Tackling the impossible is what our team of engineers does best. We've raised the bar yet again for ourselves and the Swiss watch industry with our pursuit to build the most price-accessible, most efficient and most precise Swiss Made micro-rotor tourbillon movement the world of watchmaking has seen.
The Unprecedented Horage K-TMR Calibre
One of the rarest combinations in watchmaking is a micro-rotor tourbillon, which has been reserved for the wealthiest connoisseurs. They’re difficult to engineer as micro-rotors and tourbillons have specific needs within a movement, so they’re often at odds with each other. The modularity of our K2 micro-rotor allowed us to successfully integrate it with our K-TOU tourbillon and create one of the most efficient and accurate micro-rotor tourbillon calibres.
Design Without Compromise
Many micro-rotor movements have a smaller balance wheel to help with efficiency, but that is counterproductive with a larger tourbillon. The tourbillon brings the balance and escapement together in a rotating cage, which is larger, much more sophisticated and more power-hungry than a conventional setup. This presents a very difficult engineering challenge to watchmakers as bridges and gear trains need to be reworked to develop a successful micro-rotor tourbillon.
Our titanium tourbillon cage is just 0.29 grams, 3.9mm thin, and the escapement and hairspring are silicon. This lightweight and efficient tourbillon couples well with a perfectly balanced PT-950 platinum micro-rotor, and the target power reserve is aimed to be high at upwards of 72 hours (3 full days). The K-TMR movement itself is an evolution of the K2 micro-rotor and K-TOU tourbillon, both proven and efficient COSC calibres.
Horological Unicorn
As mentioned, Swiss micro-rotor tourbillons are exceptionally rare. Very few watchmakers attempt to produce them and there’s a shortage of information out there as a result. A few major brands have toyed with the concept, such as Bell & Ross with the BR-X2, Hublot with the Big Bang Tourbillon Black Magic and Corum with the Admiral's Cup Legend 42 Tourbillon Micro-Rotor. All are very limited in numbers with prices in the mid-five figures or into six figures. You’re much more likely to see a multi-axis tourbillon, repeater or peripheral rotor than a micro-rotor tourbillon.
The tourbillon was invented way back in the late 1700s and patented by Breguet in 1801. The micro-rotor came much later in the mid-1950s, but combining the two in one movement has proved elusive for most. We’ve had nonstop requests to marry our most popular two movements, the K2 micro-rotor and K-TOU tourbillon, so we used our existing knowledge of the movements and engineering toolkit to blend the two into an integrated sports watch, the Autark Tourbillon in Grade 5 titanium.
Customization
We believe in customization and like our inaugural K-TOU tourbillon piece, the Tourbillon 1, we’re offering three custom colour options for the new K-TMR - a sporty deep red, deep blue or classic anthracite. Hand finishing includes Côtes de Genève, a quadratic black gold bridge and our signature open-worked grid pattern. Movement customization is already rare in luxury watchmaking and it’s even less likely with such a sophisticated movement like the K-TMR micro-rotor tourbillon.
An Unprecedented Opportunity
It’s not an overstatement to call the Autark Tourbillon with the new K-TMR Caliber an unprecedented opportunity. This combination in a movement is already extremely rare, so bringing a proprietary Swiss piece to a much broader audience was our goal. As performance watchmakers, we never artificially inflate prices and want as many watch enthusiasts as possible to enjoy complex and luxury pieces that are otherwise unobtainable. We’ve achieved this with the K-TMR micro-rotor tourbillon.
Pre-Order
The first watch to make use of the K-TMR will be the Autark Tourbillon. A timeline of 18 months from the start of pre-orders to completion is expected. In an upcoming post, we will share all the watch details and the exact date of pre-order. At just under 10,000 CHF the Autark Tourbillon will be the best-value Swiss Made titanium flying tourbillon micro-rotor movement timepiece ever produced.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments, share with the watch community and be a part of our ongoing Mission Independence.
Until next time...
Erik Slaven & Landon Stirling
The Autark Tourbillon post is now live! Video premiers at 13:00 CET. We listened to your comments and tried to integrate as much as we could. Of course we cannot accommodate every request as that would turn into a production and financial nightmare, but I think the team has landed on some solid options that meet the majority of requests.
Hope to see a guilloché dial pattern on the watch.
Also hope that the bracelet will taper more than the current Autark but will keep the screwed links instead of the pin and collar system of the Supersede.
Very cool project. I was hoping for this one.
Can you please give the possibility to choose a serrated bezel like the one of the Autark Hv.
An option with arabic hour markers would also be nice but in this case please use another font as the one in the previous Autark.
Hope it will come with the big date and Hv treatment.
Great job Horage!
