Horage: workshop identity, technical choices and evidence

From a sourced movement to a new base calibre

Horage’s account begins in 2007 with discussions between Andreas Felsl and Tzuyu Huang, who had already established an OEM sourcing business in Biel/Bienne. Omnium debuted in 2009 with an outsourced movement. The house describes that arrangement as the stimulus for developing its own K1 base calibre. Stephen Kussmaul began the engineering work; Jonas Nydegger and Florian Serex later carried it forward. The Jonas-K1 watch launched on Kickstarter in 2015. The same account acknowledges partners outside Switzerland for hands, dials and cases.

The change concerns control over the movement rather than a claim to manufacture every watch component internally. Commercial sourcing experience preceded the new calibre, and the public chronology names several technical contributors. That combination makes Horage’s identity an engineering organisation built through accumulated work.

Evidence: About Us

Biel engineering and assembly from small parts

Horage places engineering, research, machining and assembly at its Biel/Bienne facility. Its production account emphasises assembly beginning at terminage zero: jewels and other small components that may arrive preassembled in other arrangements are fitted by its own team. The company describes investment in tooling for that work and presents the K1 as a bridge between decorated manufacture movements and industrial production. Modularity, complication flexibility and repeatable production are treated as related goals, rather than separate ranges intended for unrelated workshops.

The relevant distinction is the work undertaken at the facility. Starting with small parts gives the assembly claim a more specific meaning than simply stating that a watch is finished locally. It still leaves the origins of materials and individual components open to separate evidence. Horage’s contrast between manufacture and industrial approaches is its commercial framing; the profile does not adopt its broad judgments about other movements’ reliability or infer a verified annual output from the account.

Evidence: Watchmaking

K1 and complications within a common profile

The K1 page presents the automatic calibre as the foundation for later Horage movement work. Its specification lists a 65-hour reserve, 3.5-hertz frequency, silicon anchor and escape wheel, and a tungsten rotor. The modular design accommodates date, seconds and power-reserve arrangements within the base movement rather than by stacking an additional external module. Horage lists eighteen configurable variations. It also distinguishes its own regulation to a stated chronometer-level rate from the particular Autark model discussed as carrying COSC certification.

The modular approach links movement planning to case thickness: the organisation of complications is part of the basic architecture. A list of configurations, however, describes design possibilities rather than proving that every version appears in a currently available watch. A maker’s internal rate target and a certificate issued for an individual movement are different records, even when they refer to similar numerical tolerances.

Evidence: K1 Automatic

A smaller rotor and three movement profiles

K2 adopts a micro-rotor placed within the movement, rather than above it. Horage describes a gold-plated tungsten rotor and three configurations of 2.9, 3.3 and 3.6 millimetres, with thirty-eight possible variants across the platform. The thickest profile accommodates GMT, date, day-and-night and reserve indications. The published specification adds a silicon hairspring to the silicon escapement components. The page also describes black-gold plating, contrasting lettering and hand finishing, treating the visible architecture as part of the calibre’s identity.

Here the reduced rotor footprint is coupled to the arrangement of the surrounding mechanism. Thickness therefore has to be attached to a configuration, rather than quoted as one universal K2 dimension. The different display combinations likewise belong to the platform’s possibilities. Horage’s percentage improvements in winding efficiency remain comparative manufacturer claims without an independently read test protocol in this packet. The architectural description can stand on its own without converting those claims into verified performance for every model or wearer.

Evidence: K2 Micro-Rotor

K3 and a central-rotor development path

The K3 page describes an automatic central-rotor movement developed and manufactured in Biel/Bienne, designed for efficient production and a wider audience. Its basic arrangement uses three central hands; other versions can add small seconds, a date or a reserve display on the reverse. Silicon is central to the house’s presentation of the platform. The page connects material choices to reserve, friction and magnetic behaviour, while also framing the movement as a resource for other independent watch brands rather than exclusively for Horage-labelled watches.

This account extends the house’s movement strategy beyond a single rotor format. A central rotor and a micro-rotor occupy different architectural roles, so one does not simply replace the other in every design. The proposed variants also make K3 a platform story. The precise silicon-component wording on this page is ambiguous and is not silently corrected here.

