World Champion Austria Watchmaking industry
Fashionable high-tech for your wrist A big player in watch straps comes from Austria. But there are also a few newcomers with great ideas.
T
oday , nobody needs a watch to tell the right time. But the little timekeepers on the wrist are still highly popular. Swiss brands dominate the market but not when it comes to the one part that actually makes a watch a wristwatch. The Austrian company Hirsch is one of the world market leaders in the production of watch straps. The family-business from Klagenfurt has become one of the main suppliers of straps for the Swiss watch-making industry.
technique that seamlessly combines the upper leather, the padding and the lining to prevent the intrusion of moisture, perfume, sun lotion and other liquids. The same year, Hans Hirsch patented the so-called Rembordé technique which is still state-of-the art today. Since then, the company is constantly looking to improve the at first sight simple strap that keeps the watch in place. “There is nothing that can’t be improved”, Hans Hirsch once said. His successors keep to that motto.
Photo: Habring Uhrentechnik
From a workshop to a global player Numerous inventions “The Bracelet since 1765” – the company slogan is confusing at first “Watch straps are worn directly on the skin, often for several hours as the first wristwatch was only made in 1812 by Abraham-Louis a day. Therefore, the demands are considerably higher compared Breguet for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples and younger sister of to other leather products in Napoleon Bonaparte. terms of wear, wearing comfort “The year 1765 refers to the and skin tolerance,” Nikolaus year when our family started to Hirsch explains. make and work with leather,” The list of Hirsch’s innovaexplains Nikolaus Hirsch, who tions is thus quite long. The is nine generations removed company researched allergic from the workshop founders reactions to leather with the and heads the marketing and University Hospital for Dermasales departments. tology in Vienna in the 1980s The transition from a small and subsequently developed leather workshop to one of the the patented Pro Skin protecworld’s leading producers of tion coat. In addition, an anwatch straps goes back to ti-allergic cover for the bottom Hans Hirsch, who started to of the watch was invented, make the first prototypes at his both in a ready-made version kitchen table in 1945. Ten for round cases in various sizes years later, in the midst of Ausas well as cut-outs for rectantria’s massive economic boom gular cases and Tonneau caswhen wristwatches became es. Richard and Maria Habring, founders and owners of watchmaker Habring highly popular, he invented a
