Henning Hammarlund founded Halda Fickurfabrik in Blekinge, Sweden, in 1887. Here Halda manufactured pocket watches that were recognized for their high quality and won two medals at the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Because of the economic difficulties that World War I brought with it, the watch production was terminated in 1917. In total, Halda had by then made about 8000 pocket watches.
The watch entrepreneur Mikael Sandström, the man behind brands as Sjöö Sandström and Epoch Stockholm, later bought the rights to the old trademark Halda. At the Basel fair in 2010 he presented the Halda Space Discovery. This watch was made with the same ideas that Hammarlund once had, that quality and function could never be compromised.
In the making of these watches, Halda have used mechanical Suisse AS movements which have been restored and refined by the revered watchmaker Svend Andersen. The watch has two modules, one analogue and one digital. These can be exchanged for different purposes through the specially designed integrated bracelet. The Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang has been involved in the development of the digital module and tested it on his mission STS-128 on the space shuttle Discovery. Among the features the watch has you can find the ability to measure g-forces, several time zones and counting particles to name a few.
The Space Discovery is sold with sapphire crystal, although that’s not ideal for space travelling since a shattered sapphire crystal could be a real danger in a weightless environment. But don’t you worry; Halda changes the crystal, free of charge, to a space standard Hesalite plastic crystal for anyone who wants to take their watch on a trip into space.
With the Space Discovery, Halda pushes the development of watches and Hammarlund’s vision is now reborn and evolved by Sandström and the new Halda team. Now not even the sky is the limit.
The watch though is limited and numbered in only 128 examples. The item we present at this auction is number 92 with an elegant wooden box signed by no less than the astronaut Christer Fuglesang.
