What does "present" stand for?
The Time-Hora
The first timepiece to put time into
Experiencing time in a tangible way, not just measuring and reading it. Pausing amidst the chaos of the everyday to feel the moment. Standing at our fateful «now», and allowing the future to come and the past to go. Giving time a perspective.
The unusual approach of focusing on the «flow of time» is what guides Beat Haldimann in his work.
The unique masterpieces of the horologist from Thun therefore frequently break with tradition. Many of these pieces were world firsts. In 2002, he was named one of the 20 most important horologists in the world, and in 2009, he received the Prix Gaïa—considered the «Nobel Prize» of horology—in recognition of his life's work.
The unique family tradition of Haldimann horologists extends back as far as 1642. For centuries, the Haldimann master horologists have been crafting exclusively mechanical timepieces right here in Switzerland and exporting them all over the world. They work at the very limit of what the human hand is capable of.
With the H9, which was released in 2008 and which he philosophically dubbed his «black hole on the wrist», Beat Haldimann attempted to create an experience of perceived time through an extreme reduction and spiritualisation of conventional time measurement.
Around the same time, the mathematician Hans Ammeter was exploring similar approaches in the area of the visual arts under his art label hAr(t). How can time spans and their changes be depicted?
In 2013, Hans Ammeter happened to go on a guided tour of Beat Haldimann's manufacture. Although this activity was entirely unplanned, the tour ignited an intellectual spark in him when he heard about the revolutionary H9: “Why don't we work together to come up with a timepiece that is rooted in the Haldimann value system, and that enriches the linear depiction of time with philosophical, non-linear characteristics—linking measured time with an abstraction of time perception?”
Thanks to this happy coincidence, these two came to know each other and appreciate each other’s perspectives. 2013 marked the beginning of a hugely exciting, creative and constructive collaboration that lasted for years.
Another groundbreaking Haldimann masterpiece was born. The first timepiece to put time into perspective:
The
" A fusion of object and spirit. "
The beauty of thought.
Hour hand
The hour hand shows the time in the usual way. A circle marked «now» rotates clockwise once every 12 hours, thus grounding the Time-Hora in the tradition of mechanical clocks.
Suspirate hand
The Suspirate hand comprises the visible spiral arcs of the future hand that are used to depict the imaginary duration of coming days and nights in the future, and the visible spiral arcs of the past hand that are used to depict the imaginary duration of passing days and nights in the past: from the infiniteness of the future to the infiniteness of the past.
The two half-obscured spirals with markings at the ends of the curves rotate counter to each other.
Resonating double pendulum
The
HALDIMANN resonating half-second double pendulum comprises a future pendulum in front and a past pendulum behind. It therefore embodies the duality of time interpretation stimulated by the oscillation system of the Time-Hora.
Each stroke of the future pendulum announces that half a second of the future has gone by, and at the same time, the past pendulum announces that half a second of the past has just come into being. These two perspectives describe the same physical time span, a phenomenon that is embodied in the resonance of the double pendulum, which is generated by its construction.
The time perception scale depicts the intensity of imaginary time perception depending on the distance from the «now».
The
In large part, our spatial conception of the future and the past depends on our culture. Psychologists believe it is most likely shaped by the direction of writing.
Recognising this, the Suspirate hand differs depending on the cultural perspective that the Time-Hora model in question is based on. The first timepiece with culturally oriented time display. The world’s first timepiece to take a culturally differentiated approach to philosophy and design.
There are four different models in the Time- Hora range. Three of them are adapted to the direction of writing in the culture in question. The fourth model is designed to be interpreted from a metaphysical perspective. Its design is based exclusively on the fact that theoretically, there is a fourth possibility for the orientation of the Suspirate hand.
H51 Occident
H51 Orient
H51 Universe
H51 Asian
About our perception of
The story of the Time-Hora starts with a pensive look into space, into the far beyond, and yes, even into infinity. Want to know more?
Epilogue
There it hangs on the wall, the Time-Hora H51 Occident. It took seven years to develop it into an object with such a unique cognitive aesthetic.
It tells a spatially-ordered story in three parts: «the present in the centre, the approaching future on the right, and the past retiring to the left». This redefines the numberless «dial» on a timepiece in the Western cultural space, where reading and writing goes from left to right. What we think of as time is revealed to be a coordinate within our perspective-based perception of the infinite temporal flow, from the unending future to the unending past, which are both transected in unison by a resonating double pendulum. Days and nights are metaphorically and majestically inhaled and exhaled by the counter- rotating spirals, and are thus counted. So the Time-Hora speaks to us about change, about the fading of the future and the becoming of the past. Just as the phases of the moon are represented in the Haldimann brand logo.
A tribute to
Measuring space and time has been a challenge for millennia.
During the Renaissance, there was an acceleration in the development of techniques and computational methods for measuring space and time. This made it possible to study astronomical phenomena more precisely. At that time, the focus was on the art of horology and on the new calculation methods in mathematics.
We now know that the flow of time is not an inherent component of physical reality. Nevertheless, perceiving the flow of time is undoubtedly part and parcel of the human experience. Measuring and perceiving are two fundamentally different experiences that allow us to encounter time.
" The Time-Hora by Haldimann connects the measurement of time with a simplified, formal representation of the perception of time for the very first time. It does so by combining the art of horology with the mathematics of logarithms. "
From just a brief look at the history of timekeeping instruments, it is evident that the Time-Hora can ultimately trace its roots back to a Swiss technical and mathematical genius who was born in the 16th century: Jost Bürgi (1552 to 1632). He was a horologist, inventor of instruments, mathematician (his mathematical achievements included the creation of the first logarithmic tables) and astronomer, born in Lichtensteig in Toggenburg (Switzerland). Even the resonating half-second double pendulum of the Time-Hora can be interpreted as a 21st century adaptation of Jost Bürgi's cross-beat escapement («Doppelte Waag»).
Therefore, on the occasion of the launch of the Time-Hora , Beat Haldimann and Hans Ammeter feel compelled to pay tribute to Jost Bürgi and express their great appreciation for his pioneering work — chronicled in many different biographies — by symbolically naming the slope parameter of the logarithmic spirals of the Time-Hora after him: the «Bürgi parameter».