THOMAS PRESCHER – Master of Tourbillons

Frank Geelen visited Thomas Prescher in his Swiss workshop to fully experience independent watchmaking.

WORLDTEMPUS - 27 October 2010

Frank Geelen - www.monochrome.nl

Chronicle

This past August, Thomas Prescher made the watch world a unique offer: the possibility to visit him in his atelier and experience the true art of independent watchmaking. Prescher is perhaps most famous for creating a triple-axis tourbillon in wrist format and is today the only watchmaker in the world delivering wristwatches featuring this spectacular complication. To make things even more exciting, this year he created a Mysterious Automatic Double Tourbillon. A double tourbillon is obviously already incredibly complicated, but a mysterious double tourbillon is simply amazing. Creating such amazingly complicated watches, Prescher is the true master of tourbillons.

Thomas Prescher and his Mysterious Double Axis Tourbillon © Frank Geelen/Monochrome

Let’s be honest, as an admirer of beautiful watches or even as an avid watch aficionado, we don’t know that much about what it takes to make a watch from a raw piece of metal. Prescher thought it would be a good idea to provide this opportunity to allow some insight into his daily watchmaking life. Under his experienced guidance, visitors had the chance to sit down at a watchmaker’s bench — with a loupe over his or her eye and screwdriver and tweezers in hand — to try manipulating real watch components.

A raw piece of metal turns into a watch

Prescher creates his watches from scratch. Like everything, it starts with an idea. But before a raw piece of metal is turned into a high-end complicated watch, much has to be done. During my visit to Prescher’s atelier he told me he starts with aesthetics and than builds functionality into the design. Just look at his watches and judge for yourself if this approach pays off.

Prescher’s Triple Axis Tourbillon Regulator © Frank Geelen/Monochrome

After getting the full design down, every individual part (there are several hundred parts in these complicated watches) is designed using a 3D computer program. If everything looks okay and all calculations are good to go, it’s time to start producing all parts for a prototype. In his workshop, Prescher has machines for making virtually every part of a watch. This is the only way to keep every part’s quality up to his demanding standards. A visit to Prescher’s website as well as reading the latest news on his Facebook page will allow you to see his entire collection.

The engraved movement of the Tempusvivendi model © Frank Geelen/Monochrome