What Is a Tourbillon?

The tourbillon is a transliteration of TOURBILLON, which means a rotary escapement speed regulation mechanism.

Tourbillon watch

The tourbillon is a transliteration of TOURBILLON, which means a rotary escapement speed regulation mechanism.

Tourbillon is a watch speed regulating device invented by Mr. Louis Breguet, a Swiss watchmaker in 1795. French Tourbillon (hence the name Tiberon), which means "vortex", refers to a mechanical watch equipped with a "rotary escapement speed regulation mechanism",

Breguet's tourbillon principle and technology continued for more than a hundred years, and there have been no major changes. Until the 1920s, Albert Helwing (Director of the Technical Department of Deutsche Uhrmacheerschule) invented the "flying tourbillon" "Flying tourbillon"), it is a kind of tourbillon without a bridge, in order to make the tourbillon as flat as possible. This is a free-standing cage It was the purpose of Albert Helwing's invention.

After time and technology improvements and innovations, tourbillon watches can be divided into the following three generations:

Beijing Watch Factory was established in 1958. It has nearly 50 years of history and experience in the production of mechanical watches. The "unified" movement that has had a huge impact in China's watch industry comes from North Watch. Since 1995, Beibei has developed a tourbillon watch with complete intellectual property rights under the conditions of neither prototype nor drawing reference. In 1996, the first three prototypes were made, called the first tourbillon watch, of which TOURBILLON CHINA NO.1 was the first tourbillon watch in mainland China.

From 1996 to 2004, Beibei made a number of major improvements to the tourbillon watch based on the experience of the first generation tourbillon watch. The thickness of the second-generation tourbillon watch movement was reduced from 6.16mm to 5.78mm, and a calendar mechanism and energy display function were also added. During the design and trial production of the second-generation tourbillon watch, the shape of the tourbillon pendulum plate was gradually abstracted into a winged chick, which became the iconic design of the north watch tourbillon watch.

In November 2003, Mr. Zhong Yonglin, who has lofty prestige and many fans in the world watch appreciation industry, made a special visit to Beibei. Mr. Zhong fully understood the development process of the two generations of Tourbillon watches of Beibei, visited the production workshop and the new product development center, and had a warm and sincere discussion with the design trial production team led by Mr. Xu Yaonan. Mr. Zhong encouraged Beibei to make "Chinese tourbillon" watches with distinctive Chinese characteristics and made specific suggestions.

Mr. Zhong happily collected one of Beibei's second-generation tourbillon watches with an additional calendar function table, and ordered the "China Tourbillon" No.1 watch that Beibei will put into small-scale production. Mr. Zhong also "specially asked Uncle Xu to sign his name on the back of the watch with a carving knife".

In May 2004, Mr. Zhong Yonglin introduced the tour of the North Watch and the Chinese tourbillon watch in the 32nd issue of the "Famous Watch Forum".

Since then, Northwatch launched a limited edition of 30 Chinese rose gold watch "Chinese Tourbillon" watches in June 2004, officially called the Beijing Tourbillon crown "Qriental Tourbillon" (Qriental Tourbillon). This is also the third generation tourbillon watch of Beibei.

Once the "Chinese Tourbillon" came out, it immediately attracted widespread attention in the watchmaking and hobby collection industry. On December 11, 2004, a stainless steel tourbillon watch in the second-generation tourbillon prototype developed by Beibei was auctioned by Beijing Jiade International Auction Co., Ltd. and sold for 28,000 yuan.

The founder of the "Chinese Tourbillon" watch was Mr. Xu Yaonan, who was born in the watch family. Mr. Xu graduated from Tianjin University with a major in timing equipment, and is a senior engineer. He has accumulated 50 years of extensive experience in watch repair, design and appreciation, and has worked hard for ten years to complete the peak of his entrepreneurial history of watches and clocks-the Chinese tourbillon watch. Based on a calendar plus an energy-saving tourbillon watch, there are 216 parts in total, and the light tourbillon assembly has 57 parts. After the trial production team led by Mr. Xu perfected the three generations of tourbillon products, the Chinese tourbillon watch formed a distinctive Chinese characteristic. Its appearance is simple and natural. The tourbillon turret resembles a Chinese Lingyan with full wings and wings.