AUKUS Connect

---

The AUKUS Connect Program, is a groundbreaking initiative spearheaded by industry specialist Michael Sharpe. AUKUS Connect aims to build bridges between industry, researchers, and national security organisations, recognising the critical need for collaboration in addressing rapidly evolving security challenges. 

AUKUS Connect actively promotes the establishment of partnerships between industry leaders and national security organisations, facilitating a deeper understanding of the sector's specific needs. This enables industry partners to tailor their solutions more effectively, ensuring that their innovations align with the strategic objectives of defence.

The AUKUS Connect Program is setting the conditions for continued partnership and progress towards a bold and innovative future for the AUKUS alliance. Through these initiatives, the AUKUS Forum is not just responding to current challenges but is proactively shaping the future of defence technology and industry collaboration.

Having conquered the world’s oceans, Australian horologists now have a new challenge – charting and guiding man through space.

For centuries past, some of the world’s most clever and talented craftsmen (horologists) toiled away inventing incredibly complex time machines - clocks that would not only keep accurate time but  would enable mariners to safely chart and navigate the world's oceans, using celestial measurements.

Next were watches - tiny self-powered mechanical marvels you could strap to your wrist to track time. 

Many now assume that the invention of the electric watch killed off the earlier mechanical timepieces. This is not so.

A small number of companies still manufacture mechanical watches, which are avidly collected by keen watch enthusiasts.

Australia's first and only traditional watchmaker, Sydney based ‘Nicholas Hacko Watchmaker’ not only makes high end timepieces for discerning collectors - in 2022 they established a new division, ‘NH Micro’, and it's taken off like a rocket!

Anecdotally the light bulb moment occurred during a company barbecue when a group of academics and others suggested that the watch company’s precision engineering would be of great interest to a range of industries including defence.

Josh Hacko, NH Micro’s Technical Director, says the company is now providing ultra-precise machine components that are installed in advanced space installations, complex medical devices, and quantum computers. Science and research, defence and nuclear technology rank high on the list.

Mrn Hacko says N H Micro has worked on more than 250 projects that require close attention to detail, either due to high complexity, micro part size or tight tolerances.

A common theme is customer demand for the highest quality components for cutting-edge projects.

AUKUS Forum Co-Chairs Joel Fitzgibbon and Arthur Sinodinos say the Nicholas Hacko Watchmaker success story is a great example of how small, clever Australian companies can take advantage of the opportunities that the AUKUS Project presents to expand into new growth areas, creating new jobs and boosting the economy right here in Australia.

Congratulations to Nicholas and Josh Hacko on keeping up with the times and leveraging an exciting new market.