Peren Hintz, Celebrating Swiss and Transylvanian Watchmaking

Switzerland, Japan, Germany, France or England are the countries we all think about when it comes to the production of watches and clocks. However, if you go back one hundred years, watchmakers were everywhere, including a place you probably didn’t expect: Transylvania. Today, we’d like to introduce a new accessible watch launched on Kickstarter, which pays tribute to one of the first Transylvanian watchmakers, Eugen Hintz. Let’s discover the new Peren Hintz watch.

The inspiration behind this new model comes from a Swiss pocket watch delivered to one of the first Transylvanian watchmakers, Eugen Hintz (1869-1962). Hintz was one of the most respected Transylvanian watchmakers and had partnerships with famous brands such as Tellus, Wyler and Junghans. Hintz would commission spare parts from these watchmakers to create watches in his workshop in Fagaras, Transylvania. The pocket watch ‘Wyler Eugen Hintz | Fagaras’ was produced in the interwar period by Swiss Watch manufacturer, Paul Wyler & Cie. (Fabrique des Montres Wyler SA).

With this in mind, Peren’s founder had a two-fold mission: he wanted to celebrate half a decade of Peren watches and to pay tribute to this watchmaker. The result is this simple, well-designed, slightly vintage, hand-wound watch, produced in Switzerland (movement, hands, conception, assembly and shipment are done in Biel or Grenchen).

The case is made of hand-polished stainless steel and measures 42.50mm x 11.20mm – relatively large dimensions explained by the movement inside (more later). Classic in its design, it is topped by an angled bezel and a sapphire crystal with three layers of anti-reflective coating. The water-resistance is comfortable, at 100m.

The dial and its small seconds indication are more original. To pay homage to one of Transylvania’s most important watchmakers, Peren incorporated a rotating disc inspired by the ‘Andesite Sun’ found next to one of the most precise ancient calendars located in Transylvania. This running seconds disc, positioned at 6 o’clock, is the exact representation of the ‘Andesite Sun’ from the Transylvanian-based Sarmizegetusa Regia site, converted from metres to millimetres. The dial itself is pleasant, with a cream/beige colour, embossed Arabic numerals and baton hands filled with cream-coloured luminous material. These colours match the brown leather strap well, which is closed by a steel pin buckle.

Powering the Peren Hintz watch is the ETA Unitas 6498-1, an icon of Swiss watchmaking with its a large hand-wound movement inspired by savonette pocket watch calibres and solid 50-hour power reserve. Visible through the caseback, two options are available: standard with non-decorated bridges and élaboré with Geneva stripes and blue screws.

Price and availability

The Peren Hintz watch will be limited to 300 pieces, now available via a Kickstarter campaign here (ending July 16). The watch can be ordered now at CHF 496 (standard movement) and later CHF 596 (élaboré movement). Deliveries are expected in October 2020.

More details at perenwatches.com.