H. Bouasse, professor at the Science Faculty of Toulouse, France, adds fuel to the tourbillon controversy, in which he writes in his book "Pendule, Spiral Diapason": "In order to cancel the centering errors of the balance, someone had the ingenious idea of making it turn: this resulted in the tourbillon escapement, but its high price and problematic advantages reduced it to being a historical curiosity...Experience shows that in the end, the use of this "perfected" system involves considerable costs. It is ingenious but far too complicated."
In fact, energy distribution in a watch is carried out during the rotation of the escape wheel. For a tourbillon-equipped watch, it is at that moment too that the tourbillon cage turns. It consumes a great deal of energy to start the cage moving and hardly is it launched then it stops suddenly against the escapement pinion whose wheel has just come to rest. The faster the tourbillon cage turns, behold the more spectacular its operation and the more it consumes energy at a loss. It can be argued that the tourbillon is an additional mechanism, a parasitic mechanism, that consumes energy taken from the mainspring destined to the balance and balance spring. As a result, the balance with less energy will have reduced advantages. On the whole tourbillon watches time less well than conventional watches of the same size, yet another aspect in the tourbillon controversy.
Nowadays, with the precision of quartz watches and radio controlled or atomic watches whose accuracy is ± 1 second every 1 million years, it begs the question of what "purpose" such a device now serves. While the tourbillon regulator was probably of greatest benefit to an escapement whose function saw use mainly in the vertical positions, such as in a pocket watch, its value to the performance of escapement in conventional wristwatches is arguably dubious, furthering the tourbillon controversy. Still, it is clear that the tourbillon was never intended by its inventor to be a practical and common answer for everyday timekeeping, and to criticize it because of this is missing the point. The tourbillon exists for the same reason that Formula 1 racing cars exits - not because it is something we need, but as a demonstration of the edge of the envelope - the forward edge of man's technical creativity and skill.
The tourbillon therefore, doesn't really serve a practical purpose... It serves an aesthetic need.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Tourbillon Timeline and Some Popular Tourbillon Watches
The timeline of the tourbillon began with the pocketwatch. The tourbillon regulator made the jump to wristwatches in 1930, when the watch company LIP makes the first wristwatch with a Tourbillon. Renowned watch houses such as Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, and of course Breguet followed suit with their first tourbillon wrist models. About the late '60s something foreboding occurred. This was the start of a period of watch manufacturing that is heralded as the most difficult crisis ever experienced by the Swiss watch industry - the advent of the quartz oscillator.
However, even as some watch companies tanked, the watchmakers continued to produce mechanical marvels and hard times was experienced for the next decade or so. Yet the romance of the tourbillon regulator was such that it was being produced again in the very first years of the mechanical revival - the ultrathin automatic winding hammer tourbillon wristwatch from Audemars Piguet in 1986 (Last published retail US $37,000).
In fact, some credit this watch for starting the mechanical watch renaissance. What made this watch so unique and exciting was that this was the first production tourbillon with automatic winding, and the tourbillon was the smallest ever produced, having a diameter of only 7.2mm and a height of 2.5mm. It also boasts a cage made of titanium for the first time and an automatic winding hammer made out of platinum-iridium alloy, an extremely dense yet heavy material. Another novel aspect is that the movement itself is the case - a design that shaved precious millimeters off the total thickness of the case. It was the "ancestor" of many of the modern tourbillon wristwatches.
However, its winding efficiency was not as high as Audemars Piguet had hoped, and so their rather daring pride in not allowing manual winding created some running problems. As a daily wear, for most lifestyles, it was prone to stop running simply due to the mainspring not being wound enough. In 1991, Audemars Piguet added a power reserve indicator and date on this complication. In 2002, they created the Royal Oak Concept Watch (around US $192,000) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Royal Oak.
More than two years in the making, this futuristic watch houses a tourbillon with titanium hand winding movement and dynamograph. The watch features a unique power reserve display that displays the remaining going barrel revolutions rather than hours as is displayed in most power reserve watches. The up-down indicator on the right shows how many more times the barrel will continue to rotate before it runs out of steam. Each of the revolutions, from 0 to 12, allows a reserve power of 6 hours meaning a total of 72 hours when it is fully wound (pointer reaches graduation 12).
The sophisticated dynamograph, set at 12, allows a clear display of the torque supplied by the mainspring. The dynamograph lets the mainspring of the watch to be maintained within ideal winding limits by indicating exactly when the movement should be rewound. In fact, power flow from the mainspring is not linear - above average when the mainspring is tightly wound and tapering off gradually towards the end.
A winding gauge on the barrel determines the position of the dynamograph needle on the dial. This supplies the wearer with immediate information about the current mainspring stress and power. The dynamograph provides a qualitative suggestion of how to achieve greater precision by maintaining the tension of the barrel spring through the rewinding of the movement when appropriate. Rewinding the movement when the needle moves beyond the zone of ideal stress shown on the indicator keeps the watch at peak time-keeping precision. The tourbillon cage itself is mounted on titanium shock absorbers - shock resistant to multiple g's well beyond the shock tolerance of the human body.
Another innovative feature is the watch's winding and hand-setting system: a special push-piece lets the wearer choose among the crown's several functions ("wind," "set," and "neutral"). This means that it's no longer necessary to extract the crown when the wearer wants to wind the mainspring or set the hands. Also, after the push-piece has commanded the crown to assume the "neutral" position, the crown is entirely uncoupled from the gear train. A designated display on the dial indicates the crown's momentary status. The Concept Watch is crafted from alacrite 602, an exceptionally resistant super-lightweight alloy with hardness of 430 Vickers widely used in aerospace and energy production and it marks the first application in wristwatch production.
Since the introduction of the Audemars Piguet Tourbillon 1, there has been a cornucopia of tourbillon wristwatches, and complicated wristwatches with tourbillon regulators.
