Collection: Tourbillon

A tourbillon is a device used to counteract the effects of gravity on a watch's timekeeping.

Tourbillon is French for "whirlwind." It represents the pinnacle of complex craftsmanship in the world of watchmaking, but what exactly is a tourbillon? To understand that, we need to go back over 200 years to the era of pocket watches. Have you seen Fullmetal Alchemist? Edward's silver pocket watch is a product of that time. The standard for a watch's "accuracy" back then was completely incomparable to today's; an error of several minutes or even tens of minutes a day was common. Before the Industrial Revolution, all objects were made entirely by hand, so producing a smoothly operating watch was already quite remarkable. However, watchmakers naturally sought ways to improve accuracy, crafting finer balance springs and gears. On the other hand, since pocket watches were kept in waistcoat pockets, remaining in a vertical position for long periods, the timekeeping mechanism of the mechanical movement—the escapement (including the balance wheel and balance spring, lever, and escapement wheel)—would be affected by gravity. This would cause the movement to run fast or slow, leading to errors. To solve this problem, in 1795, Abraham Louis Breguet invented the tourbillon device. The timekeeping mechanism was set within a 360-degree rotating cage, and the entire timekeeping system rotated on its own axis once per minute. This ensured that the timekeeping mechanism was no longer affected by gravity from a single direction, leading to more stable timekeeping and, naturally, more accurate time.