The tourbillon development is moving along. It was great to hear all the feedback on this week’s “Part 3 - The Cage” video of Andi and Florian. If you missed it, I have included the link at the bottom of this post.
We aim to be far more transparent with our design and development processes with you than most other companies would ever dream of doing. The reason for such transparency is to show just how much goes into making these complicated timepieces and that there is much more to watchmaking than a beautiful design. However, for many, and most brands it’s only a design game as they purchase movements off the shelf from one of the big movement suppliers. For us its different and far more challenging as we are developing not only a beautiful watch, but also a completely new and unique engine to power the watch. Movement development takes modern manufacturing processes and sound engineering practices and therefore much is to be done before arriving at a finalized watch.
By showing pivotal steps we hope all understand that there are still additional processes involved before we arrive at a finalized product. There simply is no magic wand or miracle movement making machine.
We show more because we know you enjoy the process and the journey we can take together.
Many have messaged us in email as well as in the comments on the bridge layout and the different colours of the components due to the engineering drawings Florian was utilizing in “Part 3- The Cage”. Please note that as we are finalizing the cage and the components things will change ever so slightly. In doing so, the finalized version of the bridge design as it pertains to the window cut outs to the inner workings of the movement have yet to be 100% finalized.
Also, we have utilized the balance wheel from our K2 movement, and this shows as gold in the presentation. The colour is not yet determined, and we welcome you to provide your feedback in the comments.
Gold or silver balance wheel? Let us know in the comments.
Now for the main event. I present to you a recent animation we have created of the Tourbillon 1. As you fly around the watch in the tourbillon animation please note that some of the cut outs in the movement are different than I have pointed out further down in this post.
Such animations take weeks to create and any changes to the bridge layout or a simple colour change results in about a week’s worth of new computer rendering time per component or detail change.
I have included an image below that shows what is likely to be the finalized version of the bridge cutouts. The design of a watch and in particular a skeleton watch is determined by the placement of the components. Components need to attach to hard surfaces of the bridge and this means designs must be modified to accommodate fixed placements.
You will notice that the setting mechanism has been opened up even more.
We have some great things planned for the movement such as varying degrees of polished and brushed finishes for the tourbillon cage. As well we are working on the final finishes for the other components such as the time setting mechanism that will have a beautiful brushed finish and anglage edges. For such small components the finish is difficult, but representative of a premium Swiss tourbillon.
I would like to say thank you to our good friends at www.projekter.de for working with us on this and all our animations. If you have a project that you would like to communicate in a visual format they can get the job done.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Until next time….
Landon Stirling
Wow! What an exciting update!
Amazing job on the animation it really looks sleek!
With regard to the color of the balance wheel and the color of the movement parts in general, I think that silver is a much better look in particular for those (like me) who chose the silver or grey plates and who want the watch to be a discreet dress watch (and thus have a certain harmony in color between the plate and the movement). Is there also a possibility for the escapment to be silver in color or is that not an option due to the use of silicone?
Again, amazing job and congrats to the team!
The dark grey Tourbillion is so cool.
Hi Damien.
Great to hear from you and thanks for the feedback.
We will take note of your colour preference on the balance wheel.
With regards to silicon it is only produced as you see it, as it comes out of a reactor as such. Therefore it is the same colour as you find in all our watches, the previous tourbillon movement and the movements of other brands that utilize silicon. Animations always saturate colour a little more and lighting angles can be optimized to provide the most dramatic effect.
Very happy you liked it and hope we can see you at our open house in Biel/Bienne on the 22nd. Invite will be going out shortly to all community members. 😉
@jack.hsu Thank you Jack. I was extremely excited when I saw the first renderings of the cage and I couldn't wait to share it with everyone. Happy you like it as much as we do. 👍
Tiurbillion wheel in gold, as well as the backside wheel!
Thank you for the feedback Peter!! I have made note of it.
