instrument? Step forward Austrian independent watchmaker Richard Habring and his wife Maria who, together, make up Habring2.

At first glance, the Endurance by Habring2 for CronotempVs Collectors looks like a bicompax chronograph but suffice to say it’s not – such a resemblance is merely superficial.
 

Framed by the peripheral minutes ring and standing out on the dark gray, finely grained dial is a triumvirate of circular displays. On the left, small seconds with a “flashing” top-second hole. On the right, a 48-hour power reserve indicator. And between them, an instantaneous day-night “bubble” indicator. At the beginning of the day at 6am, its hatch jumps open to reveal a glossy Super-LumiNova disk – an evocative representation of the daytime sun – before closing at 6pm to show night has set in. Complementing these three displays are matte, light gray lume-filled hour-minute hands and numerals.
 

Packing a 50m water resistance, the stainless-steel case, similar to that used for the Habring2 Perpetual Doppel, is 42mm in diameter, but it wears smaller because the lugs have been reworked and placed further down to create more of an arc to curl nicely round the contours of the wrist.
 

And the internal configuration of the gaskets inside the crown also had to be reworked to fit the case, but a nice by-product of this redesign is that the watch feels like it winds even more smoothly.