The tourbillon Pre-Order is off to the races and it is so great to see how many of you have supported this project. Thank you from all of us at HORAGE it puts a smile on our faces knowing you will enjoy these watches as much as we love making them.
We can’t get enough of the configurator and seeing all the options that can be made and it has been interesting to see the many different options people have chosen.
This past week we skipped a Tuesday update as we have been head down fielding questions from customers and media alike. In addition we returned from our events in Taipei and Singapore which we had an absolutely great time at. The response from the community on those two island nations was more than we could ask for. Thank you to iwatchome and DXM watch for organizing our event in Taipei and thank you to The Watch Club Asia for hosting us at their first annual club meetup.
Taipei
Singapore
Since returning back home we have also been busy finalizing the case back to the tourbillon. The case back we had on our tour was for sample purposes only and we will be updating it with the below image.
You will notice that changes have been made to both the name and the certification area. The name was a difficult one for us to decide upon. There were so many great option for names that in the end we felt that we should stick to the complication and name this watch Tourbillon 1. As we have continually made mention to we will not produce this tourbillon after the pre-orders are in and it will be limited to the exact amount on pre-order.
For those of you that ordered or will order the COSC upgrade you will receive documentation of your COSC upgrade after the watch is certified by them. COSC certification is exclusive to each piece and that means that we cannot have COSC Certified on the case back for every single watch as not all pieces will have certification.
However for those that have paid for COSC certification your watches will have the Chronometer Certified or Certified Chronometer on the case back.
Regarding to new case back for those that do not purchase the COSC upgrade, adjusted 5 positions +6/-4 seconds as seen on the new case back means that our watch has been tested in-house to reach COSC level accuracy. The Adjusted (ADJ) 5 Positions (POS) means the watch has been tested in the same 5 positions as COSC does and that the watch performs at +6/-4 seconds in each of those positions, which is the requirement for COSC level accuracy.
Once we receive the case back from production we will create some new photographs and share with you.
It should be noted again that we have decided exclusively upon 904L Stainless Steel and solid 18K gold cases. The reasoning for this is the performance qualities and aesthetics of both of these metals for a tourbillon. Titanium’s primary advantage is weight reduction, however the stainless steel watch at just 52 grams impressed us and furthermore the brilliance of the watch really stood out after many weeks of handing and shipping around the world. We work with our Swiss supplier for our 904L stainless steel and as a premium steel it fits very well to our story of creating one of the greatest value Swiss tourbillons the world has seen. When it comes to gold, we love it and not the plated type, the solid gold type. We have also developed our own colour that is much warmer and richer in appearance than yellow gold.
Many have asked if we will be doing more events and the answer is yes. The next one is in Biel at our watchmaking facility March 21st, 2020. We will be having an open house that day from 11am-14:00 where you can come meet our engineers, watchmakers, and founders and most importantly view and try the tourbillons on for yourself.
Where: THE Plus AG
Address: Factory 1 (1st floor rear building), Solothurnstrasse 1, 2501 Biel/Bienne
When: Saturday March 21st, 2020
Time: 11:00-14:00
Please RSVP us your attendance to lostintime@horage.com. We have limited space and only those on the list will be able to join.
Till next time…
Landon Stirling
Not to diminish what has been said or been done...how is it the Autark 10-yr LE has the words 'Chronometer Officially Certified' on the dial; but, the Tourbillion 1 can't have a semblance of that phrase on it? Is it because it's on the back; or, fitting certain words on the back is not OK; or, can't be done because of space; or, because(Tourbillion) it is another project requiring updated authority/licensing, or something else? I've seen the letters COSC on the back of the watch in several pictures. Not sure if I'm following this thread correctly?
@Damien Clz @Anson Jim @Jonny
Hi all together,
perhaps it is helpful that I give a short comment on this conversation, because I was in discussion with the CEO of COSC and he informed me that the name COSC cannot be used on a product, neither their corporate logo, because they are trademarks which are not meant to indicate that a product is certified. Honestly and we are very sorry about that, we did not know this and this is also the reason why we had to take down some pictures where this COSC was visible. Usually we do not do this, but we just followed the guidelines of COSC after it was clear.
We are now figuring out how we put the correct certification wording on the case back and how to handle this. The correct wording and official way is “Chronometer Certified” or reversed as we also do it on dials, however limited space on the case back filled us with false hope being able to put COSC as a term there😢
I am sorry that I did not inform @landonstirling quickly enough on the correct wording. Sorry Landon, it was my fault and sorry to the community that we had some confusion here.
At the end of the day I am sure we get things sorted out and all of us will be happy with this beautiful product.
Straight forward honesty is still the best way to handle things and I advised Landon to update the post accordingly so everything is correct.
As always we welcome your comments and appreciate the communication we can have with all of you
Andi
Hi Landon and team, many thanks for the updates!
I must also share my great disappointment that the COSC certicifation will not be engraved on the case-back much like it was on the prototypes...
I understand the trademark issue but would it not be possible to have only those which will be COSC certified engraved? Much like the SN which is unique to each case? Since this is a preorder and you will know exactly which watch with which SN will be COSC certified and which one will not (considering the fact that COSC option has to be paid in advance)?
I support Jonny's suggestion that you might revisit this choice if possible.
In my humble but honest opinion this unfortunately devalues the COSC upgrade/option.
“K-Tou” would have been better!
Great to hear things are progressing.... though a real shame and disappointment you cannot have COSC on the case-back, as without “chronometer” on front this seemed a good compromise for the watch wearer. Might you rethink this? Also surprised you’ve opted for such a bland naming with just “tourbillon 1”, especially after all those ideas and endless socialising and teasers! Oh well, let’s see how the thinking ‘evolves’!