Austrian watch brands might not be as well known as their European neighbors such as Switzerland but that’s not to say they don’t produce some alluring timepieces. In this article, we are going to talk about some of my favorite watch brands from Austria, with a little bit of history and some of my favorite lines from each brand. I personally feel Austrian watch brands do a great job producing authentic, sustainable, and beautiful timepieces and I’m excited to tell you all about them, So in no particular order my favorite watch brands from Austria.
Table of Contents
Waidzeit watches
Waidzeit watches are a family-owned business who try to convey the natural beauty of the Alpine traditions through their watches. Waidzeit locally sources all of the resources for their watches ranging from the Alpine wood, High-quality merino wool, and Sölker marble with genuine leather for the straps.
One cool fact I found out about Waidzeit watches is that they actually use wood from oak barrels in which whiskey and wine once matured. An original and creative approach to creating watches I think you’ll agree.
The majority of the watches you’ll find under the Waidzeit name are made from wood with a couple that has stainless steel inner cases. Waidzeit successfully conveys a story with each watch and if you are a fan of wooden watches I highly recommend checking them out. If you are from Europe you can also check our Waidzeit on most European versions of amazon but currently, they are not selling on amazon.com.
Carl Suchy & Söhne
Carl Suchy was once the official Watch Purveyor to the Habsburg Royal Family. The company was originally opened in 1822 by Carl Suchy, a passionate horologist who had studied watchmaking in German and Switzerland prior to founding his company.
After a number of successful years, the company was renamed “Carl Suchy and Söhnes” as Carl’s sons joined the family business. The brand had a number of successful years and even opened a shop in Vienna in 1863. It wasn’t until 1914 with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire we saw the downfall and disappearance of Carl Suchy and Sohnes.
In recent years vintage Carl Suchy & Sohne timepieces have become exceptionally rare. It wasn’t until the brand’s reemergence in 2016 that a handful of Austrians came forward to the brand’s showroom in Vienna with some vintage pieces and impressive stories about how they had acquired them from their grandparents.
If you are interested in reading more I suggest checking out the full story on WatchTime.com
LAKS
Laks is another Austrian watch brand which has the philosophy “To fill up each aspect of life with colors” LAKS stands for Lucas Alexander Karl Scheybal, who unsurprisingly is the founder who started developing the brand who created the brand in 1986 a relatively new company in terms of the watch world.
Laks is known for its innovation in implementing new technology and is arguably most famously known for its ‘Watch2Pay” model. The Watch2Pay was one of the first-ever watches if not the first to feature NFC technology which had official certification by MasterCard for making contactless payments. Although it was impressive at the time it’s become the norm especially with the rise of iWatches.
Laks is based in Vienna and has 3 main lines;
- Classic
- Art
- Watch2Pay
Jacques Lemans
“Jacques Lemans makes time look beautiful” is the slogan you’ll find when looking for Jacques Lemans watches. Jacques Lemans was founded in St. Viet an der Glad in 1975 by two brothers Norbert and Alfriend Riedl. Alfred Reidl is actually still the current CEO to this day at the time of writing this article. It’s still a family-owned brand which I think brings character to the brand.
Jacques Lemans is by no means a small brand and ships roughly a million timepieces in a year in over 120 different countries. Jacques and Lemans currently boast around 600 different watch models in their lineup. So I’d imagine there is something that fits your taste amongst such a wide variety of different watches. Interestingly Jacques and Lemans acquired two other Austrian watch companies Pierre Petit and Alpha Saphir who we will talk about a little later in this article.
You can check out their website here
Habring²
Habring² was founded in 2004 by Richard Habring and Maria Kristina in Völkermarkt, a small town in southern Austria. Their slogan is “Mechanical watches made with love”. Habring is a small company and they create all their watches in-house mainly by hand where possible. It’s said that they only produce a rough estimate of 200 watches annually in addition to this only 12 pieces per model (maximum) are commissioned per year. Richard Habring used to be a technical developer of IWC and Lange & Sohne and was known for his ability to create custom Tourbillon watches.
The ² in Habring² represents Richard and Maria Habring x 2 an adorable touch if you ask me. Habring² currently has 12 different lines of watch with the most popular including the;
- Perpetual-Doppel
- Felix
- Erwin
- Chrono ZM
Montre Exacte
Montre Exacte was founded by Christian Umscheid in 2011. Montre Exacte was created to manufacture watches for Haute Horlogerie. You will see most Montre Exact watches are based on a contemporary style and give off a very classic elegant appearance. Montre Exacte like all the other watch brands featured on this article are based in Austria but also have some facilities in Germany.
Read more on the discovergermany.com
Normalzeit
Normalzeit is an Austria-based watchmaker which effectively creates only one style of wrist-watch. The Normalzeit is a recreation of the iconic “cube clocks” that were seen at one time in Vienna. Normalzeit was designed by Fredi Broadmann and is produce by Lichterloh, Vienna. Fredi was born in Vienna, Austria in 1956.
Ever since he a young child he would be obsessed with drawing, especially cartoons. He eventually came across a series of cartoons called “WatchMe” which was the inspiration for his creation.
You can see a full depth-review of the watch on wornandwound.com
Nathaniel Eckert is an engineer/ property manager with a focus on electro-mechanics and multifamily real estate. He works in New York City with a passion for wristwatches and tequeyoyos.
