Habring² Chrono Felix Perpetual Star: The Clever Part Is Not the Dial
Featured photograph: Habring² x SJX Chrono Felix Perpetual “Star” in a desk setting. Photo: SJX Watches.
It is easy to reduce the Habring² x SJX Chrono Felix Perpetual “Star” to its most photogenic feature: eight gold stars on a glossy black dial. For collectors, however, the more interesting decision sits underneath. This is a hand-wound monopusher chronograph combined with a perpetual-calendar module, packaged in a 38.5 mm steel case and offered in just 30 pieces.
That combination makes the watch less a decorative limited edition than a compact lesson in how complication architecture affects ownership.
A busy dial that remains logically divided
The moon phase and 30-minute chronograph counter share the upper register. Date sits at nine, day at three, while month and leap year occupy six. Gold-plated hands, tracks and applied stars bring the displays together, while matte, concentrically finished subdials separate them from the lacquered main surface.
The design is emphatic, but not random. The star markers are large enough to establish a visual rhythm around four information-dense registers. Legibility will still depend on light catching the gold elements against the black dial; this is not a watch designed for instant low-light reading.
The module is not a footnote
Calibre A11CP pairs Habring²’s A11 chronograph platform with a Dubois-Depraz perpetual-calendar module. The movement is manually wound, runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offers a stated 48-hour power reserve. A module is not inherently inferior to an integrated calendar, but it does change the questions an owner should ask.
Service access, parts availability and the sequence for calendar correction matter more here than abstract arguments about purity. Habring² modified the arrangement so that, with the crown pulled, the monopusher can also correct the day of the week. That reduces the number of separate correctors, but it also makes the operating instructions worth keeping with the watch.
As with any perpetual calendar, owners should avoid improvising with the correctors around the mechanism’s date-change period. The practical buying request is simple: obtain the supplied instructions, confirm every indication advances and corrects properly, and ask who will service both the base chronograph and calendar module.
Compact proportions, real compromises
The steel case measures 38.5 mm across and 13 mm high, with a triple-stepped bezel used to disguise some of the module’s vertical demand. That is restrained by perpetual-chronograph standards, though 13 mm is still substantial for a watch on a dressier calfskin strap. Water resistance is 30 metres, so the design should be treated as a complicated daily watch rather than a sports chronograph.
The A11 family is descended from familiar cam-and-lever chronograph architecture, but Habring² has progressively replaced and reworked components with its own designs and specialist suppliers. The visible result is functional rather than theatrical: brushed and polished steel levers, blued screws and clear mechanical layering.
What the limited edition adds
The “Star” closes a three-watch collaboration series. Its black-and-gold language connects an earlier star-dial edition with the Chrono-Felix monopusher format, but this watch should be valued for the complete specification rather than the motif alone. Each case is numbered, and the star reappears discreetly on the pin buckle.
The announced price is US$28,500 before taxes, with a 40% deposit and deliveries stated for January and February 2027. Those are primary-market terms, not evidence of future resale performance.
The collector’s conclusion
This Habring² succeeds because its exuberant dial is attached to a mechanically coherent proposition: a serviceable hand-wound chronograph base, a proven calendar module and dimensions that remain wearable. The caution is equally clear. The buyer is taking on a densely packed calendar chronograph with a modest power reserve and specialised correction procedure.
For the right collector, that is not a flaw; it is the point. Buy it for the compact complication architecture and the independent maker behind it. Let the stars be the reason to look twice, not the entire reason to own it.