HARRY WINSTON WHIRLWIND STORY 4
While the tourbillon embodies the very essence of complexity, it all begins with a remarkable idea of beauty and simplicity. Such is often the genesis of beautiful things.
At first glance, the movement of a watch may seem elementary. An oscillator, or circular balance, performs a specific number of round-trips per second. The rest of the watch ultimately exists only to count the number of these beats per second made in its heart. And as long as the beating remains regular, the watch retains its precision. Unchanging, perfectly controlled precision – the dream of every watchmaker. But this dream is inevitably interrupted by reality. Many natural forces affect the precision of a watch, and among these all-powerful forces is one capable of holding planets in orbit and the entire universe in place: gravity.
With the Histoire de Tourbillon collection, Harry Winston has embarked on an exploration of the tourbillon – sought-after in its technicality, extraordinary in its execution, captivating in its action – and its future evolutions. The latest development in this collection, Histoire de Tourbillon 4, continues the adventure with the same spirit of inventiveness that has characterized Histoire de Tourbillon timepieces since their creation. With its radical reinterpretation of the original tourbillon design, Histoire de Tourbillon 4 asserts its status as the prodigy of the 21st century. Its aesthetics anchor it in modernity, while it asserts itself as an instrument of very high precision.
Patented in 1801 by its inventor, the tourbillon was designed to solve the problem characteristic of pocket watches. By remaining almost constantly in the same vertical position, their precision ended up being altered by the Earth’s gravity. The tourbillon places the regulating organs in a rotating cage so that they never remain in a fixed position long enough, making them subject to the force of gravity. In the past, a tourbillon with a single cage and rotating in a single plane was sufficient. But today’s watches, which adopt an almost infinite number of different positions throughout the day, call for a more sophisticated solution. It was from this observation that Histoire de Tourbillon 4 was born.
The heart of Histoire de Tourbillon 4 is a single oscillator housed in three concentric cages, each rotating at its own speed, but also at a different angle calculated according to the other cages. Since a wristwatch occupies a three-dimensional space, the tourbillon must transcend the laws of its creation to become a space in its own right. The inner cage, housing the oscillator and escapement, rotates every 45 seconds. The intermediate cage rotates every 75 seconds. And the third, the outer cage, rotates at the speed of one revolution every 300 seconds. Together, they ensure that at no point is the force of gravity strong enough to affect the regular beating of the oscillator.
Such a feat is all the more remarkable if we bear in mind that in the case of a normal watch, enormous precision is required to supply the oscillator with power and enable it to beat strongly and evenly. A tourbillon, on the other hand, demands an even more extreme degree of precision, as the mainspring must not only drive the heart of the watch, but also the cages that protect it from gravity. Triple the cages and you triple the complexity of the Histoire de Tourbillon 4 mechanism, a timepiece whose mechanics reach heights of refinement rarely attained.
Histoire de Tourbillon 4 has undergone extensive modifications and improvements, right down to every aspect of the movement, to deliver superb performance and stunning precision. Histoire de Tourbillon 4 features two fast-rotating barrels for superior energy efficiency and low friction, and a tourbillon that, despite its dimensions, is incredibly light, weighing just 1.57 grams.
The key component is of course the oscillator itself, the balance-spring assembly, which must meet draconian precision requirements if the triple tourbillon system is to live up to its promise. The balance has variable inertia to avoid any form of disturbance that might be caused by a traditional regulating organ. The balance’s effective inertia is controlled by 18-carat gold regulating screws fixed in the serge. The balance-spring must be able to deploy perfectly concentrically, and to achieve this, a Phillips-curve balance-spring with a Geneva-type titanium holder was chosen.
To ensure that the mechanism is strong, light and corrosion-resistant, the main plates and bridges are made of titanium; the use of this high-tech material creates a dynamic contrast with the entirely hand-beveled main plate and bridges. These innovations make the Histoire de Tourbillon 4 oscillation system extremely efficient. They also enable the timepiece, thanks to the low energy consumption generated by such a precise construction, to boast a 50-hour power reserve.
By its very nature, Histoire de Tourbillon 4 is a concentrate of precision magnified by a design as spectacular as it is refined. It pays homage to the traditional aesthetic codes of watchmaking while evoking an architectural style at the cutting edge of modernity. Arranged on several levels, the triple tourbillon cages feature a small seconds indicator reminiscent of the sharpened blades of a propeller plane. Sober, contemporary colors, a dial configuration that favors openness and highlights the movement – the tone is set. The tone is one of creative vigor and functionality, in the purest spirit of modern architecture and industrial design, while at the same time marking the link with the world of the cockpit and its measuring instruments. The multi-level arrangement of domed sapphire crystals and subtly interlocking mechanisms suggests a kind of miniature mechanical Metropolis – a utopian dream of watchmaking perfection.
Over 3,500 hours of painstaking work went into developing Histoire de Tourbillon 4, and a further 400 hours were devoted to testing and homologating this ultra-high-performance movement. It took the most experienced watchmakers 160 hours to assemble the movement’s 345 components, which were then housed in a superb polished 18-carat white gold case, featuring the tourbillon’s ZaliumTM caseband, arches, lugs and bezel, the unmistakable Harry Winston signature.
This exclusive timepiece with a strong personality is a limited edition of 20 pieces. For those who experience it, it is a living symbol of the infinite range of possibilities that Harry Winston is keen to explore, on the edge of the uncharted territories that the future of the tourbillon holds in store.
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