Evidence: K3 Automatic

A supplier setback and the K-TOU response

Horage recounts an initial plan to buy tourbillon movements from a Swiss supplier using its own silicon escapement arrangement. When that agreement failed, prototypes and preorders already existed. The company says its team then developed K-TOU, drawing on experience accumulated through K1. The resulting hand-wound design places a titanium flying-tourbillon cage at six and exposes the mechanism through a grid structure. Its published specification lists a 120-hour reserve; the page describes an official COSC certificate as a configurable option rather than an attribute of every example.

The failure story gives the development a practical pressure: an architecture had to answer existing commitments, rather than emerge solely from an unrestricted design exercise. The account is the maker’s retrospective and its compressed development timetable has not been independently audited. The visible grid and rotating cage establish the design described, while neither appearance proves improved real-world accuracy.

Evidence: K-TOU Tourbillon

Autark Tourbillon and a combined architecture

The Autark Tourbillon page describes K-TMR as a new architecture drawing on Horage’s existing K2 and K-TOU component knowledge. It combines a micro-rotor with a flying tourbillon, with a published movement thickness of 3.6 millimetres and a 72-hour reserve. The card offers a rhodium-plated tungsten rotor or a platinum upgrade. A power-reserve indication is available on selected dial versions. Grade 5 titanium, mixed case finishes and an integrated bracelet belong to the specific watch described, rather than automatically to every Horage tourbillon.

The combination reveals the practical value of an accumulated component library without making the new movement identical to either predecessor. Winding, rotating escapement and display options have to fit one architecture. The card’s rotor choices and dial-dependent reserve indicator also show how a single model name can cover materially different specifications. Horage’s efficiency superlatives and percentage comparison for the platinum option remain manufacturer claims; no comparative test or individual specimen is offered as proof in this profile.

Evidence: Autark Tourbillon

MicroReg, a partner and a new regulation interface

Horage’s MicroReg account names miniswys SA as its technology partner and describes a miniature actuator used to adjust regulation without opening the case. The Revolution 3 watch integrates that system into a K2 micro-rotor movement. The mechanism is presented on the front, while the primary time indication uses a rotating disc read at six; a secondary indication appears on the reverse. The page dates the technology announcement to July 2024 and relates the project to differences between controlled regulation conditions and an individual wearer’s use.

The partnership is part of the technical identity of this project. The watch combines a mechanical timekeeping system with a separate adjustment technology, rather than making rate adjustment equivalent to the watch’s energy source. Its unusual display also makes the movement itself a prominent visual subject. The account supports that division of functions; it does not establish world priority, an infinite actuator life, or zero deviation under all conditions.

Evidence: Revolution 3 MicroReg

Supersede GMT G2 and an invisible gear change

The Supersede GMT G2 page describes revisions to the power-reserve indicator and seconds track alongside a change inside the K2 movement. Horage explains that a flexible gear-train component, made with a lithographic process, addresses minute-hand movement during local-hour resetting. The specification identifies a separately adjustable local hour, a home-hour indication, day-and-night display, date and reserve indicator. It also states that the watch ships with a COSC certificate matching the movement number. These details belong to the G2 card and are not generalised to earlier Supersede watches.

The example connects a small visible effect to an otherwise hidden engineering change. It also separates the display redesign from the mechanism’s revision: both affect the experience, but through different parts of the watch. The flexible component’s intended result is described by the maker, without an independently inspected gear or measured wear comparison here.

Evidence: Supersede GMT G2

The website operator and unresolved equity

The public terms identify Horage SA as the provider of the website and give a Biel/Bienne address. Andreas Felsl appears in that identification block. The document defines its capitalised term for the website’s owner in the context of the service and contractual relationship. It does not present a share register or an ultimate beneficial-owner chain. Accordingly, this profile records Horage SA as the published operator identity, while leaving the current equity owner unasserted.

That distinction completes the entity scope needed for the technical history. A company operating a site, a founder contributing to its origins, a technology partner and a shareholder are different roles. A terms page can establish the first of those without answering every other ownership question. Reading its operator wording narrowly also prevents the engineering collaborations described elsewhere from being relabelled as acquisitions. The legal identity is a public self-description checked on the stated date, with independent registry confirmation still outside the evidence assembled here.

Evidence: Horage SA Terms

Reader exercise: separating identity from evidence

On paper, choose two sections and write one question that each can answer. Then write a question that would require a different kind of record. Separate a named contributor, an activity, a date and a product configuration into four columns. Compare the columns without operating or opening a watch. Finish by stating which uncertainty remains and what evidence could resolve it; leave the answer open when the selected record cannot supply it.

Original editorial observation or reading prompt.