Despite the prevalence of the word “authentic” being used to describe many watch brands, only one in my mind deserves the label more than others. That brand is Horage, of whom I have written about extensively in this website. Certainly, while they have not used the word to describe themselves, there are many others that do, most notably their eager fan base, as well as watch industry insiders such as myself.
True to form then, their latest marketing campaign that has just launched today, has a whiff of an authentic spirit to it, making the most of their current reality, then mixing in a dose of practicality, charity, and fun. What do I mean?
Well, how about winning a chance to “buy” a Swiss Made Tourbillon watch from Horage for the small sum of $1 (USD), with the proceeds going towards helping a couple of young watchmakers with their tuition fees.
Ok, so there’s a bit to unpack here so I’ll try to explain.
So I’ve written about the brand’s saga of having to create their Tourbillon 1 in-house, after their initial plan of using a tourbillon based movement from La Joux-Perret was nixed due to a breakdown in supplier relations. Read more about that here.
With the journey of creating the in-house Tourbillon 1 having just completed, it was realized that some vestiges of the previous form of the project still remained, namely the five La Joux-Perret based prototypes that were hanging around.
What to do with them? They were movements that were used at the time for validation, testing, photography and all manner of related activities to a watch that was supposed to be launched but never did.
Well, Horage has decided to offer three of these tourbillon movements for sale, being that they are perfectly fine, Swiss Made tourbillon movements that the brand doesn’t really need now since they have something better, but that would still make some collectors very happy to own.
So how do you go about being able to get one of these watches then?
Well, enter a draw, with your minimum “donation” of $1 USD being your payment, and the money raised will be put towards raising funds for a few young watchmakers with their tuition fees.
The watch will be called the Tourbillon $1, which is the minimum amount you will need to donate in order to stand a watch to win one of the watches. Now I am told that your chances will be better the more you donate, which makes sense since the proceeds will go to a good cause. Statistically then, you will have a better chance to win if you donate more, but you could theoretically, be actually able to score a Tourbillon for $1.
Just to be clear again, this is not a tourbillon watch with the in-house K-TOU calibre that I covered before, (link below),and you can find the full specifications of the La Joux-Perret tourbillon watch at the end of this article.
So what are you waiting for, head on over to the link https://www.horage.info/tourbillononedollar to join in the fun, and maybe score the deal of the century.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions:
41mm diameter and 11.8mm height (lug-to-lug 47.8mm)
Material:
904L stainless steel case, sapphire crystals front and back with anti-reflective coatings
Crown:
Signed with unique knurling, doesn’t screw down
Water resistance:
100 metres
Movement:
LJP flying tourbillon; Jewels – 21; Frequency – 4Hz (28,800vph);Power reserve – 70 hours; Escapement – Silicon escape wheel and anchor; Mainspring – Single barrel, manual winding
Features:
Central hours and minutes, flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock
Strap:
to be chosen by the winners