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
