During K1’s development and through the watches that would demonstrate K1’s modularity and reliability the Horage community has been pushing us to new heights. The K1 movement was a first of its kind in nearly 40 years of Swiss movement manufacturing. A project that took an eye watering 7 years of development.
We have been listening and replying to the requests for additional complications packaged in a decorative manufacture movement. Thinner, lighter, sportier have been recurring themes along with our desire of modularity, efficiency and reliability.
To achieve this we set course for the second summit; K2.
THE SECOND SUMMIT
New K2 Caliber
Changing of The Guard
The Swiss movement suppliers of yesteryear have been providing a slow drip of dated movement technologies to watch brands which has curtailed the availability of the most desired movements by watch enthusiasts. Unfortunately, the lovers of fine horology have been trying to get a leg up in a fixed game. Big brands have been adding fuel to the fire by artificially slowing production, whilst increasing margin to perpetually increase retail price. The icing on the cake is the grey market players further commodifying beloved watches and completely evaporating the price/value gap.
Horage has felt this monopolistic movement squeeze and rather than succumb we have invested heavily our movement making to aide in preserving an innovative and positive future for the Swiss watch industry.
Lean production processes, producing on demand and delivering the latest in haute horology movements and timepieces developed in conjunction with our supporters has garnered a special place in the hearts of Horage’s community.
Swiss Manufacture, Industrial Precision
Like yourself, everyone is looking for the absolute best in Swiss manufacture watches to add to their collections. On the surface seeing the tell tale design attributes of a manufacture movement such as the Anglage and Geneva Strips bring a smile to ones face. Often times however a beautiful design comes at the cost of sacrificing accuracy, efficiency and the lifetime of a watch.
Manufactures of the past invested heavily in craftsmanship and relied on dusted engineering calculations past down through generations. As watch fanatics like yourself we love the beauty of the manufacture, but as engineers working with the latest in technologies we took on the challenge to bring industrial level accuracy to the manufacture world. All in all a new movement based on technologies of today, timeless design of the past and reliability well into the future.
134 parts out of 136 parts of K2’s 2.9mm model come from within Switzerland. The remaining two components are sourced from neighbouring Schwarzwald Germany, the epicentre of German watchmaking and micro-mechanical production. All design, engineering and assembly happens at Horage’s facility in Biel/Bienne Switzerland the hub of the Swiss watchmaking world.
With 99.9% of the movements value coming from Switzerland it's safe to say K2 reaches the highest designation of Made in Switzerland calibers.
Design
“If we can’t change the rules of physics then let’s play with them and that’s what we’ve done with our design.”
Floria Serex - K2 lead.
K2 is the latest micro-rotor movement to come out of Switzerland.
The micro-rotors of the past have been plagued with limited power reserves and costly service intervals for their customers. This is due to dated engineering calculations stemming back to the 1970’s. Horage is building it’s micro-rotor from the ground up and this means a fresh start with the most modern advancements in engineering. As tolerances and components become smaller the challenges for an engineer increase. Due to Horage’s capabilities as engineers we have been able to take on the Herculean task of making a completely new, in-house micro-rotor movement.
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Horage's secret sauce is our understanding of escapement technologies. Utilizing unique geometries and the use of a silicon escapement we can increase efficiency of our micro-rotor movement by a factor of 45%. This savings in efficiency means Horage can use a more pliable mainspring. The benefit of a pliable mainspring means it is easier and faster to rewind with the smaller oscillating weight of a micro-rotor.
To obtain the best power reserve with the most efficient rewinding capability we looked to fit the biggest possible oscillating weight and largest barrel.
More oscillating weight means more power from each oscillation and a larger barrel means a larger more pliable main spring to capture as much power as possible. Power creation, power retention and power release are the three pillars that our engineers have arranged all other functions around. Furthermore, development lead Florian Serex has put his creative mind to work and is developing an upgradable power reserve option that could further increase the power reserve by nearly 20% from 65 hours to 80 hours in a single barrel construction.
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Decades ago the trend was for smaller mechanical watches, however the trend shifted to heavier and larger case diameters. With this shift to bulkier watches less engineering know-how would be needed and much of the physical and mathematical understanding of micro-rotors would be frozen in time. Today the design trend is for more balanced and thinner watches and this has resurrected the micro-rotor movement once again. For such a movement there is a very narrow window of success due to the need for an incredible amount of simulations and calculations by a highly skilled team thus keeping the micro-rotor movement as a diamond in the rough of the Swiss calbers.
Modularity Equation
The bulk of movements coming out of the Swiss watchmaking houses come with a few basic functions however they are often limited in their ability to meet the bespoke complications of ever changing customer requests.
Modularity is the bread and butter of the manufacture movement houses. At the core is a movement with basic functionality that can easily have modular functions built on top of that core, these are often referred to as top modules. The issue at hand is that as one begins stacking modules the overall thickness of a watch movement increases. Additionally, modules require more power and therefore a core with a strong power reserve is required and this is a primary reason why micro-rotors of yesteryear are left from the equation.
Taking into account the many wonderful complications that could come to light Horage realized the greater opportunity with a modern micro-rotor movement.
K2 with its thin base profile of 2.9mm and 65 hour power reserve could have a multitude of complications such as perpetual calendar or chronograph and remain under 5mm.The K2 micro-rotor movement will come in 3 base modular constructions. 2.9mm - Small second or centre three hands. 3.2mm - Small second or centre three hands and calendar. 3.6mm - Travelling GMT, power reserve indicator, calendar and small second or centre three hands.
Movement Specs
A manufacture movement that is modular and meets industrial level accuracy, efficiency and reliability.
K2 is offered in three different packages.
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Movement Specs
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3.5Hz frequency or 25,200 beats per hour
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Base Dimension: 2.9mm x 30mm
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22 Jewels
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Silicon Escapement
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Tungsten micro-rotor
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65 hour power reserve
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72 - 80 hour upgradable power reserve option
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COSC level accuracy
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Masslot regulation system
Movement decoration
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Black gold coated
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Côtes de Genève on main bridge
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Brushed and blasted quadratic pattern
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Diamond or Anglage edge and bridge decoration options
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Gold plated laser etching
2.9mm
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Small second or centre three hands
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Modular and capable of adding bespoke functions like perpetual calendar and chronograph whist keeping the movement thickness under 5mm.
3.2mm
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Small second or centre three hands
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Calendar
3.6mm
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Travelling GMT
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Power reserve indicator
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Calendar
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Small second or centre three hands
Team
Horage's team of engineers and watchmakers are a mix of young and wise alike.
At the helm of Horage's engineering division named THE+ is Jonas Nydegger who as a young watchmaker and engineer has over seen Horage's K1 movement project and currently is overseeing both K2 and Horage’s current tourbillon movement project.
Florian Serex, has been the lead in the K2 micro-rotor movement project. He has had a career as a movement engineer working on and initiating the biggest movement development projects within the Swiss watch industry over the past 30 years. As head of the movement laboratory at ETA and later CEO of Vaucher Manufacture and La Joux Perret, Florian had initiated Co-Axial escapements, silicon escapements, quartz and auto-quartz movements and a multitude of mechanical movement development projects. Supporting watchmakers, engineers and technicians is Horage’s young team consisting of Silvan Deutschmann, Marcella Corbetti, Leonard Hohberg, Markus Lindstedt and Pascal Argast.