High-quality tourbillons are not cheap.
Tourbillon is the transliteration of TOURBILLON, which means rotating escapement speed regulating mechanism.
The tourbillon watch is a clock speed regulating device invented by the Swiss watch master Mr. Louis Breguet in 1795. The French Tourbillon (so it is also called Tourbillon) means "whirlpool" and refers to a mechanical watch equipped with a "rotating escapement speed regulating mechanism". Tourbillon is a combination of transliteration and free translation. Breguet invented the tourbillon mechanism to correct the errors caused by gravity on clock parts.
Ordinary mechanical watches have large errors due to the influence of spring tightness, metal fatigue and gravity; the tourbillon speed regulator is the only one that is not affected by these influences, and the annual error is less than 1 second, it is also the only mechanical watch structure that can reach the observatory level. Today, almost all raw materials and key parts for watch movements can only be produced in Switzerland. A completely original Swiss tourbillon watch movement can easily cost more than one million yuan. Mechanical watches equipped with tourbillon movements have always been the darling of the collectors. Synonymous with currency.
Early works
Most of Breguet's early tourbillon watches were equipped with the escapement invented by Breguet in 1795 - the ruby ??cylinder (ruby cylinder), known as " Illegitimate "(natural) escapement.
There are 7 Breguet 4-minute tourbillons known so far. In addition to the aforementioned No. 1188 (sold to the Prince of Spain in 1808 AD), there is also the No. 1297 sold in 1808 equipped with a Robin escapement, and in 1815 equipped with a constant force escapement (Echappement a force constante). No. 2483, and No. 2555 equipped with Peto crosses-detent escapement sold in 1823, and two others were equipped with self-invented escapements. The date of sale of No. 2483 has not been recorded.
Another No. 1176 was sold to the Polish nobleman Count Potoki in 1809. This transaction was reached through Mr. Moreau of St. Petersburg in Tsarist Russia. The price at that time was 4,600 francs.
Principle of speed regulation
The principle of Breguet's tourbillon speed regulator is as follows:
If the escape wheel and lever (Lever, that is, horse) The balance wheel and hairspring are all placed on a carriage, and the small teeth of the carriage are driven by the third wheel to rotate the carriage. The fourth wheel placed above the balance is fixed (the fixed fourth wheel) and concentric with the carriage shift. The escape-wheel pinion meshes with the fourth wheel.
So when the carriage rotates, the pinion of the escape wheel rotates around the fixed fourth wheel, which causes the pinion to rotate and manipulate the escape wheel in a normal manner. and balance wheel (picture: tourbillon principle).
The entire above-mentioned structure is called a tourbillon cage. These components rotate constantly together, completing a complete rotation at a stable rate - 1 minute, 4 minutes or even 6 minutes. circle, then no matter which vertical position the watch is in, the tourbillon speed regulator will rotate one circle at exactly the same time. In this way, due to the different positions of gravity, the error caused by one position will be affected by the other. The errors in position are offset by equal magnitudes. In fact, the tourbillon does not eliminate position errors, it only averages them out, but despite its vertical position, the tourbillon's carrier period is constant.
Breguet had proposed this idea in 1775, but it was not produced until nearly six years later. On the 24th day of the eighth month of the Japanese calendar - equivalent to April 14th, 1801 AD - he wrote a letter to the then Minister of the Interior, explaining that he invented the tourbillon speed regulator, and requested that he be granted a 10-year patent. . On June 26, 1801, he received the patent license.
Post-era
Flying Tourbillon
Breguet opened the era of tourbillon pocket watches. It has been two hundred years since that time. This period At this time, there are still many watchmakers who regard this field as the Mount Everest in the timepiece industry. There are always people who challenge it, including many watchmakers in modern times (such as Jiao Dayu who lives in Hong Kong).
99 years after Breguet invented the tourbillon, Danish-born Bahne Bonniksen (1859-1935) invented a similar system called karussel, which was patented in 1892 ( Patent number: 21421).
