The World's FIRST Affordable Tourbillion: Certified Millionaire Watch Under $1000

In the late 1700s, famed watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet came to the realization that gravity was having ill effects on the accuracy of his timepieces. Horology at the time was confined to the pocket watch, which was constantly stored vertically in the user’s pocket, then stored on a table horizontally. Spending the majority of its time stuck in that vertical and horizontal orientation put strain on the hairspring inside the escapement, causing it to oscillate at an irregular rate, decreasing the accuracy of the watch.

Breguet’s solution was to create an escapement that was constantly in a state of motion. Called the tourbillon (French for “whirlwind”), the escapement is housed in a rotating cage that, because of the constant motion, averages out the effect of gravity when the watch is stuck in different positions. Breguet’s invention worked for the pocket watch. But wristwatches, with the wrist’s constant movement, naturally offer the same gravity-fighting effect as the tourbillon mechanism. In fact, it has been proven that tourbillons are not any more accurate than a traditional escapement on a wristwatch, and are in some cases even less so.

Classique 5335 Grande Complication Tourbillon Messidor

In spite of the tourbillon’s uselessness, they’ve remained common among the uppermost echelon of the watch market. Most Swiss-made examples start at around $40,000 and price tags often break the six-figure barrier. This is because tourbillons are arguably one the most difficult movement to make by hand. The tourbillon mechanism is tiny, weighing in at under a gram, and is usually crafted with more than 40 parts, finished by hand and made from lightweight metals like aluminum and titanium. They require a special set of tools and a lot of time to make. For example, just to make a single A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph Pour le Merite, its tourbillon chronograph movement takes 18 months.

ERA Prometheus

So, it's almost unbelievable when Michael Galarza started a Kickstarter campaign to launch the world's FIRST affordable Tourbillion - the ERA Timepieces.

As per Galarza, "When you think about making a more inexpensive tourbillon, simply “cutting out the middlemen” or “eliminating manufacturer markup” won’t bring down the price of tourbillon watches." because the reason why tourbillion wactches are so expensive is actually a "secret watch society” actively price gouging high-end timepieces and stopping us from wearing what we want.

But as per Galarza, they at ERA want to break this monopoly and they are in a unique position to do so. Having worked as luxury brand distributors, they got to see “behind the scenes” and how things worked in the watch industry. More importantly after years of networking and forming strategic partnerships:

• They got to know the same master watchmakers who build tourbillons for the luxury brand cartel.
• And by partnering with these same master watchmakers, they broke through the cartel wall.

And together with these master watchmakers, we finally made the world’s first ever accessible tourbillon.

What do you think of ERA Timepieces?

Is there really a "secret watch society" monopolizing the watch market?

Checkout their Kickstarter page here and find our for yourself.