Tourbillon II

Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the tourbillon in 1801 to counteract the effects of gravity on a pocket watch carried vertically in a waistcoat. On a wristwatch, which moves constantly and in all orientations, the tourbillon’s anti-gravity function is largely moot.

We make tourbillons because they are extraordinary to observe.

The Carriage

The carriage of the Tourbillon II contains 68 components and weighs 0.29 grams. The cage rotates once per minute. The balance wheel oscillates within it at 21,600 vibrations per hour. Both motions are visible simultaneously through the sapphire aperture.

This is a flying tourbillon, which means the upper bridge has been removed. The carriage is cantilevered from below, held in place by a single arbor. The visual effect : a spinning mechanism suspended in midair, took three years to engineer correctly.

The Manufacture

Every tourbillon is assembled by one person. Not one team: one person. The process takes approximately six weeks. The watchmaker who assembles it signs the inside of the caseback.

Of the thirty watches Luminate makes each year, no more than four are tourbillons.

On Gravity

The tourbillon rotates in the vertical position. On the wrist, horizontal. The timekeeping benefit in this orientation is approximately zero. What it offers instead is the sight of an extraordinarily complex mechanism performing a function whose only purpose is to be seen performing it. This is enough.