Tourbillon: the ultimate complication
IF chronographs are at one end of the complications scale, at the other you find the tourbillon. Originally developed by the Abraham-Louis Breguet in the 18th century, it’s designed to lessen the effect of gravity and motion on the watch’s accuracy by mounting the escapement and balance wheel – which transform the inner workings into regular, timekeeping motion – in a rotating cage. Put more simply, it’s exceptionally complicated and delicate. Normally housed in an opening in the watch face, the tourbillon is the calling card of prestige watchmaking and a platform for even more extreme innovation. And that adds a lot of zeros onto the price.
Here are a couple of ultra-rare tourbillon watches that happen to be for sale in London right now – though you’ll only find one of each. At William & Son in Mayfair (www.williamandson.com) is the Brequet Tradition Fussé [top], made using anti-magnetic silicium and one of only three such watches so far made. It costs £113,800.
At the New Bond Street shop of Jaeger Le Coultre (www.jaeger-lecoultre.com), meanwhile, there’s one version left of the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, with its extraordinary cylindrical tourbillon. It’s £232,000.
BREGUET TRADITION FUSSÉ 7047
JAEGER-LE COULTRE REVERSO GYROTOURBILLON 2