Tourbillon question

[Watchero]

What does it exactly do?

[TheWalrus]

It raises the price of a watch by a few orders of magnitude.

[polaco23]

it keeps your balance wheel (that thingy that oscillates), spinning along an axis, so that the tiny forces of gravity do not mess up its speed. It was originated in pocketwatches (breguet to be exact) because they always were upright in your vest pocket.

Since a wristwatch is on a wrist, and it moves around, its kinda unnecessary. Unless you wanna show off to your friends, then its completely necessary.

hope thats clear enough. maybe someone else can chime in on a balance wheel. Kinda hard to explain in a simple way.

[liam2051]

As polaco said, but it looks bloody stunning too! magnificent piece of engineering!

[link2derek]

Polaco has got it on the mark:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourbillon

D

P.S. Yes, some things on Wikipedia are actually true.

[Watchero]

Thanks guys!

[Craig M]

Walrus is also technically correct

[John MS]

What does it exactly do?

Once upon a time when people carried pocketwatches in the pocket the tourbillon allowed the escapement to change positions and average out the error rates from various positions. At the time it was very expensive and really out of reach for most watch owners.


Watch design has improved in the ensuing 100 plus years and has improved watch accuracy. Additonally we have started wearing watches on wrists instead of carrying them in pockets which allows the escapement to vary position all day long.

The technical benefits of this feature have been lost to time. It exists as an entertaining and interesting technical project for builders of expensive watches. Some watchmakers have taken the more is better approach and created movements with multiple tourbillons.