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.
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