Look forward to a "gold" balance wheel. Also, look forward to a non-skeletal dial with printed Arabic/ Roman indexes in 2022. The pointer of the cage should be painted/ set in red against a red marker line || on the dial for more accurate setting to the minute. Cheers!
@upvalue Thank you for the feedback and future design suggestions. There is a lot in the works as we look to the years. We will take note of it. Thanks again!
I think I also prefer a silver balance wheel to better match the silver and grey dials.
Thanks Jim. As well thanks for the comment on YouTube. As we pointed out there this finished is quite exclusive and unique for titanium. We will dive into those details more in a future post.
Awesome animation. i vote for silver balance wheel for the more discreet but also sleek look.
How come the cutout at the third wheel is now closed?
@House Zhang Thank you for the silver vote.
Good question on the third wheel. You had me scratching my head for a moment.
The third wheel that drives the escapement was not open previously. I spoke with our head of engineering today Jonas and we went through both the older movement and our completely new developed one as you have seen. The visual difference could be attributed to the size of the wheel in the animation. Jonas pointed out that the third wheel will be reduced even further in size which will result in even more weight saving of the touribllon cage.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks again 👍
@landonstirling thanks Landon. Maybe I got my numbering wrong, i was referring to the second wheel from the tourbillion case, where previously the bridge was fully cut out, but in the latest drawing its now closed one cut out.
@House Zhang Thanks for clarifying further. I believe I see where you mean now. I have attached an image and circled in red. You can see that it needs some bridge material to attach to and the reason it is now closed. Let me know if thats the one you were referring to. Cheers!
When do you think the watch will be available? Dont know if this is already answered somewhere else but here I go 😃
Hi Peter. We have already completed a first pre-order round and those will be the first to be delivered in early 2021. The second pre-order will be announced at a later date. We will keep you posted through our newsletters as to when it will take place.
Many thanks, 👍
Wow! Really great animation. The result of the changes is stunning and makes the watch look even better.
It shows btw exactly the color combination I have ordered. 😉
Concerning the color of the balance wheel I would also have a preference for grey as it would lead to a more sleek optics.
Congratulations to the whole team for the amazing effort to develop the movement! 👏
Many thanks and it is indeed a wonderful colour combination. Thank you for the feedback on the balance wheel as well. Still more exciting updates in the future.
Thanks again Andrew!
brilliant video!
Very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video and great to hear from you as always. 👍
Mesmerizing!!!!
I have to join Peter and Upvalue in recommending the gold balance wheel.. I see delivery has slipped to 2021. Do you expect anymore slippage? Finally, thanks for opening up more.
Hi Paul,
Great to hear you like the video and as well thank you for the feedback on the balance wheel.
With so much going on it might seem like the date slipped. I think you may missed out on a few updates. We mentioned that due to us now developing the entire movement in-house that we would deliver in early 2021 for customers that took place in the first pre-order, therefore the timing is still the same for them. However the second pre-order will have a later delivery date.
Check out this post and video update we made on the project as we outline the shift to taking the entirety of the project in-house and the need to move back the delivery timeline. https://www.horage.info/forum/k-tou-english/tourbillon-1-now-an-in-house-movement
Thanks again 👍
Yes - The watch need the gold element to break something off the other bluish color scheme.
Thanks Peter. Keep in mind there are other movement colours to choose from. They are Silver, Gold, Grey, Blue and Grey/Blue. Grey/Blue is the one we used in the video. Be sure to check out the configurator on our site and you can see all the build options there. Thanks again.
I think a gold balance wheel would work best, with the silver dials it will provide a pop of colour and some interest, but still not overwhelm the watch. On the blue PVD it will help stop the tourbillion being dominated by the rest of the dial.
Great feedback! The gold and blue do look nice together.
Thank you very much for the video, which helped me understand the new design very well. I vote for a silver or grey balance wheel. I fear that addition of gold may impair the overall two tone color scheme (which may vary from a customer to customer though - mine is grey / blue).