Part 1. MicroReg: A story of lucky collisions

Words by Andi Felsl.

When thinking about revolution, one inevitably thinks about change. Most of the time, innovation is at the heart of this change. Business leaders and universities often preach, "If you don’t innovate, you will die." Many companies come into being because they have an idea and manage to transform it into a business for which people are willing to pay. However, they often fail to achieve a second true innovation that surpasses their original success, ultimately ceasing to exist. When asked how they came up with their brilliant, sometimes market-transforming ideas, these people often struggle to explain. It seems that this so-called "luck" often comes down to being in the right place at the right time with the right people.

The watch industry is very old, and technical innovation is hard to spot. Breakthroughs are rare, and innovations are often incremental and only visible to experts in the field. These incremental innovations might improve precision or make it easier to produce a certain component. It doesn't seem to involve a lot of luck but rather decades of experience with specific manufacturing problems leading to incremental improvements.

We also see companies that innovate in marketing without any technical expertise in watchmaking. Personally, I am skeptical about these types of watch companies because watchmaking is ultimately a challenging engineering and manufacturing game. The success of market-leading companies is largely built on their technical and manufacturing capabilities, honed and improved over many decades.

Occasionally, there are breakthrough innovations even in the traditionally oriented world of mechanical watches. The introduction of silicon in watchmaking was such an innovation. However, it took 20 years to become a standard, overcoming many technical and political obstacles. It may take another 10 years before silicon in watchmaking becomes the standard.

At Horage, we have been at the forefront of this silicon transformation, and looking back, it was worth all the risks we took. Our quest to learn how to design and make movements and our work in silicon regulating technologies laid the foundation for another breakthrough innovation, which we believe MicroReg will be. Was it luck to come up with MicroReg? Yes. Did we actively take steps to invite this luck? We think so, because luck is ultimately a dividend of sweat.

Perhaps this is the key element when thinking about creating innovations, especially breakthrough ones: one needs to be open to being visited by luck. Waiting for this moment can take years or even decades.

During this MicroReg project, which will span several years, we want to take the community along on this journey.

This post will be one of many in the months to come, describing the beginnings of this project and how it all came about.

Fundamentals Don’t Change

As movement makers, precision is everything—we chase microns every day. (Watch our Chasing Microns film for more on this subject.) Before a movement is placed into a watch, it must be regulated to the highest level of precision. This fundamental challenge has been around since the invention of the mechanical watch centuries ago. Anyone who designs or assembles movements knows the sleepless nights that come with regulating a watch. The two main questions are always the same: How can we make these parts more precise? And how can we reduce the time it takes to fine-tune the assembled movement?

What sets us apart as a company is that we’re one of the few who can design and produce regulation components using silicon. This capability led us to create the renowned Tourbillon 1. Our expertise in this field, built over a decade, positioned us to develop an even more advanced tourbillon movement. This experience laid the groundwork for rethinking how to regulate watches more efficiently. To innovate, you first need a deep understanding of regulating systems, from the theory to the manufacturing challenges. Only then can you truly make meaningful improvements to something that has functioned well for decades.

Because these systems have worked so well for so long, and because so few companies have had the need or opportunity to venture into assortment development and manufacturing, past attempts at improvement often fell short. Solutions either strayed too far from the traditional Swiss mechanical watch, failed to deliver on their promises, or became too complex and costly to produce.

Chronometry Matters

Back in 2017, when we first tested our K1 movement in an industrially scalable setup, it became clear that chronometry—precision timekeeping—was becoming a crucial competitive edge for watchmakers. However, with our current setup and low production volumes, regulating movements to chronometer standards and maintaining that precision over time was going to be expensive. Factors like vibrations during transportation, time spent in storage, or even sitting in a retailer's display all gradually impacted the watch’s chronometric performance. We found that despite perfect regulation at our facilities, some watches didn’t maintain the precision once worn, even failing to meet the documentation issued by COSC, the certification authority.

