Inthefootstepsofbreguet m4qyfj5x

In the footsteps of Breguet COMPLICATION

In the Footsteps of Breguet

Contemporary Tourbillons and Their Configurations

REVOLUTION

152

By jack forster

S

ince the mid 1980s the tourbillon wristwatch has experienced a renaissance resulting in numerous configurations and implementations of Breguet’s signature gravity defeating regulator. Collectively, many of these watches have represented engineering breakthroughs which have defined the contemporary parameters of the classic tourbillon wristwatch architecture. Modern tourbillon architecture boasts numerous incarnations including the central tourbillon, the flying tourbillon and carousel tourbillon. When many of these were introduced in wristwatch form, they were nothing less than major technical and aesthetic breakthroughs.

The implementation of miniaturized constant force mechanisms such as the remontoir or the chain and fusée in wristwatch tourbillons has also served to delight and awe watch fans. But perhaps all the heady advancement over the last two and a half decades serves best to illustrate how the classic tourbillon based on Abraham-Louis Breguet’s original design has never lost its ability to fascinate and enthrall. Here then are some of our favorite classic tourbillons and how they work…

barrel turns due to the unwinding of the mainspring, the fusée chain unwinds from the fusée and onto the barrel. As it does so, it drives a great wheel at the base of the cone which drives the power train. The spiral groove widens in its radius as the chain unwinds, producing a greater mechanical advantage for the mainspring as it slackens.

Although modern lever escapements are comparatively less affected by variations in mainspring power, and although modern mainsprings offer much more consistency in power delivery than those in use during the era when the fusée was found in high grade watches, it remains, like the tourbillon, a piece of horological exotica of great rarity. In fact, the only other production wristwatch in recent decades to implement a fusée is also by A. Lange & Söhne – the split second chronograph version of the Pour le Mérite, the Tourbograph, introduced in 2006.

Besides the fusée which holds immense traditional watchmaking appeal, there is another equally exotic, rarely implemented complication – which, interestingly enough, was designed to address the same problem as the fusée A. Lange & Söhne Pour le Mérite Tourbillon and chain: the remontoir. The remontoir is essentially an PART ONE: chronometry & tourbillons If additional spring for providing power to the watch’s regulator. the tourbillon represents the goal of chronometry It is armed by the mainspring and releases power (or accurate timekeeping) using traditional means, to the escapement, and is then rearmed, at regular then those tourbillons that strive hardest to achieve intervals. The remontoir, like the fusée, was this can also be considered the most horologically developed centuries ago and was far less common significant. Of all the classic tourbillons today, than the fusée, as the remontoir is extremely difficult perhaps one of the most exotic and yet at the same to construct. But its chronometric significance is time one of the most traditional is the A. Lange & vastly evinced by John Harrison’s use of one in his The fusée and chain Söhne Pour le Mérite Tourbillon. As a tourbillon H4 chronometer watch, which finally won the prize alone, it would be a fascinating piece. The watch is set by the Board of Longitude. a one-minute tourbillon executed in the high Saxon watchmaking style with In modern horology the distinction of building the first remontoir small the peerless finish for which Lange is justly famed, with a maillechort ¾ enough to fit in a wristwatch belongs to François-Paul Journe. The Journe plate movement. The watch runs on 29 jewels, with overcoil hairspring and F.P. Journe’s Dead diamond endstones to the balance staff – a traditional touch carried over Seconds Tourbillon from Lange’s pocket watches. The Pour le Mérite also has the distinctive screw-mounted gold châtons characteristic of all Lange watches. All this would suffice to produce a tourbillon of remarkable beauty but the Pour le Mérite stands apart in one other respect - it is the first wristwatch produced with an ancient mechanism used to improve the quality of mainspring power, called the fusée and chain.

The fusée and chain evolved as a means of producing more even delivery of power from the mainspring to the train as power reserve depleted. Before the chain was developed, a “gut and fusée” mechanism was used in watches which literally substituted a strip of animal gut for the chain. Essentially, a fusée is a tapered cone with a spiral groove running around it, in which a chain rides. This chain also wraps around the mainspring barrel. As the

This lever stops the going train transmitting the force from the mainspring while allowing the remontoir blade-spring

pivoting concentrically around the tourbillon carriage

REVOLUTION

F.P. Journe’s remontoir d’égalité mechanism.