Hi, another one about the bracelet: have you considered a quick release system? With the integrated bracelet design it would be a great feature. Together with the quick adjust feature you would have the full feature set for a bracelet :) Then with an OEM leather and rubber straps would be a full package :)
Good morning, will the new model get the bracelet with the new clasp?
Thanks for letting the community help steer this one. Really looking forward to seeing some more renders. Lots of varied opinions here (most of which I agree with!) but can't ever make everyone happy 🙂
I don't think the power reserve belongs on this face. The beauty is the tourbillon and the proportions. A nice textured dial would just make it pop. Really looking forward to something special
Interesting project to be part of for the 3rd time, we will see how the idea develops…
Some additional thoughts 🤔
If keeping a power reserve frontside, go with a subtle design. It’s always going to be controversial. Personally, I like the way GS and Moser does it. Subtle style Moser or beautiful GS. And/or consider eventually moving it to caseback.. or remove all together. Having a rotor means it's much less necessary.
Another sort of PR option - skeletonize barrel and have an arrow on barrel component above the spring to show when it's fully wound.
Last thought, for now ... when will Horage be at GPHG? Next year let's see Horage Aukark take the PETITE AIGUILLE or SPORTS or TOURBILLON (I think it qualifies for all of these 😉) 'Sports' has a yet another dull Doxa and Pelagos in to top 6, crazy. Taking a prize at GPHG would be great publicity for the brand. 🏆
Fieldwalker's Autark K=TMR Wish list 😀
Lume - legibility at night, without a light, is really helpful. Autark HV crushed it with cool numbers made of lume. But, the hands were a little too skinny and had almost no lume, compromising legibility. Plz ensure excellent index & hand visibility
WR - micro rotor means a screw crown is possible with no daily winding hassles. Previous Autark has a screw crown, so please don't drop this. On the ocean I never fully trust push pull. I get going super thin makes it harder, but 10mm is wicked thin and I’d rather a secure crown than a sub 10mm watch!
Grade 5 titanium is fantastic. Favorite material. Thank you thank you thank you.
Some bright and interesting colorways and dials. Modern looks. Some options: skeleton style if excellent legibility can be maintained. If a solid dial: Vitreous enamel Fume (moser or anordaine style) Undulating waves? Whirlpool sunray? Let me design some dials for you!
Last wish: please ensure a 6 inch wrist can wear snug and comfy, with no wrist overhang.
I have sadly had to return watches that I loved - that don't fit a small wrist. Integrated bracelets are terrible for this issue. Please serve those of us built like cyclists and marathon runners.
Autark K-TMR! I'm AMPED for this watch!
Firstly - congrats on the Tourbillon 2 - both enamel and the Durrow. Original design, a unique arabic numerals, and love those subtle but iconic indices.
The blue Durrow pattern is my favorite... however... I am a sports watch kind of guy...
Speaking of sports watches:
Autark Tourbillon! A sports tourbillon! Dream watch, I don't need an RM after all!
And with a micro rotor - a screw crown can be used with no daily manual winding hassles.
Autark = Self sufficient - It's a watch I can take anywhere and do anything while wearing it.
I am excited to learn about the completed watch in the end. The movement is nice and all, but I am very excited of the options we will have for the watch. I'm hoping we have grand feu enamel in different colors, that match the movement. Man it's all exciting to know, can't wait
It would be nice to see this spectacular movement on a hardened titanium G2 diving case.
5000 G shock resistance. That is incredible. What does that compare to? A car crashing into a wall with 200 Km/h. Dropping the watch from 125m.
Is the watch case also titanium
Excellent innovation - respect! Do you have layouts of the dial already? Classy or modern?
Price is a relative concept. Horage may want to consider a monthly payment plan as it will take about 18 months from START to Delivery anyway. Then it may enable more clients to get into this project. With the monthly plan, clients can see/feel/engage/commit to the progress. I am loving my T1.
Congratulations, awesome.
Are you going put this wonderful Caliber into the Supersede?
Please count me in! I liked the look of Tourbillon 1, but was disappointed you responded to feedback from people who wanted a more traditional dial with a boring end product in the form of Tourbillon 2 that for me was rather anodyne. That's the big question for me - what is the design language of the brand that offers a significant refinement from T1, and is sufficiently 'of the essence' that allows those elements/ forms to effortlessly run across an entire collection, or indeed collectionS over time, and be recognisably 'Horage'? To my mind Horage is a disrupter, a brilliant manufacture and is showing how it's possible to be a watchmaker of the highest quality, at Rolex or Zenith levels of refinement, whilst delivering value for money. Somehow all that needs to be distilled into a design language.
In what worrld do you live if you consider $11,000 USD affordable?