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Replica Breguet Skeleton Tourbillon |
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Written by Richard Brown
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Replica Breguet Skeleton Tourbillon
 While this watch is a fantasy piece it does illustrate one of the biggest innovations to come out of China related to horology: the inexpensive tourbillon. The tourbillon is a complicated piece of engineering designed to isolate the balance wheel of the watch from the effects of orientation and gravity. It is normally an incredibly expensive piece of technology.
According to the Wikipedia a tourbillon is:
a type of mechanical clock or watch escapement invented in 1795 by Abraham-Louis Breguet that is designed to counter the effects of gravity and other perturbing forces that can affect the accuracy of a chronometer. This is accomplished by mounting the escapement in a rotating frame, so that the effect of gravity cancels out when the escapement is rotated 180°. The effects of gravity were particularly problematic when pocketwatches were carried in the same pocketed position for most of the day. In a tourbillon, the entire escapement assembly rotates, including balance wheel, escapement wheel, and pallet fork. The rate of rotation varies per design but has generally become standardized at one rotation per minute.
This Breguet replica includes a tourbillon in its design, the first available anywhere at this price point. While it's not the most elegantly designed tourbillon (I call it the "flying duck") it is quite functional. I think this is an example of some of the innovations we'll see coming out of Asia over the next decade.
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Richard Brown |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 November 2007 )
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