One of the earliest artistic applications of the tourbillon regulator is in the Tourbillon Sous Trois Points d'Or, or Tourbillon Under 3 Gold Bridges first created by Constant Girard-Perregaux in 1867 for pocket watches. The three bridges hold the barrel, the train, and the balance. The Tourbillon Under 3 Gold Bridges is a stunning rendition of supreme watchmaking technique that exemplifies horology's highest ideals, with its bold clarity and unabashed richness, lyrically merging complexity with simplicity.
The original tourbillon was so complicated that Constant Girard-Perregaux had been able to construct only 20 such devices during a quarter century of work. The original tourbillon chronometer won a first class rating and a prize from the Neuchâtel Observatory. In the 1970s, the relatively small Girard-Perregaux manufacture decided to revive the fabled three-bridge tourbillon as a pocket watch. Before that could be done, however, the firm needed to purchase a large number of 19th and 20th century GP watches from King Farouk of Egypt. The king's collection included a number of models for which they no longer had either the tools or construction plans. Further, GP, possessing no diagrams or plans depicting the antique watches, was forced to study and meticulously measure one of Constant Girard-Perregaux's original chronometer tourbillons. It isn't hard to imagine the difficulties confronting the modern experts: Each of the 19th century tourbillons was a unique work of high-craftsmanship - custom-built from non-standardized parts that were assembled to harmonize with each other. Back then, no one was thinking about serially produced interchangeable parts. Furthermore, the 20th century watchmakers needed to learn old and largely forgotten skills, so that some of the new components could be finished with an 18th century wooden guilloch¡§¦ machine.
Adaptation of this unique eye-catching design to wristwatches occurred in 1991 and caused quite a stir. However, different from their tourbillon pocketwatches, the design engineers decided to invert the mechanism before installing it in a wristwatch case so that the painstakingly crafted bridges and the tourbillon cage would be visible on the dial side of the watch rather than hidden from view on its underside. As shown below, the movement having finely shaped symmetrical solid gold bridges, solid gold wheel train, and tourbillon is prominently displayed through the dial. The three milled gold bridges are so emphatically present on the dial that they steal the show from all of the other components. Even the dial's legibility is somewhat subsumed by the bridge's beauty.
Since then the concept of the Tourbillon Under 3 Gold Bridges has been applied to movements having variations such as hand-wound, hand wound with chronograph, one with a minute repeater that renders time audible, automatic with micro-rotor, and the ultimate, the Opera One (US $ 375,000) which features a carillon striking work that imitates the bells that chime at Westminister Cathedral in London. An Opera Two adds a perpetual calendar with date, day, month, and leap year to the Opera One. Another application of the tourbillon regulator was the flying tourbillon invented in Saxony, Germany in the 1920s by Alfred Helwig. While tourbillon carriages are normally pivot mounted on one side and bridged on the other, or bridged on both sides, the flying tourbillon's carriage is pivot mounted on one side with no supporting bridge to tie it down. This gives the tourbillon the impression that it is floating in mid-air thus voiding all gravitational pull. The flying type of tourbillon regulator is being produced by manufactures like Blancpain, IWC, and Glashutte Original, and independent watchmakers such as Vincent Calabrese.
The revived brand Blancpain has several flying tourbillon offerings that are included with chronographs, split-second chronographs, perpetual calendars, and rattrapante perpetual calendars. Some of their tourbillon models even have an eight days power reserve. With only the same number of turns of the crown required of a common 2 day movement, an 8 days power reserve can be achieved.
In the 1990s, Blancpain created the ultra-complicated Self-Winding Tourbillon Split-Seconds Flyback Chronograph watch (US $115,000). In 2001, Blancpain unveiled the Quattro platinum watch - an elegant self-wound timepiece housing a tourbillon regulator, perpetual calendar, flyback chronograph, and split-seconds chronograph (US $150,000). To celebrate Blancpain's original founding in 1735, a model aptly named the "1735" puts all that is possible in today's microtechnical industry in a diminitive amount of space. This one single wristwatch comprises an ultra flat movement outfitted with moonphase, tourbillon, perpetual calendar, split-seconds chronograph, minute repeater, and automatic winding (US $684,000).
A reverso watch housing a tourbillon regulator was launched by the prestigious watch manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1993. The legendary Reverso watch was first presented to the world in 1931 and was an immediate hit - and to this day, the Reverso model family is the most well-known product made by Jaeger-LeCoultre.
The solid gold case swivels to reveal the Jaeger-LeCoultre tourbillon. The tourbillon movement, caliber 828 is a manual winding movement with a 45-hour autonomy. The tiny tourbillon cage alone, weighing a mere 0.25 of a gram, carries seventy parts. As with all Patek Philippe tourbillon watches, on the finished watch, Jaeger-LeCoultre's tourbillon regulator is visible only through the caseback, ... but as it is a reversal, the wearer enjoys the privilege of presenting it in front at their own leisure. (US $65,000 for platinum version).
But Jaeger-LeCoultre's Gyrotourbillon I (US $275,000) that was unveiled in 2005 beats everything that has come out of the company until now: the watch combines a tourbillon with a perpetual calendar, a running equation of time, a double retrograde date display, and an eight-day power reserve. The tourbillon itself is made of two carriages to allow multi-directional rotation more suited to wristwatches than the pocket watches for which the tourbillon was invented. The external carriage, made of aluminum, turns every 60 seconds. The internal carriage, made of aluminum and titanium, turns every 24 seconds.
In 1795, Breguet invents the tourbillon. Then came the flying tourbillon invented in Glash¡§©ötte, Germany - a tourbillon with no bridge. In 1993, Mr. Kiu Tai Yu invents the mystery tourbillon - a tourbillon with no bridge, no carriage.
Born in 1946 in Soochow, China, Kiu Tai Yu, at an early age, discovered a talent for fixing broken watches and clocks. Friends and family would bring him heirlooms of great value to be repaired, and he memorized their mechanical structure and craftsmanship. Entirely self-taught, he built his first watch at the young age of 23. On his 45th birthday in 1991, Kiu Tai Yu astonished the horological world by making the first Asian tourbillon entirely on his own. The last time China made any impact on the horological world was about 10 centuries ago when Su Song, an imperial attendant was commissioned by the dragon throne to construct a time measuring instrument as a standard for the Celestial Kingdom. His ingenious solution was a water clock, the first timepiece ever to have a mechanical escapement, and is thus the direct ancestor of today's Rolex.
