The Best Tourbillon Watches

"French for "whirlwind," the tourbillon is a device that negates the effects of gravity on a movement's balance, which can cause positional errors and thus distort accuracy. (Pocket watches were largely kept suspended vertically in a waistcoat pocket, an orientation in which gravity can wreak particular havoc.) To negate these effects, Breguet placed the balance wheel, balance spring and escapement in a rotating cage - as this revolves, the watch's regulating organ moves through different orientations, thus (at least theoretically) improving accuracy."

"The arrival of the wristwatch, however, largely obviated the need for such a device: When a watch is worn on the wrist, it necessarily moves through different orientations throughout the course of the day, as a person is constantly moving his or her arm (and the watch). Still, the great watchmakers continued to include the tourbillon - considered a complication - in their most high-end pieces as a demonstration of savoir-faire, or know-how."

Abraham-Louis Breguet developed the tourbillon in the late 19th century to reduce gravity-induced positional errors in pocket watches. The mechanism encloses the balance wheel, balance spring and escapement in a rotating cage so the regulating organ cycles through multiple orientations to improve accuracy in theory. The wristwatch's constant movement largely eliminated the tourbillon's practical necessity. High-end watchmakers retained the complication as a demonstration of technical skill and luxury, driving prices very high. Tourbillon-equipped wristwatches remain expensive status symbols while many simpler watches continue to provide unobtrusive, reliable timekeeping.

Read at InsideHook