Description
The Haute-Rive Honoris is one of those rare modern wristwatches whose technical brief is genuinely difficult to grasp at first glance. Drive the eye to the dial side and you're looking at a partially openworked architecture, a flying tourbillon at 6 o'clock, and a striking transmission gear at 12 o'clock that the brand calls the “wheel of time.” Drive it to the technical specifications and you're looking at 1,000 hours of running autonomy — about 41 days — from a single mainspring barrel. That feat alone has put Haute-Rive, founded by Neuchâtel-based watchmaker and engineer Stéphane von Gunten, on the radar of every serious independent collector since the brand's 2023 debut.
What was missing, until now, was steel. The Honoris had only ever been available in 18k white, yellow and rose gold, with case prices that pushed it firmly into the high six-figure tier. With the new Honoris Strato Verde and Strato Blu — the brand's first-ever stainless-steel Honoris references — that finally changes. Same case shape (42.5 mm × 11.95 mm), same in-house Calibre HR01 with its three-metre mainspring and 1,000-hour power reserve, same flying tourbillon. New material, new dial palette, and a meaningfully more wearable proposition.
This is still independent high watchmaking made in microscopic numbers — total Honoris production caps at roughly 10 watches per year across the entire collection — but the move to steel signals that Haute-Rive intends the Honoris to be worn, not stored. At CHF 128,000, the Strato editions are not aimed at affordability; they are aimed at presence on the wrist.
Design
The 42.5 mm × 11.95 mm 316L stainless-steel case mixes polished and brushed surfaces — brushed flanks, polished bezel and lugs — and is topped by a domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective treatment. A second sapphire on the back reveals the in-house calibre.
The two new dials are the headline. The Strato Verde wears a deep, mossy green dial with a fine grained texture inspired by Lake Neuchâtel under stormy skies; the Strato Blu answers with a brushed blue dial whose finish breaks up reflected light like sunlight bouncing off open water. The dial architecture is partially openworked: a large, exposed transmission wheel at 12 o'clock visually carries energy from the mainspring barrel into the gear train, while at 6 o'clock the flying tourbillon sits in its own aperture, fully cantilevered and centre-stage. The Strato Verde is delivered on a deep-green calf leather strap; the Strato Blu on a blue fabric strap. Both close on a stainless-steel pin buckle.
Specifications
- References: Honoris Strato Verde & Honoris Strato Blu
- Case material: 316L stainless steel, polished and brushed finishing
- Case size: 42.5 mm diameter × 11.95 mm thickness
- Crystal: Sapphire box crystal with double AR coating; sapphire caseback
- Dial: Strato Verde — deep green grained dial; Strato Blu — brushed blue dial; partially openworked architecture, “wheel of time” transmission gear at 12 o'clock, flying tourbillon aperture at 6 o'clock
- Movement: In-house Haute-Rive Calibre HR01, hand-wound
- Power reserve: Approx. 1,000 hours (≈ 41 days), single barrel, mainspring length over 3 metres
- Escapement / regulation: Flying tourbillon at 6 o'clock
- Functions: Hours, minutes, flying tourbillon
- Water resistance: 30 metres
- Strap: Strato Verde — green calf leather; Strato Blu — blue fabric; both with stainless-steel pin buckle
- Production: Approximately 10 watches per year across the entire Honoris collection
- Price: CHF 128,000 (excl. taxes) per piece
What's Exciting
The headline angle is not affordability — CHF 128,000 in steel is not a discount story. The headline is wearability and identity. Steel completely changes the rotation case for the Honoris: at 42.5 × 11.95 mm in a 316L case, this is now the most contemporary and the most everyday-friendly version of one of only a handful of wristwatches anywhere that can run for 1,000 hours from a single barrel. Combined with two new colour stories that sit far away from the precious-metal options — mossy green grain and brushed open-water blue — the Strato references move the Honoris from “safe vault watch” into “serious daily proposition for an independent collector.”
It also matters that the engineering remains exactly the same as the gold versions. The Calibre HR01, the three-metre mainspring, the flying tourbillon, the architectural transmission gear at 12 o'clock — nothing was de-contented for the steel case. This is the full Honoris, in steel, in two genuinely new colourways. For the small audience that knows what 1,000 hours of single-barrel autonomy actually represents in terms of barrel torque management, mainspring metallurgy and gear-train friction control, the Strato Verde and Strato Blu are arguably the most rationally specified Honoris references the brand has yet released.
History
Haute-Rive was founded in 2022 by Stéphane von Gunten, a Swiss engineer and watchmaker whose career runs through Patek Philippe and Ulysse Nardin. The brand's name and identity reach back further: it pays direct tribute to von Gunten's 19th-century ancestor Irénée Aubry, who established a watchmaking workshop on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel in 1888. Haute-Rive's first watch — the Honoris I — was unveiled at Dubai Watch Week 2023 and immediately attracted attention for its world-record 1,000-hour single-barrel power reserve combined with a wearable 42.5 mm flying-tourbillon case. Subsequent variants (Honoris I Lago Verde, Honoris Meccanica skeleton) refined the dial-side execution and explored new material codes.
The 2026 Strato pair is the next logical step: take the established 1,000-hour architecture and make it accessible in stainless steel for the first time, with two carefully-curated colour stories that reference Lake Neuchâtel itself. For an independent maker that produces only about 10 watches per year, the move to steel is also a statement of intent — Haute-Rive wants its calibre to be on actual wrists, not in safes.
