ABOUT HURUM HOROLOGY
WHO WE ARE
HURUM HOROLOGY was founded in 2025 in Seoul, Korea with the goal of sharing the beautiful world of timepieces to a wider and deeper audience.
Our mission is to enrich watch culture, and enrich culture through watches.
We want to spread our appreciation of watches to everyone and contribute to the international community of watch lovers in our own little way.
WHAT IS HURUM HOROLOGY
FOR BEGINNERS & EXPERTS
Hurum was first devised as a way to give beginners a comprehensive, reliable, and accessible resource. Something that could replace the months of slow, unsystematic learning often required to get the hang of watch terminology and culture. Our content at every level avoids unnecessary jargon, simplifies complex ideas without compromising accuracy, and always has the beginner in mind.
But for those already deep in our world, Hurum is a trusted, research-driven platform. We answer the questions that nag seasoned collectors and uncover stories that could reignite a spark in even the most jaded veterans.
EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD OF WATCHES
We cover every corner of the world of watches and timekeeping. From the great verge escapement clocks of medieval Europe to the atomic clocks of today, from vintage pieces to the latest releases, and from military quartz beaters to exquisite mechanical high complications, we love them all.
We are not interested in timepieces as a “luxury item”.
We value them as humanity’s companions, our finest tools, and instruments of civilization.
ART & CULTURE
Watches are vessels of art, memory, and culture. As technology charges ever forward, timepieces capture the spirits of bygone eras while still serving the present. They’re not relegated to a mantel or drilled into a wall - century-old watches tick away on the youthful wrists of the new generation, reminding us of how things were done before - with patience, tact, flavor, and art.
Amidst the arms race to pump out ever more replaceable, disposable gadgets, watches remind us what it’s like to something that’s meant to outlive us. It doesn’t surprise us that watches remain beloved around the world - a testament to their cultural power.
At Hurum, we treasure this power above all. We create art that honors the beauty of these timepieces, and cover timepieces that capture art and human culture. And as a business proudly based in Korea, we are especially committed to preserving Korean and East Asian culture within the global watch conversation.
FOR THE CULTURE
Hurum Horology is a business, but one driven by our love of timepieces. Our goal is to make the world of watches more open, informed, and vibrant by welcoming as many people as possible into the culture.
To that end, we’re committed to producing as much high-quality, free content as we can - especially for newcomers. And for those who choose to support us, our paid content offers even more depth, detail, and value.
We take our work seriously, and that includes staying independent and unaffiliated. No ads, no sponsored content, no plugs. It protects our editorial freedom and the integrity of our work, and gives you a clean, ad-free reading experience focused on substance, not sales.
Why We Love Watches
A wristwatch is a magical little machine. It’s an incredible feat of engineering and human ingenuity. A mechanical watch is a fascinating Rube Goldberg-like contraption brought to life by a flick of a spring. A quartz watch essentially electrocutes a rock to keep time. How awesome is that? We love all watches, not just for the beautiful craftsmanship that goes into a select few high horology masterpieces but because every single watch holds the inherent magic of a timepiece - that it is perhaps the most personal, intimate, useful, and long-lasting piece of technology one can own.
A watch can be a bridge to others. Every collector probably has at least one friend they met through watches. It’s a great conversation piece - a watch says something about the wearer, sometimes as a simple status symbol for the uninitiated but really as a complex signal of taste (or perhaps lack thereof). It is a quiet social object. But at the same time, a watch is a deeply personal object. You don’t have to leave your house to enjoy it, and even when outside you can conceal it under a cuff. Most people can’t really tell watches apart, and it doesn’t make a large engine noise that announces its presence. More than anything, it’s attached to you. Technically you can go your whole life without your watch ever leaving your wrist (we do not recommend this for hygiene reasons). Your watch travels with you everywhere you go, and every scratch it picks up carries a memory of your past. So a watch is not only a bridge to others in your era, but also a bridge to those who will come after us.
