Tourbillon

The tourbillon (French for whirlwind ) is (usually) to compensate for a particular device in wrist and pocket watches an error of accuracy by gravity. By getting different movement on the wrist tourbillon watches is rather to be seen as a gadget and not a really sensible watchmaking complication. For pocket watches, which are usually carried in a situation, this is not true.

Function

To cancel changes of position of a pocket watch ( and the consequent inaccuracy ), invented Abraham Louis Breguet ( 1747-1823 ) in 1795, the Tourbillon. The patent was granted in 1801 in Paris, in the patent, it is referred to as " Régulateur à Tourbillon ".

In this the escape wheel, the anchor and the so-called balance is built on a small plate in a bogie, one seated on the shaft of the second wheel cage. The second drive is screwed from the bottom to the bogie and permanently installed on the lower board. The bogie, the balance swings in the middle just above the shaft of the second wheel rotates about the fixed fourth wheel bolted. Here, the impulse of the escape wheel runs on this. Thus, when the second wheel rotates once per minute, the tourbillon makes with ( the board) this rotation. This contact sheet or focus error no longer occurs, or once a minute offset (depending on the tourbillon ).

However, a tourbillon the management compensation does not perform purposeful. A wristwatch is permanently moved in different directions, so the position correction can not be performed completely. The tourbillon was designed for pocket watches because the position of these watches hardly changed. Therefore, a positional compensation for pocket watches, as opposed to wrist watches, quite reasonable. But a positional compensation in all positions can not perform a tourbillon. Temperature fluctuations affect these watches almost as strong as normal mechanical watch movements. Tourbillons are technically very complex and also not very robust.

The better the balance is balanced, the less brings the tourbillon of accuracy. In gimbaled watches (eg navigation chronometers ) the balance staff is always perpendicular. A tourbillon is not useful in this case.

In the first 200 years about 700 tourbillons were just built, since their production is particularly difficult. Therefore Tourbillon are expensive. The adjustment and repair a tourbillon require a lot of skill and care. But now offers almost every luxury watch manufacturer to appropriate watches so now several thousand were produced tourbillons.

A modification of this watch was invented by the Danish Bahne Bonniksen. He used the barrel as rotation bearing and outsourced the drive and the balance on a rotating carousel. Such carousels are due to their production much heavier than a tourbillon and perform position compensation with a complete rotation every 261/4 minutes. This type of clock is called Karusselluhr. The carousel also provided a focal point for the tech-savvy people of that time. So window openings were often milled into the dial to release the view of the carousel.

The "flying" tourbillon

The "flying" tourbillon is a further development or variation of the classic Breguet tourbillon. It was invented in 1920 by watchmaker teacher Alfred Helwig. The peculiarity of the flying tourbillon is that dispensing with the upper bridge for supporting the cage. The cage is mounted solely on the underside.

The Gyro tourbillon

In theory, the tourbillon can indeed compensate for static positional change of the clock by turning the pointer axis, but not dynamic disturbances (eg jogging ). When Swiss Nobel watchmaker Jaeger -LeCoultre therefore the Gyrotourbillon was developed: a complex mechanism rotates the balance continuously around three axes, analogous to a gyroscopic system. The way it works is - even in direct intuition - even for experts only very difficult to understand. The gain in accuracy is hardly measurable and remains below the - even at the highest quality movements - occurring mechanical fault ( friction, etc. ); the Gyro tourbillon, a technical gimmick.

The Double Tourbillon

The Swiss watchmaker Greubel Forsey developed in 2004, the model " Double Tourbillon 30 ° ", which is equipped with a Double Tourbillon. The feature here is the use of a smaller, angled at 30 ° to a greater Tourbillondrehgestell tourbillon. While the smaller tourbillon requires one minute for a full turn, the Tourbillondrehgestell requires four minutes for a turn. The manufacturer expects this greater accuracy compared to simple Tourbillonlaufwerken.

Since 2008, Greubel Forsey produced another model: The " Quadruple Tourbillon à différentiel " has two Doppeltourbillons combined in one housing. Is used in this differential clock, a spherical connecting the four Tourbillongestelle together. The differential provides here, similar to a differential gear in a car, for a uniform force transmission, even if the Tourbillongestelle have different speeds.

The double - axis tourbillon

The German watchmaker Thomas Prescher developed in 2003 for the " Thomas Prescher Haute Horlogerie " model " Double Axis Tourbillon " in a pocket watch and a wrist watch in 2004, which is equipped with a two-axis tourbillon. The special feature here is that the tourbillon rotates about two axes. The first axis and the second axis each rotate around its own axis 1/min. The whole tourbillon is called a constant - force mechanism, also remontoire equipped in tourbillon cage. Prescher has implemented the constant force new and used for the necessary effort in his double - axis tourbillon. He has the mechanism used to equalize the different power supply, through strong to weak strained lift springs, friction, gravity and gravity effects, so that the Schwingungsreguliersystem of the double -axis tourbillon even force is always supplied. He used a modified system after Henri Jeanneret.

The triple- axis tourbillon

2004 Prescher developed for the " Thomas Prescher Haute Horlogerie " a "Triple Axis Tourbillon " in a wristwatch. The special feature here is that the tourbillon revolves around three axes. First and second axes respectively rotate with 1/min, the third axis rotates at 1 / h around its own axis. The whole tourbillon is how the double - axis tourbillon, equipped with a constant - force mechanism.

Availability

Almost all luxury watch manufacturers now offer Tourbillon. The tourbillon is, even though its effect is limited to the accuracy of wristwatches, yet very popular. Its complexity is as unique selling point. Therefore, in these watches, the dial is broken usually designed so that it releases the view of Tourbillon and parts of the work. Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers produce Tourbillon, which are marketed under various (often European -sounding ) pseudonyms mostly through Internet auctions. About quality, price and value of these watches is discussed in watches among collectors.

Another trend in Internet auctions is to extol watches with visible balance wheel with the title " Tourbillon Style" or even "Tourbillon ", even though it is just a simple balance inhibition with fixed escapement wheel.