Mr. Kiu Tai Yu reduced the elaborate European tourbillon to its barest functional essentials in the Kiu Tai Yu Mystery Tourbillon. The escapement and balance are not housed in a rotating cage and its bridge (as in the traditional tourbillon), and without visible means of support. To create the illusion, Mr. Kiu Tai Yu suspends the balance wheel, with the balance spring underneath, from an invisible bar of crystal. Although Mr. Kiu Tai Yu has attended every Baselworld show since 1992 exhibiting his unique watches, sorry his watches aren't for sale. For Your Eyes Only!
In 1994, in celebration of Omega's 100th anniversary (1894-1994), Omega created the world's first Central Tourbillon wristwatch (US $40,000.00). For the first time, the tourbillon mechanism running at 21,600 vph holds a major place - in the center of the watch. The hour and minute hands are painted on two revolving sapphire discs. The gear mechanism for the sapphire discs is moved to the periphery of the dial, to make room for the escapement and tourbillon cage in the center, which itself carries the seconds hand the OMEGA symbol Ω. Due to the layout of the gear mechanism, the crown is used only for winding up the watch with time setting functions provided from a wheel on the back of the watch.
IWC's Da Vinci Tourbillon (US $59,000) combines a tourbillon, chronograph, perpetual calendar with date, day, month, four digit year display, and moon phase. The calendar will show an absolutely correct date until 2499 thanks to its "century disc."
The IWC 7 days Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere (US $89,000): The flying tourbillon seems to float freely above the black wheel that propels it.
Zenith presented its first tourbillon at Baselworld in 2004. Three years in the making, Zenith's El Primero Grande ChronoMaster XXT (US $104,000) combines a tourbillon with a chronograph and is the world's first and only tourbillon with a balance that beats 36,000 times per hour. The tourbillon is incorporated into an automatic chronograph movement and is encircled by a date ring that moves counter-clockwise.
The name "Frank Muller" is no stranger to watch enthusiasts. The meteoric rise that has characterized the Frank Muller brand in only one decade is without equal in recent watch history. Launched in 1992, Frank Muller's line of mechanical timepieces, marvelous both inside and outside, feature complex pieces as minute repeaters, perpetual calendars, and of course tourbillons. Among his more celebrated watches is the Tourbillon Revolution, introduced in 2002 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the company. Protected by several patents, what makes this tourbillon watch so different and exciting is that with the simple push of a button on the case, the hour and minute hands sweep to the 12:00 position and like magic, the tourbillon cage rises from the movement level to literally hover over the dial for better viewing. The axial displacement forces the tourbillon cage to the surface - the hands taken out of the way - remain at 12 o'clock for as long as the tourbillon lift button remains pressed. An extremely complex mechanism, this timepiece also offers power reserve of approximately 70 hours. Among the other watch brands, Frank Muller's Tourbillon Revolution series are perhaps the only tourbillon watches to have such a unique feature, a timepiece paying homage as no other to the playful instincts of man.
A year later, he outdid himself once again by presenting to the world his Double Axis Tourbillon, aptly called the Revolution 2. Attached by suspension and sitting in a spherical cage like a ballerina, the double axis tourbillon revolves along two axes, rotates as if on tippy toes, while simultaneously performing a series of somersaults. On either side of the dial opening are two retrograde indicators - one going from 0 to 60, to show the revolving time the tourbillon cage makes along its more traditional axis while also functioning as the seconds hand, and the other indicator graduated from 0 to 8 minutes to show the time the tourbillon cage takes to revolve along its new double "revolutionary" axis. Costs of ownership for one will set you back about US $635,000.00, give or take a few dollars.
After Tourbillon Revolution 2, it was almost an obligation for the company to present Tourbillon Revolution 3. And present it, they did - the new three axis tourbillon rotates on three axes, the cages revolve at varying speeds: the inner cage every 60 seconds, the second cage every 8 minutes, and the large, outer cage once an hour. The complete movement comprises 289 finely crafted components worked individually by hand.
Since the tourbillon's 200th anniversary in 2001, the number of brands incorporating the tourbillon into their own wristwatches has increased exponentially. While in 2001, there may have been fewer than fourteen companies to feature such a highlight in their collections, at last count in 2005 there were more than fifty doing so. Nearly all major brands as of this writing has a tourbillon timepiece in their collection.
However, even as some watch companies tanked, the watchmakers continued to produce mechanical marvels and hard times was experienced for the next decade or so. Yet the romance of the tourbillon regulator was such that it was being produced again in the very first years of the mechanical revival - the ultrathin automatic winding hammer tourbillon wristwatch from Audemars Piguet in 1986 (Last published retail US $37,000).
In fact, some credit this watch for starting the mechanical watch renaissance. What made this watch so unique and exciting was that this was the first production tourbillon with automatic winding, and the tourbillon was the smallest ever produced, having a diameter of only 7.2mm and a height of 2.5mm. It also boasts a cage made of titanium for the first time and an automatic winding hammer made out of platinum-iridium alloy, an extremely dense yet heavy material. Another novel aspect is that the movement itself is the case - a design that shaved precious millimeters off the total thickness of the case. It was the "ancestor" of many of the modern tourbillon wristwatches.
However, its winding efficiency was not as high as Audemars Piguet had hoped, and so their rather daring pride in not allowing manual winding created some running problems. As a daily wear, for most lifestyles, it was prone to stop running simply due to the mainspring not being wound enough. In 1991, Audemars Piguet added a power reserve indicator and date on this complication. In 2002, they created the Royal Oak Concept Watch (around US $192,000) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Royal Oak.
