"I could not find the construction I dreamed of – so I myself gave time a completely new form."
— Siegfried H. Huber, Founder CICHART®
The Result of Five Elements
The Brand
CICHART is not a word. It is a construction — like the watch itself. It consists of five elements. Each one holds the whole together.
C — Creativity
Everything begins with creative force. Without it, there is no new product, no new category, no reason to start. Creativity is the foundation on which all else rests.
I — Innovation
The idea alone is not enough. It requires the will and the ability to transform it into an invention — into something that did not exist before. Innovation is the driving mechanism.
C — Combination
No single element could have produced this watch. Only the union makes the whole possible — creativity and innovation, horology and art, joined in a single construction. The CICHART ring watch is the result of this combination. Not the sum of its parts, but their interplay.
H — Horology
What CICHART places on the finger is neither a miniature nor a piece of jewellery with hands. It is mechanical watchmaking — held to the standard this discipline demands.
ART
The result is greater than the sum of its parts. A CICHART ring watch is a work of art on the finger — assembled from many components, brought together into a whole that stands entirely on its own.
A design created for the finest engineers and watchmakers.
Siegfried H. Huber
the designer
Conventional wristwatches bored me. Not their movements — I admire those. But their form. For over a century, only the dial, the material, and the calibre change. The form stays the same. The same object in the same place.
The exception: the masterpieces of independent watchmakers. Their constructions fascinate me — the freedom, the precision, the courage. But they, too, remain on the wrist.
I am not a watchmaker. I am a designer. Watchmaking has never been reinvented from within — it has always been reinvented by someone who looked at it from the outside. The greatest innovators in the industry, from Richard Mille to Jacob Arabo, were not trained watchmakers. They were visionaries who saw what existed through different eyes. I am an inventor, not a watchmaker. And that is precisely what makes the difference.
That moment was the beginning. The watch was not the problem. The location was the problem.
“Who needs a ring watch?” — “Who needs a smartphone?”
For years, I was told nobody needs a ring watch. That ordinary people think differently. That one should follow the crowd. I let that hold me back — until I didn’t.
— Siegfried H. Huber, Founder CICHART®
The construction
The watch industry has maintained a myth for centuries: that quality is born where watches are manufactured under one roof. The manufacture as seal of approval. In-house production as proof of excellence. This myth is a narrative — not a technical reality.
The registered design — the architectural idea, the formal resolution of a problem, the geometry of an object — resides in the hands of the designer. It is inalienable. It cannot be delegated. And it is the only value that makes a watch an object that did not previously exist in this form. At CICHART®, the design is the foundation — not the factory. The designer conceives the object. The engineer translates it into construction. The watchmaker translates the construction into precision.
DESIGNER → Concept, category, registered design
ENGINEER → Design into construction
WATCHMAKER → Construction into precision
This sequence creates a degree of freedom no manufacture in the world possesses: the freedom to select the best specialists globally for every phase, every generation, every technical challenge. No compromise through company size. No limit through in-house capacity.
And it makes CICHART® future-proof — because the design is the constant. Everything else is variable.
“Nike doesn’t own a single sewing machine. Yet the world wears its shoes. CICHART® doesn’t own a lathe. Yet it makes the world’s most precise ring watch.”
— Siegfried H. Huber, Founder CICHART®
The Result
Since 2015, the design of the mechanical ring watch was being developed — plans, complete. That same year, CICHART GmbH was founded — not as the starting point of an idea, but as the formal structure for an object that already existed. What followed was not a linear development process — but a sequence of technical problems the industry considered unsolvable.
Problem I — The Joint
A tiltable titanium case on the finger generates forces no existing connection system could withstand. Screws, threads, standard connectors — all failed. Nearly 200 manufacturers were contacted. Half declined. The other half said: no problem. None solved it. The end seemed near.
Problem II — The Connection Method
A watchmaker proposed laser welding — never applied in this configuration before. It did not hold. Until the exact welding temperature was identified. Then it held absolutely.
Problem III — Positional Stability
The case shifted from its set position under hand movement. The solution: a specially engineered spring mechanism within the joint — precise enough to hold each of the three Tilt Pivot System positions under any load.
"Each of these crises could have been the end. None of them were."
— Siegfried H. Huber, Founder CICHART®
Over 1,000 tests. Countless prototypes. The finest available Swiss movement. In 2023, the final product existed. It belonged to no existing category.
One of my most important criteria in choosing my manufacturing partners is experience. I only work with watchmakers who have stood in their craft for at least fifteen years. It is in that time that the quiet certainty emerges which cannot be explained but becomes visible in every movement.
— Siegfried H. Huber, Founder CICHART®
Stuttgart
The Location
CICHART® receives visitors in person — by prior appointment, at Stuttgart City. Eight numbered sample pieces from the first Limited Edition are available for fitting. Those who have worn the Avantgarde I on their finger may commission an available edition number. Manufactured to your ring size. Delivered by specialist courier.
CICHART® DESIGN · Königstraße 27 · 70173 Stuttgart · Germany
Timekeeping that waits for the finger — not the other way around.
