Can someone explain in plain english please
Discussion
?a) fancy complication used to show off the skill of the master watchmaker
b) excuse to charge preposterous money even though there's no improvement in accuracy
c) used to be something only the Swiss could do and nobody else. Now the Chinese make them
d) pretty much the ultimate complication (in 3-D form) so desirable for movement-freaks like me
e) A-L Breguet would be turning in his grave at some of the multi-tourbillon watches made just to 'outdo' other manufactures...
Basically back in the time of pocket watches, the gentleman would carry the pocket watch in his pocket, vertically (as should be obvious). This meant that the escapement (the bit that regulates the time and ticks back and forth) could be adjusted so it kept good time when in the gentleman's pocket upright, but unfortunately gravity affected the masses ticking back and forth, so if the watch were to fall at an angle (easy in a pocket) then the timekeeping could go bad. Old pocket watches had a much slower beat, and heavier escapement components, so gravity really did affect the 'balance' of the movement.
What Abraham-Louis Breguet invented was the tourbillon (french-ish for 'whirlwind' IIRC) - he put the entire escapement inside a wheel that rotated once every minute. Thus the effect of gravity on the escapement (which ran slowly in those days) was cancelled out by being in a different angle with respect to the ground all the time.
However the tourbillon is still susceptible to back-and-forth gravity effects, so Jaeger le-Coultre made one where the escapement rotates on two axes, like those fairground rides modelled on astronaut trainers, where you're all over the shop. In that case, the escapement really is independent of gravity.
And it's stunning to watch.
And it's still beaten to hell timekeeping-wise by a £5 Casio quartz
b) excuse to charge preposterous money even though there's no improvement in accuracy
c) used to be something only the Swiss could do and nobody else. Now the Chinese make them
d) pretty much the ultimate complication (in 3-D form) so desirable for movement-freaks like me
e) A-L Breguet would be turning in his grave at some of the multi-tourbillon watches made just to 'outdo' other manufactures...
Basically back in the time of pocket watches, the gentleman would carry the pocket watch in his pocket, vertically (as should be obvious). This meant that the escapement (the bit that regulates the time and ticks back and forth) could be adjusted so it kept good time when in the gentleman's pocket upright, but unfortunately gravity affected the masses ticking back and forth, so if the watch were to fall at an angle (easy in a pocket) then the timekeeping could go bad. Old pocket watches had a much slower beat, and heavier escapement components, so gravity really did affect the 'balance' of the movement.
What Abraham-Louis Breguet invented was the tourbillon (french-ish for 'whirlwind' IIRC) - he put the entire escapement inside a wheel that rotated once every minute. Thus the effect of gravity on the escapement (which ran slowly in those days) was cancelled out by being in a different angle with respect to the ground all the time.
However the tourbillon is still susceptible to back-and-forth gravity effects, so Jaeger le-Coultre made one where the escapement rotates on two axes, like those fairground rides modelled on astronaut trainers, where you're all over the shop. In that case, the escapement really is independent of gravity.
And it's stunning to watch.
And it's still beaten to hell timekeeping-wise by a £5 Casio quartz
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