As we look at the present and future of HORAGE, it’s important to understand the people behind the watches. In the previous two 15/15/15 articles, some of our most significant developments, in-house movements and even the birth of the company were covered, but this final 15th anniversary post will focus a bit more on the human aspect. And not just the watchmakers and engineers behind the scenes, but those that inspired both concepts and designs. HORAGE is comprised of an amazing group of diverse, passionate watch enthusiasts that come from a variety of backgrounds. This has been key to the unprecedented journey we’ve navigated with all of you, and we are structuring HORAGE for the coming years, decades or even centuries.
Chasing Microns
Andreas Felsi cofounded HORAGE with his wife, Tzuyu, and realized the difficulty of becoming a vertically integrated watchmaker early on. Coming from the bicycle industry, he went from chasing 100th of a millimeter to the micron - 1,000th of a millimeter. With such exacting precision required for a watch movement to not only function, but to do so accurately and reliably, even slight fluctuations in temperature in the workshop can make the difference between perfection and something that doesn’t work. A difference in microns. As Felsi puts it, “It is as hard as I say here.”
“If you want to call yourself a watch company, you need to prove in at least one really difficult segment to be excellent. We chose to produce movements, the most difficult segment of all.”
“Courage is about risk and risk has a price… In the best possible case, this never ends. Our goal is to ultimately find a great management team that can keep the brand alive and thriving for a century or more.”
Believe in Your Light - Brian Griffin
Born in 1948, Brian Griffin has had an inspiring photography and film career. He started as a fashion photographer in London after college and soon shifted to other publications. In 1974, his photograph "Rush Hour, London Bridge" earned national recognition and now resides at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In the 1980s, he was well known for music industry shots with legends like Ringo Starr, Peter Gabriel, Queen, Billy Idol, Depeche Mode and many more. In 1988, he published the book “Work” with a one-man show at the National Portrait Gallery, which was awarded the “Best Photography Book in the World” at the Barcelona Primavera Fotografica 1991.
In 1989, The Guardian named Griffin “Photographer of the Decade,” which is also the year he pursued commercials and filmmaking. In 2004, he even shot an in-depth documentary for Paul McCartney. His focus soon returned to still photography and he was inducted into the Album Cover Hall Of Fame in 2016. We are honored to have worked with Griffin on our photography focused Lensman 2 Exposure watch with a special edition dedicated to the legendary photographer.
Lensman 2 Exposure
Our follow-up to the Lensman 1 tourbillon, Lensman 2 Exposure features our K2 micro-rotor caliber and a first in the industry - a fully functional exposure calculator via a rotating bezel. This was inspired by our own passion for photography and incredible partnership with Brian Griffin himself. We have two versions of this watch, both with the same functionality and overall design, but the Brian Griffin Limited Edition brings several perks.
Both the standard and limited-edition cases are grade 5 titanium with an anodized aluminum inner case, but the special edition features a COSC-certified movement, PT-950 platinum micro-rotor and exclusive silver dial. In addition, a collectible photo box of four signed and numbered photographs by Brian Griffin is included.
All the staff at HORAGE were shocked and saddened when the world suddenly lost Griffin in January 2024 at the age of 75. It was surprising and unexpected, and we’re truly honored to have gotten to know him well and work with him on Lensman 2. He’s become an important part of HORAGE history, and his memory will always be with us.
If You Want to Build the Future, You Must Have a Very Good Understanding of the Past
HORAGE cofounder Tzuyu has a passion for cooking (and the HORAGE team can vouch for her serious culinary skills) and understands the importance of timing. “When you are cooking, you do not have time to think,” she says. “You just have to get the timing right. Otherwise, it will taste totally different.”
“Timing is just very important, especially when it comes to business and on the product side. You don’t make a product at the wrong time - it doesn’t matter how good your product is.”
The timing was right to develop the in-house K1 automatic, but Tzuyu admits that she underestimated the difficulty. This followed a loss of supply from Vaucher after 18 months of negotiations to buy a movement from them (Hermes had acquired a 25% stake and scuttled the deal). The director of Vaucher at the time was Florian Serex, who was unhappy with the fallout and ultimately joined the HORAGE team to help make our K1 a reality.
Florian helped us organize three different skill sets for the K1 development - mathematics, engineering and watchmaking. That’s the required package to make it all work. Of course, his engineering expertise in the field was invaluable as he worked with our watchmaker Jonas to bring everything to fruition. As Florian says, “If you want to build the future, you must have a very good understanding of the past.” Watchmaking is definitely an old-school artform.
Autark Tourbillon and K-TMR
It’s been an amazing 15 years and we’ve moved faster than most in movement development, already delivering our K1 automatic, K2 micro-rotor and K-TOU tourbillon. We used our accumulated expertise and combined the best of what we’ve achieved into one of the most advanced (and rare) calibers in the industry - a micro-rotor tourbillon.
Very few micro-rotor tourbillons exist and those that do are very expensive. Our watch community consistently asked us to marry our two most advanced and popular movements together, the K2 and K-TOU, and the K-TMR is our fourth in-house design. An endeavor like this usually takes many years to achieve, but with our developed stack of core components (K-TMR is a blend of existing and new HORAGE parts), we were able to expedite the process to 18 months.
Unlike the starting price of comparable Swiss micro-rotor tourbillons at CHF 40,000 and above, preorders of the Autark Tourbillon will start at just under CHF 10,000 with a final retail price of CHF 14,990. Once again, unprecedented accessibility allows our watch community to acquire a special piece of haute horology at an attainable price.
Tourbillon 2 and More
Our latest Tourbillon 2 watches feature either stainless steel or 18k gold cases with the option of Grand Feu enamel dials. The ultimate in luxury timepieces. We also have the Autark Small Seconds that eschews the tourbillon for a conventional micro-rotor with our K2, offering all of the style of our integrated titanium sports watch with even more accessible prices. All new Autark watches will also feature our HMAC micro-adjusting clasp that debuted with our Supersede GMT.
The Future
Movements like the K-TMR micro-rotor tourbillon represent the future of HORAGE as we push the limits of what can be achieved. As mentioned in our previous post, the K2 micro-rotor will soon replace the K1 automatic and our future portfolio will represent some of the greatest examples of Swiss watchmaking. Micro-rotors, tourbillons and even new technologies.
It's been an amazing and challenging 15 years and we’ve already built a vault of horological knowledge. As a small independent brand, we don’t have near unlimited resources like those under the Swatch Group or Richemont, but relentless determination, ingenuity and an incredible team have elevated us to the peak of watchmaking. Very few brands can develop their own micro-rotors and tourbillons, let alone a combined micro-rotor tourbillon, and we’re just getting started in the grand scheme of things. We thank all of our customers and the larger watch community for being part of our journey and the best is yet to come!
Sound off in the comments if you’ve preordered one of our latest Autark models or the Tourbillon 2. Are you a photographer and eying the Lensman 2 Exposure? Let us know what you think of our new range of watches.
Also, be sure to sign up for our newsletter (here) and check out journal entries as well (here) and a detailed section on performance watchmaking at HORAGE (here).
We'll talk again soon!
Erik Slaven
Slven, it was nice meeting you in person at the SF Windup today. Seeing Andy and David in action as well.
Love the Autark Tourbillion and it is lighter than my TOne. Cannot wait to see the salmon dial.
You all are doing awesome work!
Hyman, TOne #100!!
This chasing Microns film was definitely a highlight in our yet short history. Despite our drive towards technicality as a company, we much better could see how we can tell our story and how important it is to do so.