Tourbillon: History, features and modern timepieces

We want to talk to you about a mechanism that fascinates both watch companies and buyers and watch enthusiasts. We're talking about the tourbillon.

Tourbillon is a French term, this term is in fact the abbreviation of Regulateur à tourbillon. This particular mechanism for was invented by Abraham Louis Breguet, who patented it on June 26, 1801

This has been identified for several years as a complication of the watch although it is not really a complication. This is a mechanism that is added in mechanical clocks that are self-winding and hand-wound.

This mechanism allows the reduction for compensation of the running irregularities that can be accused by the watch according to the position in which it is placed.

The irregularities of the watch are due to the action of the earthly gravity, through the mechanism of Breguet you should be able to bring them back regularly.

The mechanism made by Breguet, was initially built as a rotating cage that is placed along a central axis and which contains the escapement, the anchor and the rocker and the spiral.

The complex construction of this mechanism thanks to its circular motion causes a perpetual movement of the regulator Assembly. The barbell then behaves as if it were spinning along the circumference, thus canceling the clock's delay.

Over the years this mechanism has been reworked in order to make it lighter and less cumbersome inside the watch, but at the same time even though it becomes lighter this becomes even more complex.

For example in the Patek Philippe Tourbillon this is made with 69 components and its weight is only 0.3 grams of weight. All this is contained in a circular cage with a diameter of less than centimeter.

Tourbillon Watch: Quality mechanism of modern watches

The effect of this mechanism could be indispensable in pocket watches, to be able to fight the Earth's gravity, today is an element not really necessary to the precision of a watch.

In modern wristwatches, in fact, those who wear the watch cause a natural tourbillon effect.

This effect is given as the barbell takes on multiple positions while it is being worn, although it is still fixed within a mechanism.

Moreover, today the precision of modern watches is given by the electronic measurement of the barbells, these new rockers suffer only in an absolutely marginal way the effects of the force of gravity.