TECHNICAL FUNCTIONS

In the strict sense of the term (a further indication), the tourbillon is not a complication. On the other hand, it is an additional function and one of the most elegant of all. The fast date, seconds stop and regulator are not strictly speaking complications either but ingenious devices which make use of the watch by its wearer easier or more convenient.

The influence of the earth’s gravity combined with the position of the watch causes variations in the movement rate. The ingenious feature of the tourbillon resides in the fact that the entire regulating organ rotates on its own axis, generally in one minute. By doing so, it automatically compensates the different positions for which an advance or retard would otherwise occur. This invention is particularly effective for pocket watches. A wristwatch is naturally self-compensating depending on the position of the arm. The tourbillon is one of the finest achievements of the watchmaking art. It testifies to the exceptional skill of its inventor, Abraham-Louis Breguet, and the expertise of those people who still today meticulously design and assemble these dozens of components in a diameter of little more than one centimetre.