Space: the final frontier. It’s a boundary that’s fascinated mankind ever since we first realised the Earth was round, and one that’s been particularly fascinating to watchmakers. However, while that normally means sending watches up on the wrists of astronauts, there’s one brand that’s more intrigued by what comes back down.
There’s a fair amount of wasted material when a rocket goes up. It’s necessary of course as it sheds the booster rockets that get it into space, but for the most part they’re spent. For Werenbach, those shells are an opportunity to create a space watch in the most literal sense.
It started with founder Patrick Hohmann, who initially had the idea of building watches out of rockets. It was an outlandish idea back in 2010, but one that Hohmann couldn’t ignore. It took him three years but in 2013 he built the first Werenbach watch, the metaphorical launch pad for the entire modern collection.
Mach 33 Classic (EUR €263 excl. VAT)
The watchmaker has developed a unique treatment process that allows them to recover Soyuz rocket elements from the Kazakh steppes, originally launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, and build them into watches, meaning that each of the cases in the aptly-named Soyuz collection is 96 per cent genuine rocket steel.
Of course the process to make the steel usable isn’t simple, meaning that the Soyuz is a premium timepiece. On the other hand there’s the Leonov collection, which uses dial material taken wholesale from the surface of the spent rockets, making each one unique. You can read the wear and tear of a rocket launch on them and the scratches in the bright paint that comes from… well, being a rocket.
B.T.O. Automatic Orange Soyuz MS-04 (EUR €5,590 excl. VAT)
Finally, there’s the combination of the two, using the outer casing of the Soyuz with the fantastic dials of the Leonov. These flagship pieces are dubbed the BTO collection and allow one to choose one of many, many rocket-salvaged dials. They make for some striking timepieces that you won’t find anywhere else. The only downside is that they’re assembled to order, meaning there’s a little bit of a lead time. Still, it’s worth the wait.
Of course, that’s only the outer look of the Werenbach collection; you can’t make something as delicate as a watch movement from space-faring cast-offs. It’s why the automatic timepieces are built in small batches in their own Zurich workshop.
Model 5 Soyuz MS-09 (EUR €1,197 excl. VAT)
The same can’t be said of Werenbach’s smartwatch, the Mach 33, which is NFC-enabled and can link directly to your smartphone. Using the connection, you can see the view from the International Space Station in real time. It’s more a novelty than anything useful, but it’s another strong link between Werenbach as a watchmaker and the ever-tantalising prospect of space.
Soyuz MS 09 Rocket
There are plenty of timepieces out there that go for the whole ‘space watch’ thing, but none quite so literally as Werenbach. Each watch, be it Soyuz or Leonov, is a relic of man’s quest to reach the stars. They also happen to be some very cool watches, with or without a love of space flight.
More details at Werenbach’s website.
