Couple under the radar (not Swatch) releases

Horage ⌚💪 so beautiful 😍, means ⛈️ in French. I dig it @Fieldwalker

In the swirling hurricane of Swatchpain🤣

Hurry…

cheers my friend 🍻

And yes ! I totally forgot the meaning in French (no French practice since high school ~ 30 years ago) .

I was in Montreal a few weeks ago and was quite hopeless trying to speak French 😬

Favorite sculpture:

Quite impressive spec for the price tbh from Horage. Especially with an in-house movement and 904L steel plus the transparent Swiss production process is something to applaud. The blue dial variant someday. Gives me the Czapek vibes but at a reasonable price 😅

And that SPB149, proper summer watch. The dial is beautiful.

Thank you for sharing something outside the swatchbubble.

“Swatchpain” 😂 😂 Love it

Looks very nice and priced about right.

That Horage is awesome! So many excellent features for the price point!

Beautiful! Front and movement with small rotor. Wish i can purchase it on my next travel.

Horage, I swear, is the most under-the-radar brand.

I cannot state emphatically enough how amazing a brand @HORAGE is within the sphere of Independent Watchmaking. My Supersede GMT has more or less completely changed my watch hunting goals for the next decade. It fills so many slots (Daily, Dress, Sport, Dive, Travel) and has ruined me for its price point. If I don't get specs and wearing experience and customer service on par with them, I simply am not interested anymore.

A couple of salespeople I've struck up conversations with are familiar with the brand and simply want me to come in next time to show it to them...others salivated when I told them the specs and begged me to come in when it arrives.

The Supersede Date basically kills your Aqua Terra, your Pelagos 39 (tbh, the 904 isn't really even that heavy and with the dimensions it disappears on your wrist), and most watches in the 5-7K range for me. If you are even remotely in the market for what this brand offers, just do it!

Hmm .. yes the Horage has great specs but the price is uncompetitive. For that, you could get a spring drive Grand Seiko or a used Omega with heritage.

I have a spring drive Grand Seiko and I would argue all things being equal (Snowflake to at least my supersede GMT, but we could compare on the Supersede Date), that the Horage offers a much better package. I love spring drive and definitely want to own one again after I sell this one to a friend, but the bracelet alone, all grand seiko watches fall short, and heritage never really concerned me as watch brands with heritage can sometimes rely on it rather than quality and innovation (not saying this is true of omega) but for me at least you have to consider the price AND specs and wearing experience and my snowflake doesn't compare to the wearing experience of the Supersede.

Ha! How opinions can differ.

I can't say that agree with @ckim4watches as Seiko seems incapable of making a non quartz watch under 13mm thick outside of the Evo9 collection which is way more expensive and Omega has nothing that wears as sleek as this one and much like you, I could not care less about heritage and hate it when brands rely upon it. In fact, I would totally agree with you that this watch is a catch, IF it had normal lugs or at least the bracelet was any good 🫣

I actually tried the Supersede on. I made a not insignificant trip to do so, TWICE, (I REALLY wanted to like it) and found the bracelet to be the main issue (aside from the questionable implementation of jumping hour hand and date coupling which this new one doesn't have). Now granted that may have had a lot to do with the fact that the end links make it unwearable for me, a me-problem rather than a watch related problem, but even without putting it on it didn't strike me as a good bracelet as it was quite light and jiggly. The clasp is of course phenomenal if you value micro adjust (which I do not, I'd rather have a butterfly but also a me-problem), nice and thin, but the bracelet felt to me like straight off a Longines or vintage Ebel. Nothing wrong with Longines... but only at a third of the asking price here.

Wow, did you try on a prototype or a production model? I have just over a 7" wrist and the thing was simply made for me, the end links I can understand and the integrated offering forces you to their straps (or an eventual ETSY shop making the right end links). For 904L, the bracelet feels incredibly light and while pin-and-collar can be annoying for some, my snowflake had the same issue, but with the micro-adjust in the clasp I basically sized it once and never have to look back.

