As URWERK was in its infancy, Vianney Halter was on the cusp of creating the watch that would come to define his brand of watchmaking. An alumnus of the THA complications workshop, Halter was approached by Jeffrey Barnes in the mid-90s with an idea to create a series of watches. Barnes, an American graphic designer whose lifelong interest in watches led him to pen his own timepieces. 

Introduced to Halter by Joseph Penola, an American associate of Barnes who originally hailed from Sainte-Croix and where Halter resides, Barnes’ inaugural 1994 design was a wristwatch with four sub-dials, each within its own porthole in a steampunk-style case. It was a round watch yet deconstructed and utterly unlike anything that had come before. In fact, it was so far from convention that few watchmakers would take on the task of turning the design into reality.

Barnes has acknowledged that whilst he had dreamt up the aesthetics of the watch and commissioned a fellow Chicagoan Chris Sheban to illustrate it, the idea of incorporating a perpetual calendar complication into it was conceived by Halter. Barnes’ daughter – Maranda Barnes, who during the developmental phase of the project was interning at Halter’s manufacture attest to that; recalling having to translate, over the telephone, the conversation between the two men.

Whilst both stood initially in opposition to each other’s ideas, the duo managed to find a meeting of minds and together, created the Time Machine Perpetual Antiqua debuting at the Basel Fair in 1998. 

According to Halter, the first three examples of the Time Machine Perpetual Antiqua were badged “Halter Barnes”, but after a dispute between designer and watchmaker meant that Barnes role in its creation has largely been glossed over since. Made worse by the fact that out of the three original Halter Barnes Time Machine Perpetual Antiquas, only one example had survived. 

Soon after the lauded premiere of the Antiqua, Halter put several other of Barnes’ designs into production, namely the Classic and the Trio, before moving on to other projects, including the quirky Goldpfeil wristwatch created for the now defunct German leather goods maker that was inspired by a leather-wrapped rangefinder camera.