Blancpain

Art, ETA indeed has a Haute Horlogerie atelier...

 

where many complicated and innovative pieces are developed. Of course, those are not the usual products ETA is known for - mass produced, reliable workhorses. But ETA certainly has a huge body of knowledge and experience in horology, particularly in precision production. Normally, watch companies are quite secrete when it comes to disclose sub-contractors, thus the existence of the ETA high-end lab is not widely known.

The concept of using the case back as movement platine was something special and here indeed ETA had the unique savoir faire to develop such watches. In the early 1980, the ETA team around Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller was entrusted to create a cheap but reliable, stylish plastic watch - a project that debuted in 1983 and gained fame as the Swatch. Such a watch would require less parts, is easier to assemble and less prone to failures (due to lesser part number). Remember, more parts might easily be sold as more complicated, but is this also more intelligent?

Clearly, this expertise was useful for the AP Tourbillon. It is a landmark piece in many aspects. Walt Odets once wrote a en-depth report on this. He states:

• first production tourbillon with automatic winding
• smallest tourbillon ever produced (at that time):  a diameter of 7.2 millimeters and height of 2.5
• first tourbillon cage made of titanium (by means of computer-controlled electroerosion)
• the movement is comprised of approximately 120 parts, including screws (the automatic Blancpain Calibre 953, the small 40h PR movement used now in women's watches, has 175 parts)

BTW, the watch was developed under the leadership of Maurice Grimm and André Beyner, who later created the first wristwatch with central tourbillon for Omega! Beyner prix later received the prestigious Prix Gaïa, the 'Nobel Prize of Watchmaking'.

ETA indeed is a very surprising company!

Best,
Magnus

Here are a few pic taken by Foversta, you clearly see the rubies in the backplate: