When most of us think of the groundbreaking and legendary timepieces in the world we inevitably aredrawn to names like Omega, Rolex, and Piaget amongst others – and maintenance with hundreds of years of history and reputation preceding them.

And it’s easy to understand why.

These are the brands that almost all of us have built up a legendary status around, the kind of watches that almost all of us have dreamed of owning at one point in time or another, the kinds of timepieces that have transcended the utility that they offer (accurately telling time thanks to their perfectly engineered mechanics) while at the same time becoming something else entirely – the pinnacle of luxury, affluence, and everything that we’ve been pursuing.

And then comes along a timepiece like the Xeric Halograph – so brand-new that it wasn’t even conceived of before 2013 – that completely upends the applecart.

By the people, for the people, of the people

Of all the truly impressive details that the new Xeric Halograph brings to the table (of which there are plenty), the most impressive has to be the fact that it is one of the most successful truly “crowd sourced” luxury timepieces ever created.

Using the innovative new website Kickstarter (the premier crowdfunding website on the planet), Xeric Watches their very first timepiece concept in 2013 and enjoyed almost runaway success immediately. This timepiece went on to become the most funded mechanical watch in crowdfunding history, and paved the way for the brand-new Xeric Halograph in the middle of 2015.

Sure, the engineers behind these incredible timepieces had created a handful of “mock ups” and prototypes – as well as some dropdead gorgeous renders – to share on the Kickstarter page to drum up some marketing buzz, but it wasn’t until more than 2100 “backers” pledged more than $800,000 ($750,000 more than Xeric asked for) that this company kicked their manufacturing into high gear.

This is one of the first truly mechanical timepieces to ever be legitimately crowd sourced, built on the back of crowdfunding, and never put into production until enough people raised their hands and said “this is the watch I want – now go out and build it already!”

Is this the future of affordable luxury?

While the “big names” in the timekeeping and timepiece world are going to continue to produceabsolutely top-of-the-line watches that command higher price tags than the entire initial run of Xeric Halograph watches was able to bring in, it isn’t difficult to imagine a new marketplace of affordable luxury items that are only produced after enough people have paid in advance and funded the first production run.

More and more companies are taking to Kickstarter and other crowdfunding websites like it to push their ideas out into the global culture, hoping that enough people will stick their hands in the air (after pulling cash out of their wallets, of course) and give their new company and their new products a vote of confidence.

We very well could be getting in on the ground floor of what may become the next big wave of affordable luxury products, brands, and heirloom style items – and we might not even recognize it yet!