As for the jump hour and date, it's actually super easy for me once I figured out that I needed to make sure I adjusted the hour jumps 24 not 12 hours if I wanted to go beyond normal timekeeping mode. I definitely think its superior to a flyer GMT model where you have no quick set date :)

The mist flake from the evo 9 collection is on my list and I love it...but the damn clasp has no adjustments and at this point I'm making that a dealbreaker for me given my collection

I was told it's not a for-sale model but equivalent in every way. It was at one of the few official points of sale so you'd think they know. But I am not sure honestly, there was also a screw poking out at the lugs which they told me is normal but I never saw it in any online content like that. So maybe it was still not quite right what they had. Maybe it wasn't put together with proper pins ans screws ... who knows?! I have seen stranger things at high end watch stores so I wouldn't be all that surprised. The end links are a shame, the watch didn't feel "far too big" even on my thin wrist, perhaps a little, but I would have looked past that if the end links were curvy. It is a common complaint amongst enthusiasts and doesn't require a degree in rocket surgery to fix... maybe they think it won't look good on thin wrists 🤷‍♂️ their loss. Supporting that hypothesis, the rubber strap was also far too long (even though not being able to use the metal band would be a deal breaker). I will say though, at this price it is unacceptable to only offer one strap length. If they don't have enough volume to justify more than one "model" then there are other solutions, like cut to size straps which cost nothing extra. The argument "but resizing is impossible" is silly because it could attach to the excellent clasp (like Breitling) or multiple pieces can be included (like Delugs). Once the shape/mold is produced a high quality FKM rubber band costs a few dollars, and that is at the expensive end. So one size is absolutely unacceptable, sorry for the rant 😉 I am genuinely happy for anyone who actually can make it work. It is a very nice watch!

The jump hour thing is something that needs getting used to. Oddly enough I prefer a caller style so what they did wouldn't have been a deal breaker. I'm sure once you get used to it, it's more than fine.

going through the laundry list of great features - I was thinking it would cost 4x as much

Recently got a breakdown of the difficulty in building microrotors as well, it's not at all an easy task (like it seems like it would be).

But these guys designed and built a 'sports' tourbillon from scratch - they keep doing amazing things. 😃

That was my thoughts exactly - and you can communicate directly with the guys who make it. Crazy good value

Yeah definitely to each their own. Sorry to hear about your experience, it has been nothing short of amazing for me once I got it and the end links actually wrap my wrist perfectly. I guess we should all be lucky we don’t have to be forced to buy one watch company or model ☺

I’ve got a long term love affair for GS and spring drive! 🥰. And 100% made in Japan front to back, and historic firsts throughout horo history. So I own a couple GSs, and want more! 😜

(Omega, for some reason doesn’t do it for me 🤷‍♂ )

But I’m still a collector and I’ll always appreciate an incredible build, heritage has to have a start point sometime. Horage does have some growing fame for it’s in house tourbillon design and build, so it’s got a good starting point for heritage, for me.

I’d argue that a 98% Swiss build (who else can say this in this price range) and this list of features makes it a deal - and the equivalent Omega is multiples higher in cost

Anyway - no shade to you and if a collector only wants the big name brands with decades of heritage, this isn’t a watch to consider!

I share your feelings about GS. Guess what, I'm stalking my first spring drive ;-). It's actually a older model produced in 2005. But a great way to get into GS for a very reasonable price.

I actually started with micro brands, still love them. But what happened is that now with 50 watches, I have all the features that I need. Chrono, dress, diver, WTF is this design? watch, etc. And I seem to be settling onto 'heritage' on the wrist. Of course, lot's of heritage is marketing BS, but there you have it. I've slowed down a lot in my purchases and learning to enjoy what I have.

Smart! I’d absolutely pined for a SD since about 2000 when they started appearing

My first spring drive was a used high end Seiko Prospex , not even a GS!

It was my least pricey route to that genius bit of design and engineering. It took 20 years of dogged pursuit by the GS design team (led by Akahane) and countless failed attempts to make the technology efficient and accurate. I admire and respect that grit.

And like yourself - I’ve collected for 25 + years and having about 12 watches I feel the need to slow down and sell 1 if I’m going to buy 1

So, I’ll have stare hard at my small group to see who might leave to make space so I can add an Horage (and probably another couple GS models 🤪

I like it that you can get Spring Drive in a Prospex. Even though your watch didn't have Ziratsu (Zeerotsoo? Zeratso?? - whatever) polishing and its dial wasn't "inspired" by anything, I'm sure that in the looks department it was no slouch.