A Swiss watch workshop is an interesting place. A unique mix of Wes Anderson film set, space station, factory, operating theatre, and tech hub… with a bit of Milka chocolate bar wrapper backdrop thrown in for good measure. Expert craftspeople in white lab coats hunch low over stainless steel work benches, poring over miniscule parts with sub-zero focus while, outside, cows graze idly on alpine pastures the same shade of green as a Microsoft screensaver. It’s a lot to take in.
This is all to say that these places are operating at a pretty high level – the best of the best. But within these temples of Swiss precision there is often a team set apart, a fly squad with the keenest eyes, the steadiest hands, and the greatest understanding of hyper-complicated watchmaking. I recall a moment during a tour to Vacheron Constantin several years ago when my guide’s voice dropped to a reverential whisper as we entered a seemingly unassuming room filled with more white lab coats, but a uniquely intense air of focus.
“This is where we make the tourbillions.”
At Watches & Wonders last week, the horology grandstand that sees big wigs, aficionados and those who would like to be big wigs and aficionados parachute into Geneva (or get on the early flight from London City) for the year’s latest offerings, there was a lot of talk about the black and green-hued Rolex Air King; the Tudor Black Bay Pro; the Cartier Tank Louis with a jet black dial and, who could forget, the catchily-named Patek Philippe 5326G-001, but, much like the workshops that produce these elite watches, if you look a bit deeper, then the really mad and impressive stuff comes into view. Understand this and you understand why these watches command the sums they do (a lot) and demand the level of skill and focus needed to create them (even more). The tourbillons, perpetual calendars and silicium regulation organs of the watch world’s hyper, mega, super complications.
To best explain what a tourbillon even is – the north star of complicated complications in fine watchmaking – it’s best to think about what the word translates to in English: whirlwind. Invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet back in around 1804 (around 1804!), the escapement and balance wheel of the watch (the parts that regulate time) are housed in a rotating cage that, due to the consistent motion, averages out the effect of gravity when the watch is stuck in different positions. Clever.
In Geneva, the classic tourbillon was a mere ripple in the pond of ambitious and ostentatious watchmaking. Some of the standouts, with names to match, include the Ulysse Nardin Freak x Aventurine, with a rose gold case and a sparse industrial face inspired by the cosmos. It’s an avant-garde tourbillon fitted with a carousel that turns once every hour to indicate the time and a super-light and extra-large silicium balance wheel (the tourbillon bit) below. With materials including silicon, nickel and aventium (a kind of quartz) it feels a bit like something Ripley would have brought back in her suitcase from Alien.
Then there’s the beautiful and bonkers Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 Atomium (and breath). A cosmo tourbillon and minute repeater (a veeeery complicated feat of watchmaking that allows the wearer to push a button and hear the time down to the minute, with separate noises for hours, quarter-hours and minutes). It has a hand-decorated multi-tiered face that, incredibly, shows the constellations in the night sky right there on your wrist.
Moving on, the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-thin Skeleton was another highlight, a perpetual calendar (a watch that simultaneously shows the date, day, month, week, year, and moonphase) housed in an ultra-thin case (watchmakers care a lot about making things light and thin) with a sapphire dial and an open movement (that’s the skeleton part). It combines ambition and aesthetics and just the right amount of flash.
Finally, the self-appointed king of ‘hyper horology’ Roger Dubuis and its Knights of the Round Table’ series, which replaces the numerals on a traditional face with tiny, hand-carved knights. Why? Why not! Also, it had the best press release of the whole event.
“The threat is real. The battle is on. In the mysterious depths of a forgotten place, twelve brave knights prepare to defend their kingdom against the power of gravitational force. The ground is fracturing, the broken earth begins to crack. Sensing danger, the knights position themselves against this invisible enemy. Will they triumph?”
Roger that Roger!
You might ask… why? Which is fair enough. A tourbillon is no more accurate than a regular automatic movement. You probably don’t need to know what’s going on with the constellations at any given moment, nor have a little knight living inside of your watch. A Jacob & Co or a Richard Mille doesn’t need to weigh less than a thread of goose down, but it’s the fact that someone has dreamt up the possibility and executed it. A team of lab coat-clad experts dedicating their lives to making a watch as mad and complex as possible, tucked away in a small, sterile room somewhere in Switzerland while cows chew on grass outside their window. Thousands of parts and thousands of hours to create this marvel of engineering that can be worn on your wrist.
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