Juayusa tourbillon
A few years ago, the economic trend improved, and tourbillon also set off a whirlwind in the field of watchmaking.
As one of the most complicated functions in watchmaking, tourbillon is time-consuming and expensive to make. At one time, the retail price of watches with tourbillon function was around one million yuan. Finally, a traditional big Swiss brand dares to be the first in the world, pricing its new model at more than 500,000 yuan, but its complicated style, attributes and positioning for experienced lovers are closer to handicrafts or artworks. This time, among the top three models priced by W & ampw, tourbillon has two seats, and both of them are more than10 million.
Another similarity between contemporary tourbillon wristwatches and artworks is that they are born for beauty and have nothing to do with function. As a practical tool, clocks and watches derive their functions from practicality, and so does tourbillon. Before the popularity of watches, pocket watches were portable timepieces, which were usually put in the pockets of men's suits and waistcoats. Long-term vertical storage is like "standing in a military posture", which leads to inaccurate walking because gravity acts on the escapement system.
For this reason, Abraham Louis Breguet invented an escapement system that can rotate in a carriage to compensate for the errors caused by the gravity of the balance wheel and the eccentric movement of the hairspring, and named it Tourbillon, which means whirlpool in French, because tourbillon usually rotates 360 degrees every minute, just like speeding, which is not only appropriate in French, but also appropriate in French.
After entering the era of wristwatches, tourbillon has become a beautiful and useless function, but tourbillon has a large number of fans because of its fast rotating posture. Due to the complicated manufacturing process, tourbillon has become an arena for advanced watchmaking.
Purnell, an independent watchmaking brand established in 2006, has only released 13 tourbillon watches, but they are all dazzling works. At the W & ampW exhibition, the eye-catching ESCAPE IIS treasure with a price of 654.38+0.28 million yuan was equipped with a double spherical three-axis tourbillon, which was jointly built by purnell and Eric Coudrais.
With the development of CAD, in recent 20 years, multi-axis stereo tourbillon has become an upgrade and innovation of ancient tourbillon technology, that is, the tourbillon device rotating around one axis in the plane has been upgraded to three-dimensional rotation around three axes. Usually, it is necessary to calculate the distance from another track to the center point, the distribution of overall weight, assembly adjustment and other subsequent steps, and the design process is extremely complicated.
This Purnell ESCAPE IIS watch is not only equipped with two three-axis tourbillon, but also makes the rotation speed of the three-layer frame of tourbillon reach 8 seconds, 16 seconds and 30 seconds from the inside out. By referring to Thomas Prescher's three-axis tourbillon watch, we can know that Purnell, the fastest three-axis tourbillon in the world, is by no means worthy of the name.
Set advanced watchmaking and jewelry technology in one.
Polo series Emperador, the earl of IIS treasure who fled, hollowed out tourbillon's high-grade jewelry watch, showing a completely different temperament from the former. Emperador was born in 1920s with a floating tourbillon, also known as Flying tourbillon. Its structural feature is that the fixed bracket on the frame of Breguet tourbillon is cancelled, so the rotating frame of tourbillon is not covered, and the tourbillon is like a suspended flying spin during operation, which is first-class in appreciation.
Although it is only a small change, the technical requirements are very high. Take Earl Watch Factory as an example, young watchmakers need to go through four years of basic study before they can undergo the second-stage training for several years. After strict screening, a few top students can be selected into the training plan of advanced watchmaking workshops. Only by entering this training program can we learn the technology of manufacturing complex functions and ultra-thin movements from the most experienced watchmakers of the brand. This Emperador is equipped with a 1270D tourbillon movement, which uses an inverted eccentric pendulum, that is, its reverse design is placed on the front dial, and the operation is visible; At the same time, the whole hollow design is adopted, and the nuances of the movement structure are presented on the dial, and the production, polishing and inlay are meticulously crafted and meticulous.
The count is also deeply involved in high-grade jewelry and watchmaking, both of which are first-class accomplishments. This high-end jewelry watch with a price of 6.5438+0.4 million yuan is the epitome. 18K white gold case with a diameter of 49mm and diamonds of about 29.49ct; The bezel, miniature pendulum and chain belt are inlaid with sapphires of about 20.84 carats. This watch is a square inch of art. It took 344 hours to set gems, and only one was done in these two months.
Three questions and perpetual calendar
The other two of the three complex functions are the three questions and the perpetual calendar, and it is rare to have one, this time W&; W Vacheron Constantin's "LA MUSIQUE DU TEMPS Music Time" is the king of Shanghai exhibition, with a price of 654.38+07 million yuan. It is an excellent and complicated astronomical chronograph "ode to music" watch with 65,438+09 complex functions, including these two. The dial is comparable to the dashboard, and it is also the only work in the top three that has no decorative gems and wins by complex functions.
Asking the watch is the most complicated function of interaction: turn on the dial on the watch case, and the clockwork device answers the time with the sound of "ding dong ding dong", which is exactly the need to know the time in the dark without electric lights and smart home. Three questions refer to the ability to distinguish time, minute and moment, which can be distinguished by three different combinations of high and low voices. It is not easy to add a spring device and multiple groups of hammer springs for telling time in a very limited case space, so many parts are as small as hair. In such a narrow space, how to conduct effective vibration and conduction to make it sound crisp and pleasant is an important technical difficulty. Vacheron Constantin's first recorded time-telling pocket watch appeared in 1806, and its exploration in the field of bell clocks lasted for two centuries. The brand's latest move is to cooperate with the famous Abbey Road recording studio to record the exclusive sound mark for each timepiece with the theme of "La Musique du Temps".
The perpetual calendar is a complicated function, which does not need words and common sense. Different from the almanac that shows the month and date, the perpetual calendar can identify leap years, which basically belongs to the "lifetime year" series that is not adjusted according to the date of the month and month. It is essential for watchmakers to realize the function of perpetual calendar only by hundreds of mechanical parts, so some people classify perpetual calendar as astronomical watch.
However, although Vacheron Constantin modestly claims to be an astronomical watch with a three-minute perpetual calendar, it can actually be called an astronomical dashboard with too many functions: in addition to the basic week and month, the three points on the front of the dial are the date window; Set the moon phase disk at 9 o'clock to display the bright or dark moon phase changes in real time; 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock indicates sunrise and sunset time and the length of day and night; 4 o'clock is a small dial indicating the zodiac, season, winter and summer solstice and spring and autumn equinox; The seemingly ordinary three hands bring another complicated function: the time equation-the hand decorated with the shape of the sun at the end is used to indicate the apparent sun time, and the other two long and short hands indicate the standard time of the 24-hour clock respectively. When the dial is turned over, there is another world on the back of the watch: two layers of sapphire disks overlap to form a bright sky map, which accurately shows the sidereal time-the time when the earth rotates 360 degrees with reference to a fixed star in the sky, that is, a sidereal day time.
If these complex functions are produced and displayed separately like the dashboard of a car, the difficulty coefficient will decrease geometrically, but once all these complex functions are assembled into a movement with a diameter of 36 mm and a thickness of 7.84 mm, people feel numb. In addition, so many functional operations put forward higher requirements for mechanical power. Vacheron Constantin's self-made 173 1 M820 movement is equipped with minute repeater gear train structure, and three independent gear trains drive the display of standard time, solar time and sidereal time respectively.
To appreciate such a watch, you should do your homework in advance like Nolan's movie, and then brush it twice and three times, of course, if you have the chance. (Comprehensive media reports)