Independents

ThomasM
[PuristS]
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Some info and background on Dufour's Duality

Hi, Jay,

Ph. Dufour completed 9 Dualities, in various metals and dial combinations.  It is a complex escapement, considered by many to be even more complex than a tourbillon.  Using planetary gears between the two escapements, the idea was to average out beat errors between two as nearly identical and well adjusted individual escapements as possible, for a net gain in rate stability and reduced variance.

It was Dufour's second wrist watch series (the first being the Petite and Grande Sonnerie, even though the PGS #6 may have been completed after the Duality series) His third serie, the Simplicity, can be fairly separated into sub-series 1: 1-100, and sub-series 2: 101-200.

Dufour never claimed to have had a light bulb moment in the conception of the Duality; his inspiration was a dual escapement student piece done for watchmaking school as a school project.  I believe that piece was in pocket watch form factor.

I have seen (and should be able to locate pictures of) a student pocketwatch (not sure if it is the same watch that inspired Philippe) that features a chronometer escapement and a swiss lever (?) escapement, in close proximity a la Duality, but I am unsure if they are mechanically coupled in any way.

The FP Journe Resonance is not, basing its principle on the physics concept of resonance acting on and between the two separate, independent escapements.

The Duality is often considered one of the holy grail timepieces (including on the dream wish list of industry professional Michael Tay, who, when he made the comment, had no commercial interest in making such a statement since the series was long sold out and all pieces were in private collector hands.)

I have a few more comments to make about so-called "value," but I'll save that for another post (it has implications for all truly rare and important pieces - much less so for artificially limited "commercial limited editions instant collectibles")

Happy holidays.

TM