Let’s face it: there are a few rare independent brands which have been around for a darn long time which make good watches for the sake of making good watches and nothing else. Not for glory, not to win awards during elitist ceremonies, not to have their CEOs featured on YouTube videos sipping pints chatting with famous journalists. For decades they have been meticulously designing watches, engineering parts, seeking precision and striving for attainability, so that many of us can sport very good watches that do what they’re supposed to do without drawing too much attention onto themselves. These brands are rare indeed because nowadays doing something good in horology, more often than not, equates to being front and center in the public’s eye. It’s no longer about making fine watches but about putting a face to a name. We live in an era of celebritism (a word that doesn’t exist but which should) in watchmaking which becomes redundant and sickening. But today is going to be a different story. 

We’re going to talk about Hanhart, the iconic German watchmaker of honest and precise mechanical chronographs through a study of the Pioneer Preventor HD12 Blue. A vintage-infused everyday sports watch which the brand is not known for which is why we’re going to be talking about it, as it is not one of its many outstanding chronographs. And we are not going to be delving into the history of Hanhart because many other magazines and media outlets have done it already and much better than I could. (I recommend this podcast episode to learn more about it.) Because as we will soon see, the Preventor is as much of a Hanhart as any other of its collections because it offers the same rare balance of precision in design, engineering, and price which should be the core defining element of any proper everyday sports watch. The Preventor is also a tool and built as such and for the asking price of 1,295 €/$1,528 USD (or $1,660 on Hanhart’s U.S. retailer’s website) you get more than what you were hoping for. 

Specifications 

Things change quickly in horology and it is now common for a brand to offer hardened alloys for their cases. Whether it be steel or titanium, they are hardened to a typical 1,200 Hv on Vicker’s Hardening Scale (why always this specific level I do not know) which is a big upgrade from stainless steel’s basic 220 Hv scratch resistance. When this is well done—because no two hardening coatings are made equal—it is said that the case is un-scratchable and it is indeed the case when the process is indeed well done. Brands typically go about it by adding an unspecified hardening agent onto the case which doesn’t affect the dimensions of the watch’s chassis but generally slightly darkens the steel. (And many brands claim to use a proprietary hardening compound which I believe is marketing BS.) Hanhart, which has pioneered many horological technologies, went about it the Hanhart (read: difficult) way: it fused large quantities of carbon into the steel then added a clear PVD coating to seal it and prevent flaking. 

Hence the name of HD12 which is the brand’s proprietary steel which is making a first appearance in the Pioneer Preventor collection. And if you know anything about the brand you will know that it delivers wholesome watches, both from technical and visual standpoints, as the Preventor’s engineering capabilities go well beyond the aforementioned exceptional hardness coating. For example, the crystal is made of an internally domed piece of sapphire with multiple layers of inner anti-reflective, which means it is crystal clear and flat unlike other sapphire crystals with an external convex profile. So the latter adds to the durability of the case as both elements are highly scratch-resistant without thickening it. Furthermore, the Preventor was designed (as we will later see) and built to be the perfect candidate for a go-anywhere-do-anything (GADA) timepiece in addition to being a classically-styled watch, as it comes with generous quantities of SuperLuminova C1 on the hands and printed Arabic hour markers.

And there is more. The case is complemented by a 6.8mm screw-down crown equipped with sharp knurling which makes it easy to grab and operate, as well as a screw-down case-back which together endow the HD12 with 150 meters of water resistance, which was tested following Germany’s DIN 8310’s specifications (the equivalent of ISO 2281) of standardization. Inside the highly scratch-resistant and water resistant case, we find a Swiss made Soprod P024 caliber (4Hz/38 hours of power reserve) of the Top grade variant. Alas, I couldn’t find much information about the latter fact but it seems that the caliber was regulated to run at ±7 seconds per day which would be really good indeed. The case, by the way, measures 39mm in diameter, 46mm lug-to-lug, 10.50mm thick and comes with a 20mm lug width. It ships on a three-link stainless steel bracelet with quick-release spring-bars, screwed links, and a ratcheting tool-less micro-adjustment. As indicated above, the Pioneer Preventor is indeed a wholesome package. 

Design

In the introduction I mentioned that Hanhart, basically, has been flying under the radar for a very long time. 144 years to be exact since its founding in 1882. This could be explained by two reasons: first, because the brand indeed focuses on making good watches and nothing else; second, because the designs of its watches are classic, timeless, and entirely geared towards superlative legibility. If you look at any of its collections you will immediately notice that none of them stand out by way of an outrageously flashy dial color or abnormal case shape. But instead, they all strike the perfect balance between the vintage and the modern, and all have the visual potential to look amazing on any wrist, anytime, anywhere. Whilst it takes a lot of creativity to design watches which look avant-garde and out-of-the ordinary, it requires a lot of restraint and thoughtfulness to come up with such faces which age superbly well throughout the decades. And that is what makes the Pioneer Preventor HD12 so interesting. 

On the one hand, there is the case which looks averagely modern, and in a way, commonplace. On the other hand, there is the dial which looks superbly old-school and very much Hanhart. The case comes with an almost fully-brushed treatment (save for the crown and around the case-back) and a soft-rounded profile. It is quite thin clocking in at 10.50mm which translates into a thin mid-case composed of slab-sided flanks, gentle lugs which curve down towards the wrist, and a flat fixed bezel which sits a couple of millimeters in from the mid-case. For all intents and purposes, the Preventor’s case is indeed classic and doesn’t steal the show by being anything but extravagant. (Which is a compliment, not a criticism.) However, the outer package does command a bit of a wrist presence thanks to the large unguarded crown which received a fully polished treatment and the perfect integration of the bracelet which too comes with a classic appearance which too complements Hanhart’s fly-under-the-radar design philosophy. 

But as we, discerning horological journalists like to say, there is a star of this show and that is the dial. It has more things going for itself compared to the case but it blends in perfectly within Hanhart’s restrained design philosophy by being made only of what is necessary. As everything that you see on the dial serves a particular purpose and is balanced against the whole. There are the cathedral hands for example which look uber old-school but are robust, as their multipartite construction makes them more resistant to shocks than most hands and because they can host large chunks of lume which won’t break off. There is also the minute hand which only Hanhart designs in this fashion, with two lumed sections, a swollen middle part, and a bent red-painted tip to offset the parallax effect. The hands are coated by the way of a grey sunblasted finish which makes them pop from the finely textured matte blue dial. Lastly, there are the superb rounded and wide Arabic numerals mostly made of lume and emphasized by thin white lines. 

The Heart of the Matter

Again I will assume that you’ve heard of Hanhart before and especially of its mechanical chronographs the brand has been known for for a long time. Though the brand has kept a low profile for 144 years, it has come to the attention of many members of the horological media pool and dedicated watch enthusiasts in the past few years for having re-issued certain key chronographs such as the 415 ES, 417 ES, and multiple variants of the latter, including a flyback. They are all gorgeous and mechanically ultra sound, and it is perfectly understandable why they have created so much buzz as of late, but alone they do not define what Hanhart is all about—making reliable, timelessly classic, and discreet tool watches—which the Pioneer Preventor HD12 also embodies with as much gravitas and as the chronographs do. The HD12 is a superb piece of horology which is all-encompassing, robust, timeless (I need to find a different adjective) as many of us like them, and relatively affordable given Hanhart’s legacy and high-standards of manufacturing. 

As indeed the 1,295 €/$1,528 USD the brand asks for this gem goes a long way in terms of design, specifications, and quality, in addition to the proprietary nature of the case hardening technology. Hanhart is therefore special as it can do what many brands with similar longevity and legacy do not know how to make—good watches for reasonable prices—and that is at the heart of the matter today. 

Conclusion 

Hanhart has been on my little radar for the past three/four years of course because of the chronographs. I have never reviewed one of them although I have seen them in the metal and I easily understand why so many nerds and collectors are into these machines. They are legitimately cool and well-engineered. But I was happy to be offered to check out the Pioneer Preventor HD12 because it is a more recent and therefore modern addition to the brand’s catalog. Not a re-issue of a previous model as are the aforementioned 415 and 417 ES models but something new. Thus it is exceptional and unique for it appears to have been first made 50 years ago even though it hasn’t, which explains once again (and in more ways) what makes the German brand so special: it can issue new collections which perfectly match the design and engineering ethos of the brand as they have been codified more than three generations ago. That is special and unique to Hanhart. P.S. The Preventor comes in black and blue versions. 

Thanks for reading.