Don Corson's Half Flying Tourbillon Making Photos
It has no pictures. It is actually a request to Don - please Don, whenever you have some time post 15-20 photos of the process of making your recent watch - it's very cool and surprizing. It's a breath of fresh air among all these whirpools which are being issued every year. And it is IT - the baby of a watchmaker-ENTHUSIAST, someone who really LOVES making watches. Someone without any proper education, a self-taught craftsman.
Please, just some photos, we can survive no desriptions on the photos, and we will understand you because we know you're busy making them, along with your daytime job and also forum modarating.
We are waiting!
I totally concur with this request.
Don's Tourbillon is indeed a breath of fresh air, and represents the spirit of our site very well.
Excellent request.
Best,
Nicolas.
For starters,do you remember this...
Chronology in pictures, making the UFO-Tourbillon
A chronology in pictures, making my watch nr.6 the UFO-Tourbillon
The movement design is completed first.
Ready to make the first metal chips...
Milling the main plate
Milling the bridges as one piece
Milling the tourbillon base plate and prototype balance wheel
The tourbillon base plate assembled with the ball bearing carrying the toubillon itself and the fixed seconds wheel
The tourbillon plateau which holds the balance wheel and escapement
Setting the approximate angle for the anchor
The jewels and banking pins in place
The tourbillon cock milled from steel
First mounting of the balance wheel (here still from ETA)
The winding train for the two barrels in place (the red protective lacquer is to protect the pieces from scratches)
The tourbillon is working ! ....
... and keeping time.
The prototype case in brass
The movement mounted in a brass prototype case with ETA balance wheel
The Corson balance wheel in titanium with 18k gold eccentric adjustment weights. Note the hand turned balance staff, the pivots are 0.08mm in diameter.
Mounting the hairspring and roller
The dial engraved. The engraving is then filled with epoxy lacquer and finished flat with the dial surface.
In the titanium case, the case stops at the level of the dial and the tourbillon is completely visible under the highly domed crystal
I hope you have enjoyed my work.
Don
Thanks Dear Don .
love this creation... lucky members who attaneded and saw it live . Thanks again Don.
Faisal
Don's IGOTT2 presentation ...
... was excellent, and gave some insight into the progression of his work.
If you missed it earlier, click here for my coverage ...
Andrew
Thanks for sharing, Don.
Brilliant behind the scene!
Great to see behind the scene of your wonderful UFO-tourbillon!
So when do I get to test drive this piece?
LOL!I love the watch, Don. Thanks for the making-of photos!
Hope you are well!
Cheers,
Daos
Wow, fantastic report.
That's definitely "my kind of watch". Would love to wear it sometimes.
Thanks for sharing part of the creation process, very interesting.
Cheers,
Vte
The 'UFO' is a unique watch ...
I'm pleased you asked Don to do this. On the first night at IGOTT2 Don's UFO was passed around and the responses were uniformly positive. In fact that's an understatement; people were truly excited to see something unique and handcrafted by one of our own. The whole piece holds together from the thin, light case to the domed acrylic 'crystal', to the floating tourbillon and in a size that is most comfortable to wear. Here's a photo on my wrist to remind you ...
Andrew
