Horological Meandering

A few fun facts about tourbillon watches:

— Much of the information repeated in various articles about the tourbillon is unattributed and probably is from the same original source: “Das Tourbillon” by Reinhard Meis.

— It is widely accepted that between 1801 and around 1980, only about 1,000 tourbillon watches were made and some researchers believe that maybe as few as 600 were made. Pretty much all of them were “hand made” using whatever “traditional” high quality tools that were available at the time.

— Breguet filed his patent in 1801 and produced his first tourbillon watch in 1803. He made 40 tourbillons and 35 of them were put into watches, using a variety of escapements. Around ten of them were marine chronometers and scientific precision timepieces. 

— Tourbillon watches were precision timepieces, were always very difficult to make well, and were always expensive. I can’t really imagine how difficult it must have been to make one with the rudimentary tools available in say 1850. They were almost always made to order, sometimes for specific requirements like marine navigation or scientific precision, for wealthy clients who could afford to buy the most precise watch available and show it off too, or ultimately for the Observatory Tests.

— Records of the Observatory Tests show that the tourbillon watches often performed to the best levels. For example I know of a tourbillon watch that was in the Neufchâtel Observatory Test in the late 1940s with the best performance in its category and that was not bettered by any other watch between 1930 and 1960. Also, a while ago a forum member posted about a JLC Gyrotourbillon wristwatch movement that made the best performance in its category in an Observatory test. Adjusting and regulating a Gyrotourbillon to that level of precision must have been maddening!