The remontoir is made up of a constant force satellite wheel mounted on a lever

153

to impart its (constant) energy

COMPLICATION

Photo: Mervin Chua

REVOLUTION

154

Vacheron Constantin has developed a significant and passionate following for their skeletonized tourbillons created at their special Vacheron Constantin Haut de Gamme workshop. The Malte tourbillon squelette is a shaped caliber tourbillon, elaborately skeletonized, with a distinctive tourbillon cage in the shape of Vacheron Constantin’s trademark Maltese Cross

balance

escape wheel

lever

bottom of cage

Anatomy of Glashütte Original’s Flying Tourbillon

PART THREE: different configurations The classic

tourbillon is usually constructed in such a way as to sandwich the cage in between two fixed pivots – that is, the cage is supported on two sides. However, in 1920, master Glashütte watchmaker and instructor Alfred Helwig took Breguet’s invention one step further, with an inspiration that made possible many of the more beautiful and innovative tourbillons we enjoy today. Helwig developed a method of supporting the tourbillon carriage solely from below, eliminating the bridge or cock usually used to support the carriage from above. The resulting unobstructed view of the tourbillon’s rotating cage and the oscillating balance wheel affords a particularly keen experience Bof the visual appeal of the tourbillon. It is only appropriate that one of the companies which has demonstrated wide ranging mastery of the flying tourbillon is Glashütte Original, which presented the now legendary Alfred Helwig tourbillons, which have decentralized hour

155

of horological legitimacy then no brand is as well positioned as Vacheron Constantin. Having just celebrated their 250th anniversary of continuous operation, Vacheron Constantin has the distinction of having already enjoyed four decades of commercial success before the tourbillon was invented! As such, it comes as no surprise to find that the history of the firm is littered with remarkable high grade tourbillons, many of which were ultra-precision chronometers entered in observatory time trials. Among the many such watches created by Vacheron Constantin is a pocketwatch chronometer, No. 464269, which was awarded 1st Prize in 1949 in the time trials at the observatory in Neuchâtel; it is a 22 ligne, one minute tourbillon with Guillaume balance.

More recently, Vacheron Constantin has developed a significant and passionate following for their skeletonized tourbillons created at their special Vacheron Constantin Haut de Gamme workshop. The Malte tourbillon squelette, for example, is a shaped caliber tourbillon, elaborately

Photo: Mervin Chua

PART TWO: the legitimate manufactures If history is the foundation

REVOLUTION

Tourbillon Souverain à remontoir d’égalité avec seconde morte, a dead-seconds tourbillon, incorporates three rarely-found complications – the remontoir (here called by its full name, the remontoir d’égalité), the dead seconds complication (in which the seconds hand advances once per second rather than with each unlocking of the escape wheel) and the tourbillon itself.

An important distinction between Journe’s dead seconds mechanism and others is that Journe’s mechanism does not rob the gear train of energy but is driven by the constant force mechanism that feeds energy to the escapement precisely once every second. Joining the constant force elite in 2006 was Jérôme de Witt who unveiled a new tourbillon with a constant force mechanism modeled after a flying regulator from a striking watch.

skeletonized, with a distinctive tourbillon cage in the shape of Vacheron Constantin’s trademark Maltese Cross. The rotating cage in the form of the Maltese Cross serves to remind the viewer of the unbroken and distinguished heritage of Vacheron Constantin.

Audemars Piguet has been for many years arguably the most successful of all the great houses at the difficult task of seamlessly integrating mechanical innovations of genuine breadth with designs which explore the rich contemporary design terrain where classical watchmaking and radical mechanical ingenuity intersect. The tourbillons produced by Audemars Piguet run the gamut of complications, including chronographs and minute repeaters as expressed by the Jules Audemars Tourbillon Minute Repeater with the hand wound caliber 2872. Like all of Audemars Piguet’s tourbillons, this grande complication is crafted in-house at the Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi haut de gamme facility and exhibits some of the best finish in the watchmaking universe. Audemars Piguet’s tourbillons also seconds indication exhibit extremely good timekeeping accuracy, thanks to the large-sized balance coupled with top of cage a vibrational speed of 21,600 beats per hour.

COMPLICATION and minute displays and which were the first wristwatches to implement a flying tourbillon. Glashütte Original also offers an automatic version of the flying tourbillon in their automatic winding PanoMatic Tourbillon, with the manufacture caliber 93 which boasts a decentralized rotor as well as a visible flying tourbillon exposed on the dial side of the movement.

Is a tourbillon so delicate that it can’t be worn on a daily basis? Far from it. If you’re looking for a tourbillon that mates high watchmaking artisanship with real world practicality, look no further than the International Watch Company’s masculine yet refined take on the flying tourbillon, the intriguing Portuguese Tourbillon “Mystère” or “mystery” tourbillon. This tourbillon has been built into the firm’s manufacture caliber 50011, the famous sevenday automatic movement with bi-directional Pellaton winding system which powers both the Portuguese and Big Pilot watches and boasts arguably the most efficient (quick winding) mechanism in the world. The term “mystery”

Glashütte Original PanoMatic Tourbillon

REVOLUTION

156

If you’re looking for a tourbillon that mates high watchmaking artisanship with real world practicality, look no further than the International Watch Company’s masculine yet refined take on the flying tourbillon, the intriguing Portuguese Tourbillon “Mystère” in the name refers to the balance and cage which are apparently suspended in space, with no physical attachment visible to the rest of the mechanism.

Another contender in the high stakes game of tourbillon manufacturing is Blancpain, which offers a tourbillon of unusual configuration. The Blancpain tourbillon is slightly different from what is usually considered a traditional or classic tourbillon arrangement. In Breguet’s invention the balance wheel rotates around the axis of the fixed fourth wheel – in fact, this is usually considered a basic part of what makes a tourbillon a tourbillon. Blancpain’s tourbillon, however, is different: in the Blancpain tourbillon the balance and escape wheel both rotate around a common axis. Because of the greater space between escape wheel and balance that this unique rearrangement allows, Blancpain uses a straight lever escapement, rather than the laterally oriented lever used in most other tourbillon watches. Vincent Calabrese, the outspoken AHCI co-founder who blazed the trail for other independent watchmakers, designed the Blancpain tourbillon and in doing so, found the perfect expression of the tourbillon for the manufacture. Because most of Blancpain’s distinctive watches are very subtly subversive; many appear at first glance resolutely and traditionally classical and yet on close examination, nuanced variations on the conventional proportions of hands and dial give their watches a strange, hypnotic interest. To distinguish the Blancpain tourbillon from a conventional tourbillon, it is sometimes also called a “carousel” tourbillon. Other carousel tourbillons include Piaget’s Emperador tourbillon designed by Cartier’s high complication genius Carole Forestier-Kasapi.

Perhaps a diametrically opposed impulse is what led to the development of the central tourbillon, in which the balance is relocated not to the periphery of the cage, but in the center of the cage which is in turn placed dead center of the movement itself! Such central tourbillons are

Blancpain’s 2006 rose gold Tourbillon Transparence

157 REVOLUTION

Photo: Mervin Chua

In Blancpain’s carousel tourbillon, the third wheel powers the pinion of the platform

COMPLICATION

difficult to execute and correspondingly rare – so much so that only two are in existence.

The first of these is the almost operatically lush Omega Central Tourbillon.

The Omega Central Tourbillon was in fact the first central tourbillon ever produced, a signature watch penetrating the very stratosphere of haute horlogerie from a company associated in the minds of many more with a solid, workman-like approach to performance oriented watchmaking.

The central tourbillon poses a difficult question. Because of the unique arrangement of the gear train, the question was where to put the hands?

In the case of the Omega Central Tourbillon, the solution was to drive two sapphire discs with the “hands” painted onto them as indicators for the hours and minutes; the sapphire discs ride in toothed metal rims, which are driven by gears engaging the toothed rims at the periphery of the movement

in a manner similar to Cartier’s famous Mystery clocks. The central tourbillon itself has a cage in the shape of the Greek letter omega, and the shaped regulator index acts as the seconds hand.

The only other central tourbillon in existence is made by Beat Haldimann, the affable aesthete of the AHCI who counts among his interests the production of not only wristwatches but also high precision pendulum clocks.

It is as an expression of the serenity achieved by focusing on the essentials that the Beat Haldimann Central Tourbillon, with its enormous centrally located balance wheel, succeeds most admirably. With a diameter of 14.4mm and two hands extending from under the tourbillon carriage which are mechanically driven, the H1 watch exemplifies not simply innovation, but innovation in the service of a classic design sensibility that becomes, in its realization, transcendental – and so fittingly, the caliber is named H Zen A.H

Photo: Mervin Chua

REVOLUTION

158

Omega Central tourbillon