More than two years in the making, this futuristic watch houses a tourbillon with titanium hand winding movement and dynamograph. The watch features a unique power reserve display that displays the remaining going barrel revolutions rather than hours as is displayed in most power reserve watches. The up-down indicator on the right shows how many more times the barrel will continue to rotate before it runs out of steam. Each of the revolutions, from 0 to 12, allows a reserve power of 6 hours meaning a total of 72 hours when it is fully wound (pointer reaches graduation 12).
The sophisticated dynamograph, set at 12, allows a clear display of the torque supplied by the mainspring. The dynamograph lets the mainspring of the watch to be maintained within ideal winding limits by indicating exactly when the movement should be rewound. In fact, power flow from the mainspring is not linear - above average when the mainspring is tightly wound and tapering off gradually towards the end.
A winding gauge on the barrel determines the position of the dynamograph needle on the dial. This supplies the wearer with immediate information about the current mainspring stress and power. The dynamograph provides a qualitative suggestion of how to achieve greater precision by maintaining the tension of the barrel spring through the rewinding of the movement when appropriate. Rewinding the movement when the needle moves beyond the zone of ideal stress shown on the indicator keeps the watch at peak time-keeping precision. The tourbillon cage itself is mounted on titanium shock absorbers - shock resistant to multiple g's well beyond the shock tolerance of the human body.
Another innovative feature is the watch's winding and hand-setting system: a special push-piece lets the wearer choose among the crown's several functions ("wind," "set," and "neutral"). This means that it's no longer necessary to extract the crown when the wearer wants to wind the mainspring or set the hands. Also, after the push-piece has commanded the crown to assume the "neutral" position, the crown is entirely uncoupled from the gear train. A designated display on the dial indicates the crown's momentary status. The Concept Watch is crafted from alacrite 602, an exceptionally resistant super-lightweight alloy with hardness of 430 Vickers widely used in aerospace and energy production and it marks the first application in wristwatch production.
Since the introduction of the Audemars Piguet Tourbillon 1, there has been a cornucopia of tourbillon wristwatches, and complicated wristwatches with tourbillon regulators.
One of the earliest artistic applications of the tourbillon regulator is in the Tourbillon Sous Trois Points d'Or, or Tourbillon Under 3 Gold Bridges first created by Constant Girard-Perregaux in 1867 for pocket watches. The three bridges hold the barrel, the train, and the balance. The Tourbillon Under 3 Gold Bridges is a stunning rendition of supreme watchmaking technique that exemplifies horology's highest ideals, with its bold clarity and unabashed richness, lyrically merging complexity with simplicity.
The original tourbillon was so complicated that Constant Girard-Perregaux had been able to construct only 20 such devices during a quarter century of work. The original tourbillon chronometer won a first class rating and a prize from the Neuchâtel Observatory. In the 1970s, the relatively small Girard-Perregaux manufacture decided to revive the fabled three-bridge tourbillon as a pocket watch. Before that could be done, however, the firm needed to purchase a large number of 19th and 20th century GP watches from King Farouk of Egypt. The king's collection included a number of models for which they no longer had either the tools or construction plans. Further, GP, possessing no diagrams or plans depicting the antique watches, was forced to study and meticulously measure one of Constant Girard-Perregaux's original chronometer tourbillons. It isn't hard to imagine the difficulties confronting the modern experts: Each of the 19th century tourbillons was a unique work of high-craftsmanship - custom-built from non-standardized parts that were assembled to harmonize with each other. Back then, no one was thinking about serially produced interchangeable parts. Furthermore, the 20th century watchmakers needed to learn old and largely forgotten skills, so that some of the new components could be finished with an 18th century wooden guilloch¡§¦ machine.
Adaptation of this unique eye-catching design to wristwatches occurred in 1991 and caused quite a stir. However, different from their tourbillon pocketwatches, the design engineers decided to invert the mechanism before installing it in a wristwatch case so that the painstakingly crafted bridges and the tourbillon cage would be visible on the dial side of the watch rather than hidden from view on its underside. As shown below, the movement having finely shaped symmetrical solid gold bridges, solid gold wheel train, and tourbillon is prominently displayed through the dial. The three milled gold bridges are so emphatically present on the dial that they steal the show from all of the other components. Even the dial's legibility is somewhat subsumed by the bridge's beauty.
Since then the concept of the Tourbillon Under 3 Gold Bridges has been applied to movements having variations such as hand-wound, hand wound with chronograph, one with a minute repeater that renders time audible, automatic with micro-rotor, and the ultimate, the Opera One (US $ 375,000) which features a carillon striking work that imitates the bells that chime at Westminister Cathedral in London. An Opera Two adds a perpetual calendar with date, day, month, and leap year to the Opera One. Another application of the tourbillon regulator was the flying tourbillon invented in Saxony, Germany in the 1920s by Alfred Helwig. While tourbillon carriages are normally pivot mounted on one side and bridged on the other, or bridged on both sides, the flying tourbillon's carriage is pivot mounted on one side with no supporting bridge to tie it down. This gives the tourbillon the impression that it is floating in mid-air thus voiding all gravitational pull. The flying type of tourbillon regulator is being produced by manufactures like Blancpain, IWC, and Glashutte Original, and independent watchmakers such as Vincent Calabrese.
The revived brand Blancpain has several flying tourbillon offerings that are included with chronographs, split-second chronographs, perpetual calendars, and rattrapante perpetual calendars. Some of their tourbillon models even have an eight days power reserve. With only the same number of turns of the crown required of a common 2 day movement, an 8 days power reserve can be achieved.
In the 1990s, Blancpain created the ultra-complicated Self-Winding Tourbillon Split-Seconds Flyback Chronograph watch (US $115,000). In 2001, Blancpain unveiled the Quattro platinum watch - an elegant self-wound timepiece housing a tourbillon regulator, perpetual calendar, flyback chronograph, and split-seconds chronograph (US $150,000). To celebrate Blancpain's original founding in 1735, a model aptly named the "1735" puts all that is possible in today's microtechnical industry in a diminitive amount of space. This one single wristwatch comprises an ultra flat movement outfitted with moonphase, tourbillon, perpetual calendar, split-seconds chronograph, minute repeater, and automatic winding (US $684,000).
