Tourbillon Watches · Page 2

Interview: PS Horology’s Peter Speake is Still a Romantic About Watchmaking

Independent watchmaking is in a vastly different place than it was when legendary English watchmaker Peter Speake founded the Speake-Marin brand in 2002. While it might be a stretch to say indie watchmaking has gone fully mainstream, it’s certainly on its way–and Speake has seen that evolution from the ground floor.  The work Speake did with the Speake-Marin brand was undeniably influential. While Speake-Marin’s offerings were innovative, often highly technical, and decidedly modern in aesthetics, they embodied the kind of old world craftsmanship that this sector of watchmaking obsesses over. Perhaps more importantly, many of the pieces Speake-Marin crafted with Speake at the helm were some of the first to really push the concept of watches with a narrative. They played in the space between function and art with their designs, and did so boldly. That period of his career turned Speake into something of a hero of independent watchmaking.  Speake departed the Speake-Marin brand in 2017, at which point he founded an education platform called the Naked Watchmaker. With the Naked Watchmaker, Speake–whose early watchmaking background was in restoration and historical preservation–spent several years immersed in the inner workings of everything from the great mainstream brands to original Breguet tourbillions. Though he dabbled in consultancy throughout it all, it was unclear if  he would return full-time to the creative and retail side of watchmaking. With his new b...

Northern Exposure: Louis Vuitton’s Escale en Alaska

Louis Vuitton (LV) has taken the covers off its latest unique Escale Autour du Monde pocket watch — the Escale en Alaska is the most complicated Escale pocket watch yet, including both a minute repeater and a tourbillon along with nine dial-side animations. Initial thoughts Possibly more than any other so-called ‘fashion brand’, LV excels in creativity and world-building, which has only become more stylish, whimsical and nuanced. The Escale en Alaska exemplifies this development, and demonstrates the breadth of artistic crafts practised by La Fabrique du Temps (LFT). Translating as ‘Stopovers Around the World’, the Escale Autour du Monde collection embodies the expressive flair of a leading fashion house — something many traditional watch brands simply can’t match. Following LV’s previous Escale pocket watches celebrating the beauty of Mount Fuji and the Pont-Neuf in Paris, the brand’s latest creation has looked north for inspiration, this time celebrating the desolate beauty of Alaskan glaciers and their exotic inhabitants. Arctic artistry The term ‘fashion watch’ is often used pejoratively to describe a watch with no real watchmaking value that trades solely off the fashion name, but watches like Escale en Alaska transcend this categorisation. The Escale Autour du Monde is a double-sided pocket watch with animated jacquemarts on one side and an exposed movement with an inverted hand stack on the other. The latter is unchanged from that of previous e...

Introducing - The new Ferdinand Berthoud Chronometre FB 3SPC.2-1

Following the resurrection of the name Ferdinand Berthoud by Chopard’s co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele in 2015, with the introduction of the Chronomètre FB1, a superb tourbillon watch with fusée-and-chain device, followed by the no less spectacular Chronomètre FB2, the brand presented another award-winning watch, a superb wrist chronometer with cylindrical balance-spring named the Chronomètre FB 3SPC – […]

Hands-On: The Greubel Forsey Balancier 3 Blue And An Intro To Bonniksen

Double tourbillons, quadruple tourbillons, movements assembled with such three-dimensional ambition that they sit like sci-fi architecture on the wrist, every time I have a Greubel Forsey in hand, I'm reminded just how much the brand operates in its own lane. Yet there has always been something faintly contradictory about the Balancier 3, the model the brand first introduced in 2023 as its most moderate, most structurally legible entry point. With three bridges, a clean balance, no tourbillon, and no theatre, the Balancier 3 on paper is reserved. And yet my first thought with this recently released version on the wrist is that even a restrained Greubel Forsey is a startling object. Balanced beautifully between spotlighting its technicality and marrying that with a new execution, this might be the brand's simplest watch on paper, but it is not, by any reasonable measure, a simple watch. The Balancier 3 has been with us for three years now, and with this latest edition, the large central bridge has been hand-frosted across its entire curved surface. The result is a deep, matte texture, the kind of pronounced surface that a machine couldn't lay down convincingly on a shape this complex, running from the edge of the movement between one and two o'clock down to the seconds between seven and eight. Around it, the balance and barrel bridges remain in a bright, polished titanium, producing an incredibly captivating contrast of reflection and depth. Then there is the blue, worked i...

