Tourbillon

Manually-operated tourbillon

The invention of the tourbillon compensates for the effects of gravity: the balance and escapement are mounted in a small moveable cage which revolves once a minute and, by doing so, compensates for rate errors. The invention was patented by Abraham-Louis Breguet on 26 June 1801 (7 Messidor Year IX of the Republican Calendar).

Inextricably linked to his name as its inventor, the tourbillon regulator is a system designed to compensate for errors and fluctuations in the workings of watches due to unavoidable changes of position. The invention consists in mounting the escapement on a movable platform (or cage) which completes one revolution in a given time, often one, four or six minutes. The regularly repeating errors offset one another.

The Tourbillon is one of the most well-known inventions of Abraham-Louis Breguet and is also one of the most difficult to produce. Archives show that 35 examples were sold between 1805 and 1823. The Tourbillon was never abandoned by Breguet which, on the contrary, reintroduced it in the 1930s after entrusting the production of a whole series of models to reputable watchmakers such as Robert-Charrue and Victorin Piguet.

Automatic tourbillon

In the 1980s, Breguet broke new ground by adding to its catalogue a wrist watch featuring the famous Tourbillon - a true feat of technical prowess - currently available in an extensive collection of skeletised or complications models. The tourbillon can accommodate all the usual types of escapement, including lever or detent escapements. Free, "coup perdu" (or lost beat) detent escapements housed in a tourbillon are found chiefly in marine chronometers and observation watches. Its ticking may lead us to liken it to a sound function when counted during some experiments, especially since it delivers an excellent mechanical performance.