A reverso watch housing a tourbillon regulator was launched by the prestigious watch manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1993. The legendary Reverso watch was first presented to the world in 1931 and was an immediate hit - and to this day, the Reverso model family is the most well-known product made by Jaeger-LeCoultre.
The solid gold case swivels to reveal the Jaeger-LeCoultre tourbillon. The tourbillon movement, caliber 828 is a manual winding movement with a 45-hour autonomy. The tiny tourbillon cage alone, weighing a mere 0.25 of a gram, carries seventy parts. As with all Patek Philippe tourbillon watches, on the finished watch, Jaeger-LeCoultre's tourbillon regulator is visible only through the caseback, ... but as it is a reversal, the wearer enjoys the privilege of presenting it in front at their own leisure. (US $65,000 for platinum version).
But Jaeger-LeCoultre's Gyrotourbillon I (US $275,000) that was unveiled in 2005 beats everything that has come out of the company until now: the watch combines a tourbillon with a perpetual calendar, a running equation of time, a double retrograde date display, and an eight-day power reserve. The tourbillon itself is made of two carriages to allow multi-directional rotation more suited to wristwatches than the pocket watches for which the tourbillon was invented. The external carriage, made of aluminum, turns every 60 seconds. The internal carriage, made of aluminum and titanium, turns every 24 seconds.
In 1795, Breguet invents the tourbillon. Then came the flying tourbillon invented in Glash¡§©ötte, Germany - a tourbillon with no bridge. In 1993, Mr. Kiu Tai Yu invents the mystery tourbillon - a tourbillon with no bridge, no carriage.
Born in 1946 in Soochow, China, Kiu Tai Yu, at an early age, discovered a talent for fixing broken watches and clocks. Friends and family would bring him heirlooms of great value to be repaired, and he memorized their mechanical structure and craftsmanship. Entirely self-taught, he built his first watch at the young age of 23. On his 45th birthday in 1991, Kiu Tai Yu astonished the horological world by making the first Asian tourbillon entirely on his own. The last time China made any impact on the horological world was about 10 centuries ago when Su Song, an imperial attendant was commissioned by the dragon throne to construct a time measuring instrument as a standard for the Celestial Kingdom. His ingenious solution was a water clock, the first timepiece ever to have a mechanical escapement, and is thus the direct ancestor of today's Rolex.
Mr. Kiu Tai Yu reduced the elaborate European tourbillon to its barest functional essentials in the Kiu Tai Yu Mystery Tourbillon. The escapement and balance are not housed in a rotating cage and its bridge (as in the traditional tourbillon), and without visible means of support. To create the illusion, Mr. Kiu Tai Yu suspends the balance wheel, with the balance spring underneath, from an invisible bar of crystal. Although Mr. Kiu Tai Yu has attended every Baselworld show since 1992 exhibiting his unique watches, sorry his watches aren't for sale. For Your Eyes Only!
In 1994, in celebration of Omega's 100th anniversary (1894-1994), Omega created the world's first Central Tourbillon wristwatch (US $40,000.00). For the first time, the tourbillon mechanism running at 21,600 vph holds a major place - in the center of the watch. The hour and minute hands are painted on two revolving sapphire discs. The gear mechanism for the sapphire discs is moved to the periphery of the dial, to make room for the escapement and tourbillon cage in the center, which itself carries the seconds hand the OMEGA symbol Ω. Due to the layout of the gear mechanism, the crown is used only for winding up the watch with time setting functions provided from a wheel on the back of the watch.
IWC's Da Vinci Tourbillon (US $59,000) combines a tourbillon, chronograph, perpetual calendar with date, day, month, four digit year display, and moon phase. The calendar will show an absolutely correct date until 2499 thanks to its "century disc."
The IWC 7 days Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere (US $89,000): The flying tourbillon seems to float freely above the black wheel that propels it.
Zenith presented its first tourbillon at Baselworld in 2004. Three years in the making, Zenith's El Primero Grande ChronoMaster XXT (US $104,000) combines a tourbillon with a chronograph and is the world's first and only tourbillon with a balance that beats 36,000 times per hour. The tourbillon is incorporated into an automatic chronograph movement and is encircled by a date ring that moves counter-clockwise.
The name "Frank Muller" is no stranger to watch enthusiasts. The meteoric rise that has characterized the Frank Muller brand in only one decade is without equal in recent watch history. Launched in 1992, Frank Muller's line of mechanical timepieces, marvelous both inside and outside, feature complex pieces as minute repeaters, perpetual calendars, and of course tourbillons. Among his more celebrated watches is the Tourbillon Revolution, introduced in 2002 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the company. Protected by several patents, what makes this tourbillon watch so different and exciting is that with the simple push of a button on the case, the hour and minute hands sweep to the 12:00 position and like magic, the tourbillon cage rises from the movement level to literally hover over the dial for better viewing. The axial displacement forces the tourbillon cage to the surface - the hands taken out of the way - remain at 12 o'clock for as long as the tourbillon lift button remains pressed. An extremely complex mechanism, this timepiece also offers power reserve of approximately 70 hours. Among the other watch brands, Frank Muller's Tourbillon Revolution series are perhaps the only tourbillon watches to have such a unique feature, a timepiece paying homage as no other to the playful instincts of man.
A year later, he outdid himself once again by presenting to the world his Double Axis Tourbillon, aptly called the Revolution 2. Attached by suspension and sitting in a spherical cage like a ballerina, the double axis tourbillon revolves along two axes, rotates as if on tippy toes, while simultaneously performing a series of somersaults. On either side of the dial opening are two retrograde indicators - one going from 0 to 60, to show the revolving time the tourbillon cage makes along its more traditional axis while also functioning as the seconds hand, and the other indicator graduated from 0 to 8 minutes to show the time the tourbillon cage takes to revolve along its new double "revolutionary" axis. Costs of ownership for one will set you back about US $635,000.00, give or take a few dollars.
