Tourbillon 1 - A Look Back - Part 2

If you missed part 1 of this series be sure to catch up by having a read of it here as we pick up somewhat around where we left off.

As mentioned at the end of part 1 we started the tourbillon project with La Joux-Perret (LJP), but later would have to take on the project in its entirety by ourselves. Needless to say the shoes are big ones to fill when embarking on a tourbillon project and a little brand like Horage was indeed taking on the impossible when we announced Mission Tourbillon on April 1st 2019.

Original LJP Tourbillon 1 Prototype

But it didn't exactly start then...

On October 21st, 2017 Horage head of engineering Jonas Nydegger shared his comments on a YouTube video featuring a model of a double-axis tourbillon. His comments are everything that is great about Jonas, unfiltered brutal honesty. Most importantly Jonas sheds light on the values at the heart of his approach to movement development.

Click the image to check out the post.

"Jonas Nydegger 8:09pm Oct 21

This video shows why Tourbillons are total nonsense... With every vibration of the balancer, the cage of the Tourbillon accelerates and slows down again... The influences on walking behavior are too much, it just doesn't make any sense..

Old school tourbillon builders like Breguet, Daniels or Pratt always tried to build the cages as simple as possible to keep the influences low... and today some hobby constructors craft far too massive cages and are ranting that it's haute-horology ...

As you can see, I'm against Tourbillon 😎"

It might seem that at first glance Jonas was against the tourbillon because he outright says that. However he was against and still against anything that impedes what he and the watchmakers that walked before him set out to do and that is the improvement on a movements accuracy. This is the "Old School" approach he mentions that Breguet, Daniels and Pratt (movement makers) who were purists chasing seconds rather than an elaborate decoration or moving construction exercise labeled as haute-horology.

George Daniels

George Daniels "Blue" Tourbillon source: A Collected Man

Quite a good lecture on the co-axial escapement.

George Daniels as told by Watchfinder.

Derek Pratt

Tourbillon cage from his oval pocket watch tourbillon - read the article here . Image source: SJX

Derek Pratt - The Forgotten Watchmaker source: A Collected Man

There are limited video resources on Derek Pratt, but this sheds some light on his developments.

Horage founder Tzuyu was following this very closely and shared Jonas' views on this.

The post got Tzuyu thinking and she realized that we should likely explore making a tourbillon watch and so the discussion was started. Jonas and the others were at first very much against a tourbillon especially something that could potentially impede a movements performance as in a gyro tourbillon. However as the idea had time to develop, Jonas and the team eventually had a change of heart and found the idea of working on a tourbillon a challenge, with the mindset that if we were going to do this we would improve on something existing or develop something of our own.

Jonas chasing seconds.

Working on an existing movement was at that time in our companies history deemed far less of a risk as we had the K2 micro-rotor in development. We had an idea where to look for a known movement and Horage founders Tzuyu and Andi began to put the wheels in motion.

Mission Tourbillon

On April 1st, 2019 Andi shared an image of an Array watch with a tourbillon cage inserted into it to gauge the reaction. Later this newsletter went out directing folks to our first forum post on April 9th, 2019 and the response from the community was enough to start development.

Click the image to check out the original newsletter.

The design of Tourbillon 1 was penned by Marcella a young watchmaker that had worked with us from 2015. As a decoration specialist she could understand how the finish of the decoration could pull out the intricacies of the movement through a quadratic design. It was a fresh look that was loved by open work fanatics, but one that took the traditionalist took time to warm up to. With respect for tradition and an eye firmly set on the future the design embodied what we has a company valued.

It's always interesting to see the first mockup and how it changed. Notice the hour track, crown size and bridge cutouts. Click to see the first forum post.

With a design on the table the next challenge was getting the project off the ground and we spent the follow five months getting things in order.

Working With Friends

Now, Mission Tourbillon started like most other brands attempt at making a tourbillon.

We too looked to an existing movement maker with the caveat that our team could make improvements and come away with something new and improved to ensure we had what the industry deemed as an in-house movement. The reasons for this were two fold on one side we were tasked with the development of the K2 micro-rotor and had little internal support to focus on a tourbillon which in and of itself is deemed a 5-10 year development timeline and on the other side if we were going to work with something existing we simply had to make it better.

