The heritage and the future of Perrelet

The invention of the automatic watch

The oscillating rotor

Before Abraham-Louis Perrelet invented the automatic movement, owners of timepieces were faced with the tedious task of having to wind them up each day. A single oversight and the watch would just stop. During the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, many brilliant minds were fascinated by the research on per-petual movement: for example, how do you design a mechanism which from an initial impulse continues to function indefinitely? As we now know, this problem cannot be solved, as perpetual movement is a chimera. But such research at least had the virtue of stimulating human ingenuity – of getting it moving, in fact. As he was unable to preserve the original movement, Perrelet had the bright idea of an automatic winding mechanism. This idea was based on a totally innovative principle: fit a barrel to the mainspring – what we commonly refer to as winding one's watch – thanks to the energy created by the natural movements of the wearer. To achieve this result, it was necessary to use the upward movement of an interdependent oscillating weight of the winding mechanism.

An indefatigable researcher, Perrelet went on to per-fect the rotor type oscillating weight, which pivoted at the centre of the watch, and which did not have a buffer to stop the movement. The watches made by Perrelet were first called “jerk watches” and then “automatic watches” and, from that time on, all mechanical timepieces with an automatic winding mechanism have adopted Perrelet's discovery – right up to the present day…

Today, all Perrelet watches are fitted with automatic winding movements. The brand makes no exceptions to this rule.

After this system became even more famous with the creation of the first double rotor movement in 1995 (which enabled the rotor on the face of the watch to be displayed), Perrelet is now presenting a new interpretation of its remarkable invention.

This time, the rotor has undergone a complete visual and technical facelift so that you can admire the finish of the movement via a glass pane fixed to the rotor. Most of the movements of the new Perrelet collection are adorned with the exclusive “Perrelet tapestry” which can be admired through the pane of its unique rotor. The contemporary interpretation of the history of Perrelet through this new type of movement is a spectacular way of paying tribute to the man who was one of the greatest watchmakers of his time.