Hands-On With The Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Yellow Neon Saxem

Hublot’s Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Yellow Neon SAXEM is one of those watches that leave you in awe, combining neon sapphire brilliance with high-complication tourbillon watchmaking. What We Love The bold Yellow Neon SAXEM case completely transforms under different lighting. The skeletonised dial offers a beautifully balanced design that gives the watch real mechanical theatre. Few watches in watchmaking will command attention quite like this, especially in natural light. What We Don’t The 44mm case size wears better than expected, but it is still on the larger side. Even sapphire lovers may find the Yellow Neon SAXEM a lot to handle. A black structured strap option would let the case and dial take centre stage even more, while simultaneously reducing the overall ‘distinctive’ presence of the watch. Overall Rating: 8.6 / 10 Value For Money: 8.5/10 Design: 9.0/10 Wearability: 8.0/10 Build Quality: 9.0/10 Few timepieces in the world of watchmaking can grab attention like a bright yellow-coloured watch. Now imagine adding a transparent sapphire case to the mix, and suddenly, you have something that becomes almost impossible to ignore on the wrist. That is exactly what we get with the Hublot Big Bang Tourbillon Automatic Yellow Neon SAXEM. This is a watch that does not ask to be seen, but rather commands it the moment you see it. In that regard, this, in my opinion, is the kind of timepiece that perfectly encapsulates what Hublot is all about. Since the beginnin...

First Look - The Impressive Finishings of the Greubel Forsey Balancier QM

Greubel Forsey, the high-end independent brand founded in 2004, has long been associated with multi-axis tourbillons, often staged in enormous, asymmetric cases with protrusions to accommodate the mechanics and offer panoramic views. The first model to appear without a tourbillon was the Balancier, equipped with an enormous 12.6mm dial-side balance wheel. Ever evolving, the latest […]

Breguet’s Four New Tourbillons for the 225th Anniversary | with Gregory Kissling, CEO of Breguet

First Look - Breguet Releases 3 new Tourbillon Watches for the 225th Anniversary of its Invention

Precisely 225 years ago on this day (on June 26, 1801, or on 7 Messidor An IX, to use the French Republican calendar in force at the time), Abraham-Louis Breguet was granted the patent for what is, without a doubt, its most famous invention: the tourbillon. Designed to counter the problem of gravity affecting the […]

In-Depth - The Superbly Elegant new 35mm Breguet Classique Tourbillon 7357

Tourbillon and Breguet are two words that belong in the same story. Indeed, on 26 June 1801, and thus exactly 225 years ago, Abraham-Louis Breguet was granted the patent for his invention, an anti-gravity device that he would name the tourbillon. And today, the brand celebrates this crucial invention by releasing a series of new […]

Fratello Talks: Breguet’s CEO On The Latest Tradition 7047, 225 Years Of The Tourbillon, And The Brand’s Future

On the 225th anniversary of the tourbillon patent, we sit down with Breguet CEO Gregory Kissling to discuss the latest version of the Tourbillon 7047, the brand’s enduring appeal, and the future of one of watchmaking’s most historic names. Before taking the helm at Breguet on October 1st, 2024, Kissling served as Vice President of […] Visit Fratello Talks: Breguet’s CEO On The Latest Tradition 7047, 225 Years Of The Tourbillon, And The Brand’s Future to read the full article.

Breguet Quartet for Tourbillon 225th Anniversary

Enjoying a new lease of life under chief executive Gregory Kissling, Breguet is continuing with the revamp and revival of its product range, this time marking the 225th anniversary of Abraham-Louis Breguet invention of the tourbillon. Breguet is rolling out a quartet of models for the occasion, starting with the compact and enthusiast-oriented Classique Tourbillon ref. 7357 that’s an old school 35 mm in diameter. That’s followed by variants of existing models. The Classique Tourbillon Sidéral ref. 7255PT takes things up a notch with a “mysterious” flying tourbillon and aventurine enamel dial, while the Tradition Tourbillon ref. 7047PT is a new look for the long-tenured model featuring a chain-and-fusee transmission. Lastly the Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante ref. 5887PT gains a translucent, luminous grand feu enamel dial. The enamel dial of the Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante ref. 5887PT features a Super-Luminova star chart Initial thoughts Breguet has steadily refreshed its current line up since Mr Kissling took over, while releasing a handful of all new models, like the innovative Experimentale 1. The new tourbillons mostly fall into the former category; all are based on existing models to varying degrees. Ironically, of the four new models, it’s the entry-level piece that’s arguably the most novel. The Classique Tourbillon 7357 is clearly based on the ref. 3350 of 1989, but it has a new case and dial (but retaining the small case size). The mov...

