Until May of 2010, Thomas Morf was the CEO of the Lucerne-based watch manufacturer, Carl F. Bucherer. “With its fascinating and traceable brand history, high technical expertise and consistent focus on instrument watches, Hanhart is a pearl among watch manufacturers and has great potential internationally,” explains Thomas Morf, showing his commitment to the watch brand in which he is a shareholder. With this additional stake of the Hanhart Group AG (formerly Small Luxury Companies AG) the Gaydoul Group is now majority shareholder. The most important minority shareholder stays the Matter Group AG and the Astraia Holding AG. Klaus Eble stays Managing Director of the production site A. Hanhart GmbH & Co. KG, Gütenbach.

Tradition and expertise

Hanhart is expanding on the expertise of its German, parent company, which is rich in tradition. It has become known for its high-precision and reliable stopwatches since it was first established in 1882, when Johann Adolf Hanhart established his business in Diessenhofen. The company, which remains as a leader in the field of high-quality chronographs, launched the first affordable mechanical stopwatch in 1924, but also manufactured wristwatches at its production centres in Gütenbach, located in the Black Forest. Among those watches, was the legendary pilot’s chronograph “Calibre 40” from 1938, still a highly sought-after piece among collectors today.

At Baselworld 2009, the Diessenhofen-based Hanhart AG, which is responsible for the company’s international positioning, marketing and sales, presented a new and exclusive collection of mechanical chronographs under the name Primus. This builds on the tradition of the German watch manufacturer and combines historical elements – such as the signature red chronograph button, which has been a characteristic feature of Hanhart watches since 1938. This prevented pilots from unintentionally zeroing the stop time – with state-of-the-art Swiss technology.

Since 2009, after successfully launching the new Primus collection, the company has been working in the German and Swiss markets and has also taken steps towards the Middle and Far East. Today the new models, as well as the remakes of the historical chronographs, are available at select watch dealers in countries all over the world. This development is being continued in the years to come.