After Tourbillon Revolution 2, it was almost an obligation for the company to present Tourbillon Revolution 3. And present it, they did - the new three axis tourbillon rotates on three axes, the cages revolve at varying speeds: the inner cage every 60 seconds, the second cage every 8 minutes, and the large, outer cage once an hour. The complete movement comprises 289 finely crafted components worked individually by hand.
Since the tourbillon's 200th anniversary in 2001, the number of brands incorporating the tourbillon into their own wristwatches has increased exponentially. While in 2001, there may have been fewer than fourteen companies to feature such a highlight in their collections, at last count in 2005 there were more than fifty doing so. Nearly all major brands as of this writing has a tourbillon timepiece in their collection.
Several Reasons Why Tourbillon Watches Are Held High Admiration
Why all the tourbillon admiration? There are several reasons why tourbillon watches are held in such high admiration and esteem today.
First of all, the veneration given the tourbillon is due to the unquestioned and deserved prestige of its inventor Abraham Louis Breguet, rightly called the "watchmaker of kings and the king of watchmakers." In his quest for greater precision, Breguet came up with the idea of a mechanism that would compensate for the deviation in running accuracy that he observed when pocket watches were tested in vertical positions. His concept was a rotating cage that would bear all of the parts of the escapement; in its center, the tourbillon cage would carry the regulating organ (the balance); and the escape-pinion would revolve around the second wheel. See structure of the tourbillon. This rotary movement compensates for the running deviations observed in the vertical positions. This is a decisive advantage for a watch, especially for a pocketwatch worn close to the body that spends most of its working life in a vertical position.
A further reason for the tourbillon admiration is our romance associated with mechanical wristwatches. With the rebirth in popularity of the mechanical watch back in the mid- to late-1980s, the tourbillon watch represented to many, the epitome of that renaissance. Some authorities have even credited Audemars Piguet's Tourbillon 1, an ultrathin bumper automatic lever tourbillon wristwatch developed in 1986 for starting the craze of the mechanical revival. With more than a century having passed since Breguet invented the tourbillon for packet watches, Audemars Piguet was the first company to develop a tourbillon for wristwatches. In fact, from 1860 until 1980 only 650 tourbillons (all of course for pocket watches) were produced worldwide for all brands combined! Since the debut of Audemars Piguet's Tourbillon 1 in 1986, there has been an amazing explosion of tourbillon wristwatches, testament to the romance of the tourbillon regulator.
Another reason for the tourbillon admiration is the technical difficulty involved in their manufacture. Even in its most basic design, it is extremely hard to manufacture and can be carried out only by particularly skilled watchmakers. In watchmaking circles, creating a tourbillon is regarded as the consummation of a craftman's skills. The complexity of its manufacture alone guarantees that only a few watchmakers are capable of this masterful achievement, so it comes as no surprise that, over the past few years, several brands have relied on offering this complication as proof of their technical prowess.
Over the generations of watchmakers since Breguet, there were probably fewer than 250 able to execute such a masterpiece. The tourbillon cage is made under extremely precise mechanical tolerances and it cannot have much weight or friction. At a time when computers did not exist and all tools were still somewhat primitive, the production of a tourbillon watch was a certificate of competence far more appreciated than the diplomas awarded by the best watchmaking schools. International Watch Company's (IWC) "Il Destriero Scafusia" tourbillon model demonstrates the complexity of the mechanism. It is manufactured of approximately 100 parts, and weighs only 0.296 grams.
The tourbillon in the "Destriero" consists of 100 individual parts and weights just 0.296 grams:
1. Upper part of cage in titanium
2. Balance
3. Escapement bridge in titanium
4. Middle section of cage in titanium
5. Pallets
6. Escape wheel
7. Shock resistant supports
8. Lower part of cage in titanium with pinion
9. Fixed fourth wheel
Yet another explanation for the tourbillon admiration is that most tourbillon pocket watches presented in observatories for timing in the 19th century, were manufactured by renowned watchmakers or companies.
First of all, the veneration given the tourbillon is due to the unquestioned and deserved prestige of its inventor Abraham Louis Breguet, rightly called the "watchmaker of kings and the king of watchmakers." In his quest for greater precision, Breguet came up with the idea of a mechanism that would compensate for the deviation in running accuracy that he observed when pocket watches were tested in vertical positions. His concept was a rotating cage that would bear all of the parts of the escapement; in its center, the tourbillon cage would carry the regulating organ (the balance); and the escape-pinion would revolve around the second wheel. See structure of the tourbillon. This rotary movement compensates for the running deviations observed in the vertical positions. This is a decisive advantage for a watch, especially for a pocketwatch worn close to the body that spends most of its working life in a vertical position.
A further reason for the tourbillon admiration is our romance associated with mechanical wristwatches. With the rebirth in popularity of the mechanical watch back in the mid- to late-1980s, the tourbillon watch represented to many, the epitome of that renaissance. Some authorities have even credited Audemars Piguet's Tourbillon 1, an ultrathin bumper automatic lever tourbillon wristwatch developed in 1986 for starting the craze of the mechanical revival. With more than a century having passed since Breguet invented the tourbillon for packet watches, Audemars Piguet was the first company to develop a tourbillon for wristwatches. In fact, from 1860 until 1980 only 650 tourbillons (all of course for pocket watches) were produced worldwide for all brands combined! Since the debut of Audemars Piguet's Tourbillon 1 in 1986, there has been an amazing explosion of tourbillon wristwatches, testament to the romance of the tourbillon regulator.
Another reason for the tourbillon admiration is the technical difficulty involved in their manufacture. Even in its most basic design, it is extremely hard to manufacture and can be carried out only by particularly skilled watchmakers. In watchmaking circles, creating a tourbillon is regarded as the consummation of a craftman's skills. The complexity of its manufacture alone guarantees that only a few watchmakers are capable of this masterful achievement, so it comes as no surprise that, over the past few years, several brands have relied on offering this complication as proof of their technical prowess.