225 Years After The Tourbillon’s Invention, The Breguet Tradition Tourbillon 7047 Spins In The Best Of Traditions

The year after Breguet turned 250, the brand celebrates another big milestone, the 225th anniversary of the tourbillon. It does so with several gravity-defying watches, and we had the chance to experience the newest Breguet Tradition Tourbillon 7047, a platinum 25-piece limited edition outfitted with a spinning one-minute tourbillon and a fascinating fusée-and-chain mechanism. The […] Visit 225 Years After The Tourbillon’s Invention, The Breguet Tradition Tourbillon 7047 Spins In The Best Of Traditions to read the full article.

Breguet Marks the 225th Anniversary of the Tourbillon with Four New Watches

Introducing: Breguet Celebrates the 225th Anniversary of the Tourbillon with Four New Releases, And the Return of a Collector Favorite (Live Pics)

The year was 7 Messidor Year IX—or for those who don't follow the French Republican Calendar, June 26, 1801. After years of intense study and experimentation and some correspondence with his friend John Arnold (who similarly experimented with the concept before his death in 1799), Abraham-Louis Breguet was granted a 10-year patent for the "tourbillon." By 1829, Breguet and his workshop would only make 40 watches with the regulating organ, which was designed to eliminate positional errors and distribute oil (which often thickened in place), thereby lubricating parts more evenly. A Breguet four-minute tourbillon watch with échappement naturel, which sold at Sotheby's last year for CHF 1,880,000. Photo courtesy Sotheby's. Well, Abraham-Louis Breguet (and John Arnold) would be proud of how far the concept of the tourbillon has come—he may even be spinning himself if he saw some of the things that have happened with the tourbillon, like Alfred Helwig's invention of the flying tourbillon, let alone the first tourbillon wristwatch—and how many of those concepts have been integrated into watches made under his name. Add to that the fact that Breguet annually makes multiple times the number of his lifetime production, and it's just pretty cool how far things have come in 225 years. The Breguet Experimentale 1, which was launched late last year. The 10Hz, 1-minute tourbillon was one of the most extreme tourbillons ever made. Exposition out of the way, Breguet is celebrating t...

Chinese Haute Horlogerie From “The Geneva of the East?” - The New Peacock Haiyi Tourbillon Yu Limited Edition

Please meet Peacock, a Chinese watch brand that has been creating complicated timepieces since 1957, and its Haiyi Tourbillon, a 40mm limited-edition dive watch with a colorful Lindsay-engraved enameled dial in three colors. You might not be familiar with Liaoning Peacock, also known as the Peacock Watch Company, but the manufacturer from Dandong, China, is […] Visit Chinese Haute Horlogerie From “The Geneva of the East?” — The New Peacock Haiyi Tourbillon Yu Limited Edition to read the full article.

Hands On: Sylvain Pinaud Tourbillon

Independent watchmaker Sylvain Pinaud has introduced the Tourbillon, a watch that looks a lot like the brand’s sophomore Origine, but is in fact entirely different. The apparent similarity conceals an all-new calibre, which features a lively 30-second tourbillon front and centre. Mr Pinaud’s most ambitious project yet will be made in three 10-piece limited editions: one in titanium, and two in platinum. Initial thoughts Sylvain Pinaud is one of the few contemporary independent watchmakers who launched his eponymous brand with a complication before going back to basics with a time-only model. Launched in 2022, the Origine was well-suited to the prevailing taste for well-finished time-only watches. With Origine production in the rearview, Mr Pinaud has moved back in the direction of additional complexity with his first tourbillon. For fans of Sylvain Pinaud — and artisanal watchmaking in general — the well-executed Tourbillon leaves little room for complaint. That said, it’s liable to be criticised for the simple fast that it looks a lot like the Origine. Indeed, the two watches could hardly look more similar — a fact that limits the Tourbillon’s ‘shock and awe’ factor. At launch, I noted that the Tourbillon costs more than double that of the time-only Origine. That’s arguably a big ask relative to the additional complexity of the tourbillon regulator, but the cost basis is probably a moot point given collector appetite for independent watchmaking and the...

ArtyA Geneve Purity Tourbillon Sport Edition adds customisable coloured fun to its sapphire cased tourbillon madness

ArtyA’s latest sapphire Purity Tourbillon Sport Edition lets owners change the watch’s colour through interchangeable gaskets and straps.