Working Principle
Breguet’s tourbillon principle and technology lasted for more than a hundred years without major changes until the 1920s, when Germany’s Albert Helwing (Deutsche Uhrmacheerschule’s technology Department Director) invented the "flying tourbillon" (or "flying tourbillon"), which is a tourbillon without a bridge in order to make the tourbillon as flat as possible (as flat as possible). This free-standing cage was the purpose of Albert Helwing's invention.
The tourbillon watch represents the highest level of mechanical watch manufacturing technology. The entire escapement speed regulating mechanism is combined and can rotate at a certain speed, allowing it to exert gravity on the mechanical watch. The influence of the "escapement system" in the watch is minimized to improve travel time accuracy. Due to its unique operating method, it has brought the dynamic artistic beauty of watches to its peak, and has always been known as the "King of Watches".
The creativity of the tourbillon watch is to place the escapement in a frame (Carriage), so that the frame can rotate 360 ??degrees around the axis, which is the axis of the balance wheel. In this way, the original escapement is fixed, so when the resting position of the watch changes, the escapement does not change, resulting in errors in the stress on the escapement parts; when the escapement rotates 360 degrees continuously When doing so, the orientation errors of the parts will be combined and offset each other, thus eliminating the errors. A tourbillon usually rotates 360 degrees in one minute, which is also the ideal rotation speed.
The principle of the tourbillon is to compensate for the effect of gravity when the clock is in a vertical position.
In other words, when a clock is in a vertical position, its regulating controller, that is, its balance wheel, hairspring and escapement, will move every time due to the force of gravity. There are imperceptible changes in speed when swinging.
If the adjustment controller is mounted on a "cage" that rotates once per minute, a series of vertical positions can be obtained. This allows the clock to move very accurately and compensate for errors.
This principle seems very simple, but its implementation is another matter. One reason is that the weight of the "cage" and tourbillon cannot exceed 0.3 grams or 0.013 ounces - equivalent to the weight of one swan feather or two parrot feathers. Another reason is that it consists of 72 fine components, most of which are handmade!
Technical classification
Tourbillon watches can mainly be improved and innovated through time and technology. It is divided into the following three generations:
1. The first generation tourbillon watch (the first structure-Tourbillon) was invented and made by Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1795. Its flywheel structure must be composed of two indispensable basic components: "Flywheel rotating frame" (Tourbillon's Carriage) and "Flywheel fixed bracket" (Tourbillon's Bridge). In this combination, the "Balance's Bridge" must rotate with the flywheel. According to different combination methods, the first generation of flywheel watches can be divided into two categories: coaxial type (that is, the center of the balance wheel and the center of the flywheel are on the same axis); eccentric type (also known as non-coaxial type, that is, the balance wheel The center of the flywheel is not on the same axis).
2. The second generation flying tourbillon watch (the second structure-Flying Tourbillon) was in 1927. German watchmaker Alferd Helwig successfully manufactured a tourbillon pocket watch without a "flywheel fixed bracket". It improves the mystery and dynamic artistic beauty of this kind of watch when it is running. In this combination, the "balance cock" must still rotate with the flywheel. This second-generation flywheel watch also has two categories: coaxial and eccentric.
3. The third-generation Mystery Tourbillon watch (the third structure-Mystery Tourbillon) was created by the Oriental watch master-Chinese Kiu Tai Yu (Kiu Tai Yu) in Hong Kong in 1993. Yixuan "created the first invention and successfully manufactured it himself." Not only does it cancel the "flywheel fixed bracket" like the second generation flying tourbillon watch, but also miraculously cancels the "flywheel rotating frame" (in both the first and second generation flywheel watches, this component is is essential). In addition, in this brand-new structure, the "balance splint" that must rotate with the flywheel in the first and second generation flywheel watches is changed to not rotate with the flywheel. For the first time, the weight of the flywheel is greatly reduced by more than half, and it can The diameter of the balance wheel is enlarged to enhance the stability of timing and at the same time improve the level of dynamic artistic expression. For the first time in the history of flywheel watch manufacturing, Jiao Dayu chose sapphire glass to replace the "balance cock" originally made of metal. This part was previously attached to the "flywheel rotating frame". Because this watch appears more mysterious when running, it is also known as "Kiu's Mystery Tourbillon" and "Chinese Tourbillon" internationally.