Tourbillons

[Marki]

You what

[dazren]

Here's an explanation:

Tourbillon
A device in some mechanical watches that eliminates timekeeping errors caused by slight variations due to shifts in gravity when a watch changes position during use. The round carriage or "cage" of the tourbillon holds the mechanisms that rotate the wheels, and thus the hands of the watch, in a continuous rate of once per minute.

Sourced from:

http://www.findwatches.co.uk/terminology.php?osCsi...

[Don1]

It's the most accurate way of keeping mechanical time. It takes a huge amount of work to design and make...

Look up JLC's Master Compressor Extreme (I think) for something really special. First mechanical watch that needs no servicing?

I have seen new Tourbillon watches as 'low' as £2000, but personally I'd hold out for a Zenith El Primo or something like that.

Edited by Don1 on Wednesday 7th November 11:26

[sparkyhx]

dazren said:

Here's an explanation:

Tourbillon
A device in some mechanical watches that eliminates timekeeping errors caused by slight variations due to shifts in gravity when a watch changes position during use. The round carriage or "cage" of the tourbillon holds the mechanisms that rotate the wheels, and thus the hands of the watch, in a continuous rate of once per minute.

Sourced from:

http://www.findwatches.co.uk/terminology.php?osCsi...

Its debatable whether a tourbillon is needed for a wristwatch. It was originally developed for the pocket watch which stays in the same 'plane' all the time so eliminating the effects of gravity has more of an effect - in a wristwatch you are constantly moving it about anyway.

The reason they will be so expensive is R&D costs, The market is small for expensive watches and even smaller for specialist high end versions like a Tourbillon. If for instance it costs £1,000,000 to develop a movement from scratch and you plan on selling 100 watches then each one costs £10,000 plus the manufacturing costs. This is also the reason why 'in-house' movements are also expensive, the R&D has to be spread over fewer ebauches. There is nothing to say an in house movement is any better than a stock ETA, its just that the ETA will be cheaper cos they sell then in the hundreds of thousands rather than hundreds.

You will find most manufacturers do them for no other reason then to say 'aren't we clever' and probably wouldn't want to mass produce them, even if they could, so they just charge silly money to keep them exclusive.

[hab1966]

I did see a Chinese Tourbillon featured on one of the watch sites.

A quick google shows the happy buddha chinese tourbillon costing $2250. Compare this against the Breguet on the same page which costs $138,900.

[hog 1]

hab1966 said:

I did see a Chinese Tourbillon featured on one of the watch sites.

A quick google shows the happy buddha chinese tourbillon costing $2250. Compare this against the Breguet on the same page which costs $138,900.

Good link, never heard of this company before now. Broused their site a bit, their prices seem a high for some of the genuine brands that I looked at elsewhere.

[Animal]

But is the Chinese Tourbillon any good?

I think that one of the reasons (other than 'exclusivity' as previously mentioned) is that not only does a tourbillon movement take ages to develop in the case of integrating within a new or existing movement, but they take ages to actually build.

I remember being told once that an AP Royal Oak Offshore Chrono took a month to make from component parts to actually being ready for shipping and that a Royal Oak Grande Complication took a year to build. Maybe just marketing blurb but that's a lot of labour...

[tempus]

I have a chinese tourbillon,cost very little,crystal back,nice breguet style face,quality on a par with poljot,makes me watch it so it has a fascination,often wear it in preference to more expensive watches so yes if the chance to get one comes get it.Tempus