Your watch also connects you to the centuries-old tradition of mechanical watchmaking, the prehistoric ritual of human timekeeping, and the most mysterious, most elusive concept of time itself. It is also a portal to an era when things were done differently. In a world so focused on the future, where traditions seem to fade away, and where products appear to be designed to be replaced by the next best thing within a year, a well-made, well-used watch is a quiet resistance. When our timepieces pass onto our children’s hands, they will hopefully serve as instruments to teach them the importance of taking care of things, whether they be material possessions or immaterial values.
Indeed, when we become a spacefaring civilization, Earth time may become less relevant and little more than a reference time. But even then, the timepieces of our era will remind our descendants of their terrestrial roots and values. And who knows? If the wonder of watchmaking continues to inspire future generations, they may produce amazing timepieces beyond our wildest dreams. There is definitely something poetic about the most cutting edge technology of the age being used to perfect a technically obsolete machine designed centuries ago. If you think about it, we’re already doing just that!
Our Name and Emblem
Hurum is pronounced [hɯɾɯm]. Originally, we considered spelling it Heureum in accordance with Korean romanization convention, but we figured that the “eu” would cause all sorts of chaos for our European readers, especially the Germans. So to keep things simple, we went with ‘Hurum’. We suggest you pronounce the u sound as in put or good.
For our British friends: it’s not “Hyu-rum” like how you guys pronounce the u in “jaguar”.
For our American friends: it’s not “Hoo-room” with a long vowel, either.
Our name comes from the Korean word for ‘flow’, as in ‘the flow of time’. As far as we know (none of us are physicists), time doesn’t actually flow - it’s more like a dimension. But we wanted a name that conveys the human understanding of time, one of motion, of rhythm.
Timepieces represent mankind’s endeavor to make this unknowable dimension legible. Watches seem like such a hilariously confident solution to gauge the single most abstract concept out there, and we love the fact that a little bouncy spring or tiny quartz rock can bring us closer to grasping the abyss that is time. It’s no coincidence that some of the physicists we know wear some pretty sick watches.
So as far as we’re concerned, time indeed does flow, and our watches connect us to that current - upstream to our forefathers and downstream to our descendants.
Our emblem is a stylized version of the gnomon from the Angbu’ilgu hemispherical sundial commissioned by King Sejong the Great who also personally created Hangul, the Korean alphabet. King Sejong oversaw the development of several horological innovations during his reign. The Self-striking Clepsydra of Borugak Pavilion, the world’s first self-striking water clock, was also invented by his handpicked team of scientists and engineers. Sejong’s mass-produced sundials complemented the massive hydromechanical clocks used in the palace and provided time to all in public streets and squares.
In the way Sejong the Great made time accessible to everyone, we aim to make the arts of timekeeping and watchmaking open for all to enjoy.
A Letter from Our Founder
First and foremost, thank you so much for visiting Hurum Horology.
Hurum Horology uses the pronoun ‘we’ but in fact, this is mostly a one-man operation. It’s quite a lot of work to write, draw, design, and plan alone, but this project means a lot to me because watches mean a lot to me.
Unlike a lot of people in the watch world, I did not like watches from a young age. The first memory I have of a timepiece is a Swatch triple-register panda chronograph that I wore into the waters off Hawai’i. After about an hour of surfing, I emerged onto the beach with a whole marine ecosystem in my watch. That’s when I learned about water resistance. Maybe it also sowed some doubt in me about the usefulness of wristwatches. Sure enough, the Luminox watch my father bought me a couple years later also failed me, mysteriously stopping after a couple months.
Unreliability aside, the fact that I couldn’t actively use a watch like a pen or a car made me think watches are boring and dull. How can you like something that not only suffocates your wrist, but also just sits there doing nothing only to break down every now and then?
