And what it takes to make a bracelet
Supersede and the new K2 micro-rotor movement are a big step for HORAGE and the watch industry in general. A ground-up watch design and movement that rattled the Swiss watch industry while offering more features. There are four complications in a modular design, thin enough to keep the case under 10mm and all for an unprecedented price. While the case and movement are a major focus, a final element brings it all together. Our custom steel bracelet simply can’t be overlooked. In fact, it’s second to the movement as far as manufacturing complexity. While easy to take for granted, it's the very thing that makes a watch a “wristwatch” and an incredible piece of engineering.
Just like watch cases, metal bracelets come in all shapes and sizes, materials and quality grades. You can find a stainless steel watch for $100 and another for $5,000, and there are obviously many factors that contribute to the price disparity. The same goes for bracelets, which contain many more parts than the vast majority of watch cases. There are actually bracelets that have more parts than some movements. Not only do all of these parts have to coordinate with each other and flow perfectly for a comfortable experience, they need to be aesthetically pleasing as well. That last part is especially important for luxury pieces.
What makes a bracelet?
The majority of watch bracelets are made from 316L stainless steel. HORAGE ups the ante with 904L stainless steel, which is used for Supersede steel cases and bracelets. 904L is more corrosion resistant than 316L and produces a better sheen when polished. Stainless steel bracelets are very popular as they’re generally hypoallergenic, low maintenance and long-lasting compared to leather and other materials. Many components make up a bracelet, starting with the clasp. Most use either a deployant clasp or more hidden butterfly clasp, and both are designed to securely lock the bracelet to your wrist. Deployant clasps often have a secondary latch to ensure it can't open accidentally, a vital redundancy if worn during sports or other vigorous activities.
The links themselves come in a wide variety of styles and counts, held together by either pins or screws. These pins can be taken out to remove links and make the bracelet shorter, but unlike a flexible strap with multiple holes for quick sizing, sometimes it can be difficult to find an optimal length for bracelets. One removable link can make it a bit too tight or loose, so some clasps come with a micro-adjustment option for tweaking the length. One solution is a spring bar on the last link that can simply be moved along a row of holes, providing a link’s worth or so of travel and another solution is hiding the micro-adjustment in the clasp thus keeping the bracelet link width and aesthetic consistent.
A special micro-adjustment design for our clasp is in the works at our Skunkworks lab in Biel/Bienne, and although we can’t share exact details yet we aim to share a first animated view prior to pre-orders starting in November 😉.
How it’s made
Bracelet manufacturing is tougher than it may seem, especially for low production, high end designs for a specific watch like Supersede. We faced several design challenges that make this a particularly challenging bracelet. For starters, it has a significant taper from 22mm at the case to 16mm at the clasp, which means the outer links aren’t consistently sized throughout. The three-link design requires each individual piece to be machined via specialized CNC equipment in multipart steps, followed by hand finishing. The case and bracelet have an integrated design as well, so the beveled and polished edges must perfectly match the case edges for a continuous, uninterrupted aesthetic to the clasp. While the centre links remain a constant size, almost every row of the outer links are different, significantly increasing the amount of steps involved for production. Bracelets that don’t taper have a much more consistent run of parts to produce.
The choice is yours!
Like many aspects of Supersede’s development, such as dial colours and the option for a COSC certification, we are letting the watch community vote on final production decisions. This includes the bracelet as you can vote on whether centre links are polished or brushed. It may sound simple, but the aesthetic difference is significant. Do you want a more muted, stealthy vibe or two-tone brushed/polished finish? It’s a major source of discussion among watch enthusiasts. Of course, we like both finishes, but to streamline production and keep prices as affordable as possible, we can only choose one for final production. And that choice is yours!
Supersede is comprised of three elements – the K2 micro-rotor movement, all-terrain GMT sports watch with four complications on the dial and the integrated 904L stainless steel bracelet. They all must work together both functionally and aesthetically to bring a stylish, seamless package together. Our complex bracelet design results in an organic extension of the case. It’s very difficult to manufacture, but nothing less would do.
https://www.horage.info/supersede
Erik Slaven
P.S. An exciting new website is being built in the background, therefore you will find all votable options available. Don't fret, we will have some future forum posts on the rubber/bracelet options and rotor details.
Either way, the endlink should be brushed. The endlink is wider than the centerlink. In the polished centerlink option, the polished area abruptly widens at the case and visually breaks up the integration of the bracelet.
Brushed, no question.
This is not an easy call. In general I'd be voting for all brushed. Less bling, more subdued, more my style.. Also, all brushed will not pick up micro scratches so easily. But, oddly, I feel the polished center link works better with this overall design. 2cents
Brushed with a polished centre. Two Tone every time,
Just like the music it needs to be energetic, bold, confident and make a statement
“To much too young”
It will be loved till I die
The Royal Oak is a great example of how classic the all brushed look really is. Sure it has some polished surfaces but all the radial out faces are brushed. Polished center links have always struck me as a bit too try-hard. And one other thing, please, please, please match the end link finish to the case finish regardless of the center links. The polished end links in the photos look very disjointed in both examples.
I doubt polished versus brushed makes much difference for showing scratches, much less than surface hardening treatments.
Brushed it's a tool/adventure watch. Polished gets scratched easily. Plus I like the uniformity of the brushed look.
I vote for polished.
There are other factors. I want smooth convex surfaces between the links. To me a major benefit of a metal bracelet is that I can shower with the watch and wash the crud from my skin out of the bracelet, I want the stuff to come out and let the entire bracelet dry quickly. This ability ot clean makes the watch much more comfortable in long wear.
Polished gives more flexibility to wear casual or formal.
Polished, confident the links will get scratched. Those bruises and scars are part of my story and I welcome them.
Brushed for sure. Great to hear about the microadjust in the works. Not having an on the fly microadjust would likely be a dealbreaker for me with a luxury sports watch.
+1 for the polished links
When wearing a watch in natural light or artificial light, the movement of the wrist can create a striking effect with the difference in refraction from polished and brushed, perfectly demonstrated in the AP Royal Oak. I would go for polished and brushed given the choice, but I can imagine will look stunning brushed also.
Always in preference for the muted look, I will prefer brushed.
If your pics are representative of the two choices for the bracelet, the polished center links look very attractive.
Brushed, less chance of scratches
There is so much detail in this watch along with intersecting sections of polished, brushed and matte sections. Either one I think will look great, but I am leaning towards brushed.
I love the uniform surface texture of a brushed integrated bracelet. It looks so purposeful, and backs up the technical intent of the watch. I'm all for the sides of links having some polish, but centre links can be blingy. That has its place, but it's not how I interpreted this watch.
It is so difficult to decide... somehow I am on the ploshed side I think