To relieve us from the pressure to develop a new movement we contacted our friend and consultant Florian Serex who was the CEO of LJP also former CEO of Vaucher Manufacture and not to mention he also spent 20 years at ETA, needless to say Florian knows his stuff, but he also knows our team and had intimate knowledge of our projects. It just so happened that LJP had some tourbillon options and we decided to re-work one of their existing models.

Florian has an electric personality and a deep passion for engineering movements. He took George Daniels co-axial escapement seriously and initiated it for Omega. Be sure to watch his interview.

From April to September 2019 we worked on preparing all the production drawings and looked at ways to optimize the movement.

You can see that some of the cutouts have already changed in production and would change again when we eventually developed the movement ourself. Click the image to check the development post.

By late autumn of 2019 things had kicked into high gear and we started machining with first samples

Andi with a visual inspection on a visit to LJP. Click to check the forum post.

Where it all started. The Array side by side with the first milled tourbillon part.

Just in time for the holidays on December 24th, 2019 we announced that the first movement samples had arrived.

The tourbillon cage with silicon escapement. Click the image to check it out.

During this process the community was growing and we started to pique interests from around the globe. Having had little media exposure in the past the tourbillon was raising an eyebrow or two. Media either wanted to meet us and share our story or appease the big brands by pushing us aside.

Our first media presentation was with at the time a little known podcast named Scottish Watches along with Red Bar Glasgow. At that time Scottish Watches were a mere blip on the watch enthusiasts radar however fast forward to today and they are contending for the top spot in global watch podcasts.

@Andreas Felsl privat at our first podcast in Glasgow. It was the catalyst needed to connect with the community.

Andi and myself headed to Scotland for a few days with tourbillons in hand. It was our first Red Bar, but also the first public presentation of Tourbillon 1 and the response was overwhelming. The feedback presented from that event motivated us to hit the road to meet with enthusiasts and media around the world. We felt like we might just have a chance if we could get out and see as many people as possible.

Some nerves and some laughs with Scottish Watches.

At this time the news of a new virus started appearing on the news. We like most took notice, but kept pressing on with our plans to share the tourbillon with the world as we like all hoped the virus would remain isolated.

Tzuyu, Andi, Marcella and myself met up in Taipei to meet with the watch community and media there to show Tourbillon 1.

Tzuyu on the mic presenting to the community in Taipei with Andi in the control room.

Marcella doing live movement assembly captivated the crowd.

The Taipei community was very welcoming and we wish we could have stayed longer.

It was an incredible trip, but surreal as on our first night there we went for dinner and were the only people in the restaurant something that had an eery feel to the future. We would then head on to Singapore to meet with media such as IsoChrono and SJX as well as meet with the watch enthusiasts of TWCA. On February 29th while we were still in Singapore when the Torubillon 1 global pre-order went live and a few days later we would all return home.

An Incredible turnout in Singapore. Andi talking watches with the attendees.

Marcella again with her mobile movement assembly.

ORIGINS OF THE TOURBILLON POLAROID

Let's just say I have a thing for cameras and photography. In 2004 I took my first job as a full-time photographer and as hard as it was at times working as a pro photographer it would in the future open many doors, the most important being my role today at Horage. In the early years I shot Nikon and when liquid funds became more available I picked up my first Leica M in 2016.

Maybe I will share more on the photography side of things in future times. Let me know in the comments if that is interesting to you.

While in Singapore my addiction to cameras would spark a little retail therapy. I naturally had to visit the Leica shop where I stumbled upon the Leica Sofort. They handed me a test camera loaded with film. Pressing the shutter and watching the film develop before my eyes was simply magical, it transported me back to a time before digital and I was hooked. There is something special about a physical photo in hand to share with friends immediately.

There needed to be a reason to purchase this camera.... Then I had an idea. Our watchmakers are what make things tick and without them there would simply be no Horage. I figured the customer would probably like to see who finished their watch and to make that happen an instant camera could do just the trick. Given that I couldn't take the photos all the time as I'm not always in the watchmaking facility I ran the idea by Marcella and she said she would like take the photos if the camera was red... Ok, red it would have to be.

So on that day in late February 2020 we decided to include a portrait of the watchmaker completing each Tourbillon 1 customers watch.

Playing with the new red toy at the Singapore TWCA event.

The first photos taken with the Leica Sofort.

The good times would soon come to an end and within a few weeks of returning home the world would change forever.

Stay tuned for Part 3.