This led to several internal discussions about COSC certification and the degradation issue faced by nearly every mechanical watch in its early days. Was it worth sticking with COSC certification when its validity became obsolete after a few months of wear? In the end, we decided it was. COSC certification isn’t just a precision guarantee; it’s a quality benchmark that helps us improve our manufacturing processes and increase the yield rate during certification.

The degradation isn’t the fault of COSC—it’s an inherent issue with mechanical watch architecture. Faced with this challenge, I began discussing the idea of regulating a watch externally. At the time, I wasn’t sure if others in the industry saw this as a major issue, but it seemed to me that many had accepted the problem without considering the possibility of a solution.

As we dug deeper into understanding the problem, it became clear that we had to find a way to solve it.

EPFL: The Hotbed of Innovation

Innovation isn’t just about solving a problem; it’s also about being in the right place with the right people. This was crucial for the development of MicroReg.

It all started with our second Kickstarter campaign, where one of our backers turned out to be a lecturer at Lausanne University's EPFL executive master program. When he picked up his Array watch, we discovered a mutual interest in patents and intellectual property strategies. At the time, we were deeply involved in various IP conflicts surrounding silicon technologies in the watch industry. He saw this situation as a unique case study for his students, offering a real-time look into the challenges of patents in the industry. He invited me to co-lecture on this topic for his Executive Master Program, where the CEO of MiniSwys was also a student. The CEO wasn’t just learning about innovation management but also developing a business model for a piezo actuator, a key component for his company.

As I got to know the CEO and learned more about piezo actuator technology, it became clear that this technology could play a crucial role in what would eventually become the MicroReg solution. Initially, our contact was informal and purely out of interest, but soon MiniSwys asked me to join their board to help find more applications for their technology. This formal role allowed me to dive deeper into the technical details and understand the full capabilities of the piezo actuator.

Meanwhile, internally, we were holding workshops to optimize our regulating systems. We had already been brainstorming for some time about how to regulate a watch from the outside. Achieving chronometer precision is both costly and complex, and removing the human element by automating parts of the process is something that larger companies are constantly striving for. For us, as a smaller company focused on precision, finding more cost-effective ways to improve our regulation procedures was essential.

However, no matter how well we regulate a watch in the lab, the true test comes when the watch is worn. The lifestyle of the wearer greatly impacts the watch’s performance over time. You could buy a certified watch that has been sitting in a warehouse for months, and once you start wearing it, whether you're a desk worker or an active person, it may start losing or gaining a minute or two each week.

As a result, I often hear people say, “I love my mechanical watch, but it runs a little fast.” While some people accept this, others are frustrated enough to take their watch back to the maker for regulation, which can be an expensive and recurring issue.

The gap between what the industry can achieve in the lab and what customers experience in real life leads to questions and dissatisfaction. Without a way to adjust the watch’s precision to the wearer's lifestyle or address long-term degradation without returning it to the watchmaker, this gap remains—and so does the frustration of our customers.

The Eureka Moment

In 2023, during yet another tech conversation with my friend at Miniswys, I had a sudden realization. Why not use their technology to hide a "sleeping watchmaker" within our movement, one that could be activated by the user whenever needed? Something that could be remotely triggered to perform the tasks a watchmaker would normally do with a screwdriver. That was the moment—a Eureka flash, where everything suddenly made sense.

I asked the Miniswys CEO, "Can your actuator turn a screw?" His answer: "Yes, I think so." Instantly, I started thinking about different regulation systems used over the past century. As a German, I was particularly drawn to the idea of combining a modified swan neck regulation system with the Miniswys actuator, powered by a simple connection through the watch case.

At that point, nothing was certain, but I felt we might be onto something. From then on, our minds were racing, exploring the best combinations or even entirely new approaches to meet our goal: allowing the user to adjust the watch from the outside without incorporating any electronics inside the movement, all while preserving the essence of a traditional Swiss watch.

It’s difficult to explain how such ideas come about. It’s like a process of brewing, and then suddenly, a simple yet powerful idea is born.

Next time, we’ll dive into what happened after this idea came to life. Stay Tuned

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