Introducing - Indie Watchmaker Vincent Deprez Launches the Scientific Tourbillon, a Contemporary Take on Traditional Watchmaking

Independent watchmaker Vincent Deprez first attracted attention with his Tourbillon Classique Souscription Edition, a remarkably accomplished debut that showcased a fully hand-finished tourbillon movement and his ability to manufacture most of the watch himself using traditional methods. Trained at Vacheron Constantin and later active in restoration at Patek Philippe, the Geneva-based French watchmaker now expands […]

Introducing the Vincent Deprez Scientific Tourbillon

Introducing - The Hulsman Tourbillon Solstitium, A Hand-Made Watch with Jumping Hours now Produced in a Limited Run

Make a list of independent watchmakers working outside Switzerland, highlight the most fascinating ones, and Dutch creator Machiel Hulsman will be among them. After leaving a career in IT, Hulsman dedicated himself to watchmaking, gradually acquiring the expertise required to design and manufacture complete movements from scratch, and to produce watches that are all one-of-a-kind […]

A Watch Like A Chameleon: The New Transparent ArtyA Purity Tourbillon Sport In Four Changeable Colors

Changing the colors of the ArtyA Purity Tourbillon Sport is easy. Just like a chameleon, it adapts to its surroundings. So, if you want your watch to match, let’s say, your new red suede loafers, but you’re wearing the Purity Tourbillon Sport Luminous Orange, you simply head down to the nearest ArtyA retailer and have […] Visit A Watch Like A Chameleon: The New Transparent ArtyA Purity Tourbillon Sport In Four Changeable Colors to read the full article.

Introducing - The Colourful Hublot Big Bang Summer Collection in Pastel Ceramic

Since 2017, Hublot has celebrated the arrival of each summer with a special collection unveiled in Saint-Tropez. For 2026, the brand prepared a series of Big Bang watches, demonstrating Hublot’s mastery of coloured ceramic. The range offers a lighter, seasonal interpretation of the Big Bang and spans manufacture chronographs, a tourbillon and compact automatic models. Two […]

Photo Report: The 2026 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este With A. Lange & Söhne

"It's hard to think of anywhere else on the planet that combines scenic beauty, history, and automotive culture as harmoniously as the Villa d'Este on Lake Como." That's the official program's own description of the Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este, and after spending a weekend on the shores of Lake Como in the company of A. Lange & Söhne, I'm struggling to beat that. Concorso d'Eleganza, Villa d'Este The Concorso dates back to 1929, and while it paused during the war, it returned in the 1990s and has since become one of the most significant automotive gatherings on earth, with the BMW Group taking on title sponsorship in 2001. Every May, it spreads across Villa d'Este and the neighboring Villa Erba, with pre-war coachwork, Italian icons, and concept cars arranged throughout the terraced gardens and lakeside promenade of what was once a 16th-century cardinal's home. The new Lange Cabaret Tourbillon in Honeygold This edition of the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este was of particular note for A. Lange & Söhne, as it marked the 15th year that the brand had been a partner, and the brand coincided the event with the announcement of the Honeygold Cabaret Tourbillon. TanTan is your man to learn everything you need to know about that watch here (although I will add that the return of the Cabaret, not only in Honeygold but also with a hacking tourbillon, is a real sight to behold) The connection between Lange and the Concorso runs far deeper than a hospitality tent, as CEO Wilh...

Ulysse Nardin Debuts Freak X Second Generation

The second-generation Ulysse Nardin (UN) Freak X proves that good things can come in small(er) packages, with an all-new micro-rotor calibre powering the Freak’s signature ‘flying carousel’ architecture. The new movement debuts in a smaller 41 mm steel case with an interchangeable strap system. Initial thoughts There’s a lot to like about the updated Freak X. It retains the wandering tourbillon-style architecture that UN describes as a flying carousel, powered by an all-new micro-rotor calibre that’s been upgraded with the brand’s DiamonSil escapement package. It’s also noticeably smaller than the outgoing model, while boasting superior water resistance thanks in part to the collection’s first screw-down crown. Strap options have been expanded thanks to an interchangeable strap system that includes a stainless steel bracelet. These upgrades come with a modest increase to retail pricing, which starts at US$41,200 — essentially the same price as one of the special edition versions of the first-generation Freak X. Some will mourn the ‘downgrade’ from titanium to steel, but that’s a relatively minor issue given the reduced case size, and furthermore the release of titanium options in the future seems all but guaranteed. Smaller but better When the Freak debuted 25 years ago, it shocked the industry with its novel construction, which integrated the entire going train and escapement into an enormous minutes hand. The Freak X keeps the overall look mostly ...