Over the generations of watchmakers since Breguet, there were probably fewer than 250 able to execute such a masterpiece. The tourbillon cage is made under extremely precise mechanical tolerances and it cannot have much weight or friction. At a time when computers did not exist and all tools were still somewhat primitive, the production of a tourbillon watch was a certificate of competence far more appreciated than the diplomas awarded by the best watchmaking schools. International Watch Company's (IWC) "Il Destriero Scafusia" tourbillon model demonstrates the complexity of the mechanism. It is manufactured of approximately 100 parts, and weighs only 0.296 grams.
The tourbillon in the "Destriero" consists of 100 individual parts and weights just 0.296 grams:
1. Upper part of cage in titanium
2. Balance
3. Escapement bridge in titanium
4. Middle section of cage in titanium
5. Pallets
6. Escape wheel
7. Shock resistant supports
8. Lower part of cage in titanium with pinion
9. Fixed fourth wheel
Yet another explanation for the tourbillon admiration is that most tourbillon pocket watches presented in observatories for timing in the 19th century, were manufactured by renowned watchmakers or companies.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Structure of The Tourbillon
Here is a graphical illustration of the tourbillon parts. The tourbillon device has the escape wheel, lever, and balance wheel all mounted in a carriage made of a lightweight material (usually titanium). The carriage turns 360 degrees at regular intervals (usually once per minute). The fourth wheel (not shown) is fixed and is concentric with the carriage pinion and arbor. The escape wheel pinion meshes with the fourth wheel and rotates around the fourth wheel in the fashion of a satellite. The escape wheel and lever are mounted on the carriage, and the third wheel (not shown) drives the carriage pinion, turning the carriage once every minute. This rotation of the escapement helps reduce the positional errors of a watch.
How The Tourbillon Works
Gravity was thought to have a very adverse effect on the accuracy of time pieces at the time of the invention of the tourbillon, particularly because pocketwatches were often less accurate than stationary clocks of the same construction. The prevailing theory amongst horologists of the time was that pocket watches suffered from the effects of gravity since they were usually carried in the same pocketed position for most of the day, which was vertical, and then held in a different position while being read. Because the movements of pocket watches and similar pieces were oriented with respect to the cases and the dials, their movements were positioned with the axes of motion perpendicular to their faces. This meant that when the timepiece was placed vertically, the axis of motion of the movements would be parallel to the ground, and thus to the force of gravity. In such a position, the force of gravity would affect the motion of parts of the movement differently when the parts were in different positions (i.e., moving with gravity or moving against it), which would cause variations in the rate of the movement, which in turn would affect the timepieces' accuracy. If adjusted for one position, the rate would change when the piece was kept in a different position, such as when being held to be read or when placed on a table at night. In a tourbillon, the entire escapement assembly rotates, including the balance wheel, the escape wheel, the hairspring, and the pallet fork, in order to average out the effect of gravity in the different positions. The rate of rotation varies per design but has generally become standardized at one rotation per minute. Most tourbillons use standard swiss lever escapements, but some have a detent escapement, and others contain novel designs, such as the Audemars Piguet Millenary for example.
The tourbillon is considered to be one of the most challenging of watch mechanisms to make (although technically not a complication itself) and is valued for its engineering and design principles. The first production tourbillon mechanism was produced by Breguet for Napoleon in one of his carriage clocks (travel clocks of the time were of considerable weight, typically weighing almost 200 pounds).
The tourbillon is considered to be one of the most challenging of watch mechanisms to make (although technically not a complication itself) and is valued for its engineering and design principles. The first production tourbillon mechanism was produced by Breguet for Napoleon in one of his carriage clocks (travel clocks of the time were of considerable weight, typically weighing almost 200 pounds).
The History of Tourbillon Watch
The tourbillon history is an intriguing and thought-provoking one. Along with minute repeaters, grande and petite sonneries, perpetual calendars, and chronographs, the tourbillon is one of the most fascinating complications of mechanical horology. Priced out of the reach of all but a lucky few, the tourbillon is rarely seen up close and personal but most often seen in pictures. Once viewed, however, one cannot help but be seduced by the stately and measured dance of the tourbillon ("whirlwind" in French).
The tourbillon history dates back to the 18th century. The invention of the tourbillon, or tourbillon regulator stem from the days of the pocket watch and came about as a result of men's quest for improved accuracy of marine chronometers, a chronometer being a high precision watch. 18th century sailors on the high seas literally depended their lives on the accuracy of their ship's deck watch or these marine chronometer to steer them on course and out of harm's way. The quest for accuracy was obvious and did not end there - after all this was a time of continual innovation and invention in horology, the start of the tourbillon history being just around the corner. As a chronometer would almost invariably rest in the same position, gravity was a directional constant affecting the behavior of the chronometer's balance wheel and balance spring. In fact, the influence of gravity on the accuracy of mechanical watches had worried watchmakers for centuries. How is this so?
Depending on the position of the watch in the vertical plane (crown left; right; down; or up), different variations in the frequency of the balance wheel will occur as a result of changes in its center of gravity. For when a watch is in the vertical position, the earth's gravity either accelerates or slows the balance and the escapement (mechanism in the watch that regulates the speed of rotation of the wheels), causing a rate gain or loss. Even a watch in excellent condition that has been recently lubricated, serviced, and adjusted for temperature variations will still suffer the inevitable influence of the gravitational force of the Earth.
To nullify the effects of gravity in pocket watches, the great French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the tourbillon in 1795, propelling the tourbillon history.
But his invention became known officially only in 1801 when he applied for a patent. The first pocket watch equipped with a tourbillon mechanism was sold in 1805 but it was presented formally to the public during the Parisian show of French industrial products in 1806.
