The Tourbillon

The Tourbillon is one of the most complex and difficult to make watch escapements. As such it is usually a mark of high quality workmanship and tourbillon watches often fetch high prices in auction houses and at the luxury end of the watch market.

What is a Tourbillon?

The tourbillon is a form of escapement for wristwatches or pocket watches. Some clocks have also been built with tourbillon escapements, even there is little reason for them.

The motive behind the tourbillon was simple: people don't stand still! To obtain maximum accuracy from a timepiece it essential that the movement of the oscillator must be isochronal - that is, it must keep regular and predictable time.

Unfortunately this is difficult to achieve when the wearer of the watch insists on moving the wrist around. Such movements cause the stresses and friction on the watch mechanism to vary, along with the influence of gravity.

A watch that tells perfect time when held at one angle might not do so at another. With clocks this is not a problem - since a clock is always in the same position, it is possible to adjust for any error. With a constantly moving wristwatch the error is itself constantly changing.

Breguet

To deal with this problem, Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the Tourbillon escapement in 1795. Essentially this works by keeping a part of the watch mechanism in constant motion. This serves to cancel out the movement of the wrist - whatever position the watch is held in, the mechanism will rotate through all angles. Thus the overall error can be calculated and adjusted for.

The rotation of the tourbillon is used as part of the motion train. It is common for the tourbillon to rotate once a minute, thus allowing it to also double as a second hand. However tourbillons exist with other rotational periods such as four or even six minutes.

Today it is possible to obtain high levels of accuracy without the need for the complication of a tourbillon escapement. However some top of the range, luxury quality watches are still available on the market for those who can afford to buy them.

	All About Clocks, Watches and Time
The Tourbillon The Tourbillon is one of the most complex and difficult to make watch escapements. As such it is usually a mark of high quality workmanship and tourbillon watches often fetch high prices in auction houses and at the luxury end of the watch market. What is a Tourbillon? The tourbillon is a form of escapement for wristwatches or pocket watches. Some clocks have also been built with tourbillon escapements, even there is little reason for them. The motive behind the tourbillon was simple: people don't stand still! To obtain maximum accuracy from a timepiece it essential that the movement of the oscillator must be isochronal - that is, it must keep regular and predictable time. Unfortunately this is difficult to achieve when the wearer of the watch insists on moving the wrist around. Such movements cause the stresses and friction on the watch mechanism to vary, along with the influence of gravity. A watch that tells perfect time when held at one angle might not do so at another. With clocks this is not a problem - since a clock is always in the same position, it is possible to adjust for any error. With a constantly moving wristwatch the error is itself constantly changing. Breguet To deal with this problem, Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the Tourbillon escapement in 1795. Essentially this works by keeping a part of the watch mechanism in constant motion. This serves to cancel out the movement of the wrist - whatever position the watch is held in, the mechanism will rotate through all angles. Thus the overall error can be calculated and adjusted for. The rotation of the tourbillon is used as part of the motion train. It is common for the tourbillon to rotate once a minute, thus allowing it to also double as a second hand. However tourbillons exist with other rotational periods such as four or even six minutes. Today it is possible to obtain high levels of accuracy without the need for the complication of a tourbillon escapement. However some top of the range, luxury quality watches are still available on the market for those who can afford to buy them. Clocks-Watches-Time / Watches / Mechanics / Tourbillon / All original material copyright © Trevor Mendham 2005-2008. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners Please read the site terms of use		Clocks Watches Celebrity Famous Makes A-H Makes I-Z Mechanics Complications Self Winding Tourbillon Types Store Time Time & Motion More...