Croton Imperial Mechanical Tourbillon Would Make Breguet Proud

Croton Imperial Mechanical Tourbillon Black/Red Dial Watch

At ZULUTIMEZONE.COM, one can purchase a Croton Imperial Mechanical Tourbillon for just $900.00. This is an excellent price considering a tourbillon is one of the most sought after watch mechanisms . One only has to glance at the numerous tourbillon timepieces unveiled at this year's SIHH and GTE.

Abraham-Louis Breguet

However, a tourbillon is by no means a new watch innovation. The Tourbillon is in fact over 200 years old.  In 1687 Sir Issac Newton published " Principia" outlining the Laws of Gravity. In 1795, Abraham Louis Breguet, French Swiss Watchmaker invented the tourbillon to negate the effect of gravity on a pocket watch.  Breguet hypothesized that gravity slows down a timepiece by its constant force on the movement including the highly sensitive balance wheel, pallet fork and particularly the hairspring.  The hairspring is the regulator of the escapement and the most influenced, of the three components, by external environmental effects such as magnetism, shocks, temperature and gravity.  (Within the movement, the hairspring is influenced by such factors as the  pinning positions(inner collet), terminal curve and heavy points on the balance wheel.)

As the balance wheel swings back and forth, the hairspring must extend and retract leading to potential hiccups in regulation. Thus the greatest challenge for watchmakers is the reliability of the movement.  If a movement is unreliable, it will fail miserably in efficiency and precision.  Of course today we have high tech watch timing machines, which can time the accuracy of a watch 

.In Breguet's day he required another watch by which to regulate his newly assembled timepiece. A tourbillon   eased the regulation hassles of a watchmaker by reducing the amount of positions a watch must be tested to ensure constant reliability in timekeeping. 

A Tourbillon is includes a cage ,which turns at one complete revolution per minute , in which the balance wheel and escapement is placed. This rotation reduces the variation of effects gravity plays on the movement of a watch and increases a watch's precision.  

Today watch precision can be bought for around $10 in the form of a highly efficient quartz watch.  However, the attraction of a tourbillon is not so much in the original function proposed by Breguet, but rather as a recognized feat of  horological expertise.  The tourbillon is one of the  most complex watch mechanisms to assemble, and achievement of this kind elevates the status of a watch manufacturer not to mention delighting the eye of the beholder.  There is no watch mechanism comparable to the hypnotic revolutions of a tourbillon.  I have heard it described again and again as the beating heart of a watch.

Below is an excellent video on tourbillon assembly.