Russell Sheldrake
Watchmaking often seems very anti-technical. For all the talk about the importance of preserving tradition, archives, and old ways, fostering technological innovation never seems to be a priority. But that’s not the case for Horage, a small, young manufacturer. Priding themselves on being able to manufacture nearly every component of their watches in-house, Horage has always seemed to embrace this innovative spirit that we usually associate with the technological realm. And it’s this spirit that led to the brand’s latest release, the Microreg.
What is a Microreg? Simply put, a Microreg is a tiny piece of metal sandwiched between two gold-plated ceramics that reacts to external electromagnetic pulses to fine-tune the regulating mechanism of your watch; in a sense, doing the watchmaker’s work from inside the movement itself. It’s highly technical, and to be honest the finer points are a bit puzzling for me, but the concept is simple enough. Bear with me here.
All mechanical watches are adjusted (to some degree) before they leave the manufacturer, but the level of accuracy that needs to be adjusted depends on the certification the brand follows. The most well-known is COSC certification, where the movement must stay within -4 to +6 seconds per day over a 15-day testing period. However, this is done in a lab environment, so the accuracy cannot be guaranteed once the watch is shipped to your local store and worn on your wrist. As you go about your daily life, your watch’s accuracy may move further and further away from zero.
So what are your options if you want your new luxury watch to be as accurate as possible? Once the regulator has been conditioned to your wearing habits, you can take the watch to a watchmaker to have it re-adjusted, bringing it back to certified parameters. However, this takes time and money. With Horage’s Microreg, anyone who can measure the accuracy of a watch can make an instant adjustment.
The classic integrity of a mechanical movement is maintained as there are no electrical components within the movement, and all the electronics are housed in a small device attached to the watch via two contacts on the side of the case that look not unlike the pushers found on a perpetual calendar.
The new invention works by taking advantage of the precision of movement provided by extremely tiny electromagnetic fields acting on a micromotor. A mechanism inside the watch moves a regulating pin just a nanometre at a time, allowing it to vary the effective length of the balance spring. This allows the watch’s timing variation to be increased or decreased by 0.1 seconds at the push of a button.
While the original prototype of this device acted directly on the regulating pins, the latest version allows for even more precise adjustment via a gearing system. This is something that has traditionally been done by the very steady hand of a watchmaker, and is not always the most accurate or repeatable process. Because there are no electronics in the watch itself, this entire system sits dormant within the watch when the regulating device is not connected; nothing moves, nothing wears out, and it’s just waiting to be activated when called upon.
It’s worth noting here that I was lucky enough to visit the Horaj production site and see how the technology is developed together with Horaj’s partner Miniswys (a leading micro-engineering company based in Biel, not far from Horaj). The presentation showed how the concept was developed from a rough prototype on display to a final, nearly production-ready form, although we won’t see it in person until 2026 or later.
This is a very cool technology and one that Horraj would like to develop further, but what does this actually mean for the brand and for watchmaking? It is clear that this is a fairly niche product. There are certainly dedicated collectors who care about the accuracy of their timepieces, but they are a minority who buy luxury watches. The main reasons people spend their hard-earned money on these products are still the design, the prestige and the association with the brand. So where does Horraj’s perspective lie?
Well, Horrage is open to selling the technology to other brands to use, which to me will be an indication of whether it will be a success. The first watch to feature the micro-leg treatment is the Revolution 3. By placing the movement at the front of the watch and relegating the display of the time to a rotating disc at the bottom of the dial and the caseback, it puts its innovation front and center, essentially acting as a billboard for the new technology.
If other, perhaps independent and forward-thinking brands were to adopt this mechanism and even further develop it into their own designs, it would prove that it was a worthwhile project for Horage and the team at Miniswys. Would this be used by a very classical Patek Philippe or Breguet? No, absolutely not. But it would make a lot more sense to look at more liberal independent brands like Urwerk, MB&F, or even Greubel Forsey. Urwerk has tried something similar in the past with their AMC, a nuclear-powered sympathy-style watch, but to reset the watch to the correct time, you had to insert it into a suitcase-sized device. Compare that to the gum-sized collector used here, and it’s an amazing feat of micro-engineering.
Whether or not this technology will ever be widely adopted, I’m excited that it was invented. The fact that a company went to the time and investment necessary to develop something like this is very encouraging to me. It shows that, despite the difficulties the industry currently faces, there is still room to grow and try new things. It is exactly activity like this that helps fill the industry with fresh ideas and energy. Brands have been keen to compare this to developments such as the use of silicon, but given the widespread adoption of that material, it’s hard to see the parallels with what I predict will be an extremely useful, yet niche, product that could add an entirely new element to the world of watchmaking.
