The Carl Suchy Waltz No. 1 | family history
The Waltz No. 1 is the founding piece of the Carl Suchy and Sohne revival, relaunched in Vienna in 2017 under the 19th-century firm's name. The bowl-shaped dial with perpendicular grooves draws from Adolf Loos's fin-de-siecle Viennese interior work. A Vaucher VMF 5401 micro-rotor automatic movement. A genuine independent Austrian watch at Swiss finishing standards.
Carl Suchy & Söhne’s debut reference on the brand’s 2017 Vienna revival: a 41mm Vaucher VMF 5401 micro-rotor automatic in steel, with a bowl-shaped dial whose perpendicular grooves are drawn directly from Adolf Loos’s fin-de-siècle Vienna interior work. Designed in collaboration with AHCI member Marc Jenni.
2017 · Vienna revival and Waltz No. 1 launch
Carl Suchy and Sohne relaunched in Vienna in 2017, drawing on the original firm's 19th-century watchmaking history. The Waltz No. 1 was the debut piece: 41mm steel case, Vaucher VMF 5401 micro-rotor automatic (72-hour power reserve, 4Hz), and a bowl-shaped dial whose concentric perpendicular grooves reference the decorative vocabulary of Adolf Loos, whose Vienna Secession-era interiors defined early modernism in Austria.
How to read this family
Two honest questions for any Waltz No. 1 buyer:
- Is the Vaucher movement a fair base at this price? Vaucher supplies movements to Hermes, Parmigiani, and Richard Mille. The VMF 5401 is a serious micro-rotor caliber, not a budget base. The Waltz No. 1's price reflects the movement quality, the dial finishing, and the small-batch production.
- How well-known is Carl Suchy in collector circles? The brand is recognized among European independent-watch enthusiasts but is not yet a mainstream name. Secondary market is thin. Buy it for the design and movement quality, not for resale.
Related families: Calatrava · Portofino
References in this family
Which ref to buy
Carl Suchy & Söhne revives a Viennese watch house with a genuinely Viennese design language: the Waltz No. 1 has a floating seconds hand that counts seconds via a positive-negative alternating display, and dial aesthetics that reference Wiener Werkstätte graphic design. Nothing about it reads as Swiss.
- 1Open
Waltz No. 1: alternating seconds display unique in watchmaking, Viennese graphic design language, ETA movement, extremely limited.
- The case for it:
- The floating alternating seconds display on the Waltz No. 1 is unlike any other seconds display in production. One hemisphere fills with seconds ticking forward, then the other fills as the first empties — a beautiful mechanical display that uses the existing movement in an original way. The Viennese design is not a Swiss watch with Austrian packaging; it is genuinely different.
- Consider instead if:
- Carl Suchy secondary market is essentially non-existent. Brand recognition requires explanation. Buy it entirely because you find it beautiful and interesting, with no expectation of liquidity.
Rankings last reviewed 2026-06-18. Editorial perspective only. Not financial advice.