Brown is a divisive color; get it right, and it can make whatever it adorns seem luxurious, rich, and warm. Get it wrong or pair it with a color that doesn’t go well with earth tones, and you end up with something either dull or downright ugly. Fortunately, German watchmaker Hanhart has gone the right route when designing their 417 ES Mocha Flyback date, with a naming convention and brown and silver color pairing that conjures cafes on a rainy day.
Made in collaboration with the Porsche Fahrer magazine, the Mocha Flyback is actually a handsomely-masked nod to motorsport, albeit with a coffee-centric aesthetic twist. The 42mm stainless steel case measures in at 49.75mm lug-to-lug, with a smooth stainless steel bezel, and a crown at the 3 o’clock position. Flanking the crown are two pushers—one matching steel at 2 o’clock, and one in a daring HyCeram red at 4. The red pusher is the sole deviation from the moody brown and silver design, and the first indication of the Mocha Flyback’s infatuation with speeding automobiles. It’s not just for optics, either; the bright red is a hallmark of flyback watches, intended to warn pilots (or race car drivers) before they accidentally reset the stop timer.
The dial is a deep mocha brown, with two subdials inset at 3 and 9 o’clock for small seconds and 30-minute counter functionality; a date window sits at 6, replacing the numeral. Around the dial is a military-esque minute track, echoing the pilot watch origin of the model. The numerals themselves are sharp and pair well with the vintage Hanhart logo just below the 12. The minute and second hands curve at the ends to mitigate parallax errors, and along with the hour hand and numerals, are coated in Super-Luminova X2 C1 for low-light visibility.
Inside, a hand-wound Sellita AMT5100 movement allows for the eponymous flyback capability, along with small seconds, a 30-minute counter, a central stop second, hacking seconds, and the date display. It also boasts a power reserve of 58 hours, and accuracy of 0 to +8 seconds per day on average. All of this is held in by a screw-down exhibition caseback and a convex sapphire crystal, both with internal anti-reflectivity.
The whole package wouldn’t be complete without the strap options, however. The first is a stainless steel bracelet that gives the Mocha Flyback a dressy vibe perfect for espresso taste-testing, while the dark brown calfskin bund-strap choice—with Alcantara inside—makes for a more rugged, pilot- and racetrack-friendly appeal. Both make use of quick-release spring bars for easy switching, and the 21mm lug width means that the sky is the limit for strap options, should you choose to stray from Hanhart’s offerings.
Ultimately, Hanhart has managed to capture the elegance and warmth of brown, while also tying it to the high-octane worlds of flight and motorsport, which isn’t an easy feat. The Mocha Flyback certainly does call to mind the “German virtue of punctuality”, which the brand so heavily leans on as a mantra.
The Hanhart 417 ES Mocha Flyback Date Limited Edition is limited to 200 pieces worldwide, and retails for $3,318 on the steel bracelet, and $3,089 on the bund-strap. Hanhart
