TAMAS L’ORANT TL: 028
Mechanism: Hanhart Cal: 40 ~1939~
Joachim and his watch: a witness of war and love.
Hanhart is notoriously famous for having provided the German Luftwaffe with watches during the Second World War; which is also the reason why the company was being neglected for a few decades after the war had ended.
This particular timepiece is an absolute manifestation and proof of their high-quality standards. It used to be in the possession of a flight navigator, named Joachim. The two stopwatch dials in his Caliber 40 were originally designed for and used during sporting events. Hence Julius Hanhart’s watches were so accurate that they were perfect for military use as well. Joachim measured time, speed, altitude and distance of his own airplane, and could calculate the speed, altitude and distance of other planes with the help of this watch.
Although the double-face stopwatch style is an earlier invention of Hanhart’s, two other trademarks of the company appeared on the Caliber 40 for the very first time. The first ones of these new trademarks were the phosphorus hands; which enabled pilots to see their watches in the dark at night and during storms, and the other newly invented trademark was the red button of the chronograph. Legend has it that the red button was not invented by the Hanhart developers, but it was a soldier’s lover who painted the button with her nail polish, so that her hero could remember her on the battlefield whenever he looked at it.
Maybe this girl was Joachim’s lover, Elde, who made this gesture of love as a token for the first time with this exact Caliber 40. The reason why we cannot see the red button on this watch anymore is that its case broke during an operation in France, when the Luftwaffe won against the French Air Force. Joachim was shocked to see the amount of damage his army had done; so, he deserted, and decided to join the underground French Resistance movement. Although the case of his watch was broken, the mechanism continued to work perfectly well. This watch also reminded him of Elde, whom he married in France after the war.
What happened to this watch after the afore-mentioned line of events? We do not know. All we know for a fact is that the mechanism was still working in mint condition when we discovered it in France a few years ago, but almost 60 years after its creation. We decided to restore this historic pocket watch in its former glory in the form of a wristwatch.
The story gets ticking again