Remember now that the tourbillon is a holdover from the days of the pocket watch. One chapter in the tourbillon history evidences that the tourbillon regulator made the jump to wristwatches starting in 1930. Unlike a wristwatch, a pocket watch worn in a vest will spend the majority of its time in a vertical position. Therefore, Breguet allegedly decided that, for the absolute best accuracy, some means of balancing out the effects of gravity in the various positions was needed. His ingenious solution placed the balance wheel, escape lever, and escape wheel in a cage, which then rotated a full 360 degrees making a complete revolution around itself, usually in a minute. In this way, the overall effects of gravity get balanced out, as the escapement of the movement never spends any significant time in one vertical position.
To demonstrate the functional principle of the tourbillon, an example is shown below:
Assume a watch with the following daily rates: crown down (-2 seconds); crown up (+2 seconds); crown left (0 seconds); crown right (0 seconds).
This watch, placed in the "crown down" position over a period of 4 days would lose 8 seconds. After another 6 days in the "crown up" position would advance it 12 seconds. It's simple to see that after the 10 day period, the watch will have gained a total of 4 seconds as compared to day 0.
Now, what would happen to the same watch if a tourbillon was installed in it? It is also simple to see that this watch would not suffer any variation, since the crown up and crown down positional errors would continually cancel each other out throughout the day (2 second - 2 second = 0 second). The positions crown left and right did not cause variation in this example).
The tourbillon, therefore, tends to compensate for errors that occur as a result of the position of the watch, thereby increasing its accuracy.
One chapter in the tourbillon history that begun with Breguet has been written; but the pursuit for sophistication, horological excellence and high aesthetics is not over yet... Another chapter of the tourbillon history is currently being written by contemporary watchmakers coming up with complicated tourbillon inventions such as the flying tourbillon and the double axis tourbillon outperforming and in some cases outshining the traditional Breguet-type tourbillons.
The year 2001 marked the 200th anniversary of the tourbillon.
Stay tuned for more tourbillon history.
The tourbillon history dates back to the 18th century. The invention of the tourbillon, or tourbillon regulator stem from the days of the pocket watch and came about as a result of men's quest for improved accuracy of marine chronometers, a chronometer being a high precision watch. 18th century sailors on the high seas literally depended their lives on the accuracy of their ship's deck watch or these marine chronometer to steer them on course and out of harm's way. The quest for accuracy was obvious and did not end there - after all this was a time of continual innovation and invention in horology, the start of the tourbillon history being just around the corner. As a chronometer would almost invariably rest in the same position, gravity was a directional constant affecting the behavior of the chronometer's balance wheel and balance spring. In fact, the influence of gravity on the accuracy of mechanical watches had worried watchmakers for centuries. How is this so?
Depending on the position of the watch in the vertical plane (crown left; right; down; or up), different variations in the frequency of the balance wheel will occur as a result of changes in its center of gravity. For when a watch is in the vertical position, the earth's gravity either accelerates or slows the balance and the escapement (mechanism in the watch that regulates the speed of rotation of the wheels), causing a rate gain or loss. Even a watch in excellent condition that has been recently lubricated, serviced, and adjusted for temperature variations will still suffer the inevitable influence of the gravitational force of the Earth.
To nullify the effects of gravity in pocket watches, the great French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the tourbillon in 1795, propelling the tourbillon history.
But his invention became known officially only in 1801 when he applied for a patent. The first pocket watch equipped with a tourbillon mechanism was sold in 1805 but it was presented formally to the public during the Parisian show of French industrial products in 1806.
Remember now that the tourbillon is a holdover from the days of the pocket watch. One chapter in the tourbillon history evidences that the tourbillon regulator made the jump to wristwatches starting in 1930. Unlike a wristwatch, a pocket watch worn in a vest will spend the majority of its time in a vertical position. Therefore, Breguet allegedly decided that, for the absolute best accuracy, some means of balancing out the effects of gravity in the various positions was needed. His ingenious solution placed the balance wheel, escape lever, and escape wheel in a cage, which then rotated a full 360 degrees making a complete revolution around itself, usually in a minute. In this way, the overall effects of gravity get balanced out, as the escapement of the movement never spends any significant time in one vertical position.
To demonstrate the functional principle of the tourbillon, an example is shown below:
Assume a watch with the following daily rates: crown down (-2 seconds); crown up (+2 seconds); crown left (0 seconds); crown right (0 seconds).
This watch, placed in the "crown down" position over a period of 4 days would lose 8 seconds. After another 6 days in the "crown up" position would advance it 12 seconds. It's simple to see that after the 10 day period, the watch will have gained a total of 4 seconds as compared to day 0.
| day | Position of Crown | Daily Rate | Daily Variation |
| 1 | Down | -2 | -2 |
| 2 | Down | -2 | -4 |
| 3 | Down | -2 | -6 |
| 4 | Down | -2 | -8 |
| 5 | Up | +2 | -6 |
| 6 | Up | +2 | -4 |
| 7 | UP | +2 | -2 |
| 8 | Up | +2 | 0 |
| 9 | Up | +2 | +2 |
| 10 | Up | +2 | +4 |
Now, what would happen to the same watch if a tourbillon was installed in it? It is also simple to see that this watch would not suffer any variation, since the crown up and crown down positional errors would continually cancel each other out throughout the day (2 second - 2 second = 0 second). The positions crown left and right did not cause variation in this example).
| day | Position of Crown | Daily Rate | Daily Variation |
| 1 | Down | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Down | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Down | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Down | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Up | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Up | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | UP | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Up | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Up | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Up | 0 | 0 |
The tourbillon, therefore, tends to compensate for errors that occur as a result of the position of the watch, thereby increasing its accuracy.
One chapter in the tourbillon history that begun with Breguet has been written; but the pursuit for sophistication, horological excellence and high aesthetics is not over yet... Another chapter of the tourbillon history is currently being written by contemporary watchmakers coming up with complicated tourbillon inventions such as the flying tourbillon and the double axis tourbillon outperforming and in some cases outshining the traditional Breguet-type tourbillons.
The year 2001 marked the 200th anniversary of the tourbillon.
Stay tuned for more tourbillon history.
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