But towards the end of high school, I found myself infatuated with mechanical timepieces. I still don’t quite remember how that happened. I do clearly remember spending hours on sites like Hodinkee, Fratello, and aBlogtoWatch and binge-watching unhealthy amounts of watch content on YouTube. I ended up in a college in Hong Kong, where I thoroughly enjoyed living in one of the watch capitals of the world and exploring the most unassuming treasure troves hidden throughout the city. And while I was a soldier, my reliance on no-nonsense tough quartz watches matured my previous love of complex mechanical timepieces into a broad appreciation for what any timekeeping tool can mean to a man. When all you can call yours is a rifle and a wristwatch, you reconsider your priorities and the fancy stuff fades away real quick. This new attitude made me approach watches anew, and deepened my appreciation for all timepieces. Over the years, watches brought me some of my most treasured memories and best friends, a few of whom are generously contributing to this site in the Journal. If you’re reading this, thank you all.
I made this site primarily to create the very thing I wish I had when I was first getting into watches: a one-stop, focused, and accurate resource that can get anyone up to speed without having to wander awkwardly into watch websites until you slowly get the hang of it in a couple weeks. I spent many hours looking at confusingly-made diagrams of watch parts trying to figure out what a rehaut or a chapter ring is.
But I also wanted to make something for the seasoned enthusiast as well. Hurum Horology covers my favorite stuff about watches: their history, their design and engineering, and the various cultures that revolve around them. I particularly wanted to focus on how watches mingle with my other passions such as cars, architecture, art, and history. Fortunately, a lot of other watch lovers seem to share these interests.
I have something of a vision for this project’s future, and I hope that it will one day become a reality. For now, I will focus on making the accurate, exciting, and meaningful content that I set out to make in the first place.
Thank you again for visiting Hurum. From the bottom of my heart, your interest and support mean so much to me.
Sincerely,
Bankasayu
Our Promise to You
Hurum Horology is not affiliated with or sponsored by any manufacturer, corporation, government organization, or any other third-party entity. We are committed to remaining independent, unbiased, and true to our beliefs. All content produced with any involvement of third-parties will be accompanied by a disclaimer explaining the nature of that relationship. With your support and our dedication, we will stay this way.
We appreciate and respect the people and organizations whose contributions sustain the watch community. We feel honored to be able to give back to the community in a small way. All content that we directly reference from other sources, including text and images, will be properly credited to the best of our ability. In return, we ask that you do the same for all of our original content. All content on our website should be regarded as original unless stated otherwise. You may use our original content for non-commercial purposes without our explicit permission as long as you credit Hurum Horology as the original creator.
Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for more information. If you would like to contact us regarding use of our content or our use of your content, please refer to our Get In Touch page.
Our Content is (Mostly) Man-made
We would like to clarify exactly where we use artificial intelligence (AI) and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in our creative process in the interest of transparency.
Research
We do not use GenAI at any stage of our research. We do not rely on any AI tools to simplify or streamline our research. AI still yields very unreliable answers to many factual questions and we do not recommend it for research purposes.
Writing
We do not use GenAI to write our content. All writing is human-authored.
We may, however, use GenAI tools to assist in organizing research notes or exploring alternate ways to structure our ideas. In some rare cases, contributors may use AI to rephrase individual sentences or phrases. We cannot realistically police every contributor's workflow. However, our contributors were invited for their scholastic ability and wealth of knowledge - they are more than capable of writing without AI, and they do.
Grammar and Spellcheck
We sometimes use AI-powered tools to perform final grammar and spelling checks on portions of our written content.
Translation
We do not use AI tools to translate our content. All material on the site is originally written and translated by native or fluent speakers of the respective language, often by the same author. All of our contributors are multilingual, and the founder is a linguistics fanatic who doesn't like the mistranslations or missed nuances that AI translation engines are prone to.
Art
We do not use GenAI for any part of the creative process - not even for brainstorming or composition. All visual artwork for sale, illustrations on the site, and even the logo and most visual assets are hand-drawn by the founder unless labeled otherwise. In fact, the vast majority of the illustrations and visual assets on the site were created well before the first GenAI products hit the market.
If you’ve made it all the way here, you’re a good fit for our long, comprehensive content.
We hope you enjoy perusing Hurum Horology.