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18 www.thejewelrybook.com T O U R B I L L O N A N D B E Y O N D WAT C H R E P O R T Tourbillon and Beyond Four Women's Watches from Understated to Complicated BY BARBARA PALUMBO Classique "Grande Complication" in 18K white gold by Breguet. In the world of horology, a "compli- cation" is often defi ned as a feature in a mechanical timepiece aside from the simple display of hours and min- utes, and while the horological sect is still largely dominated by men, there is a fair number of women watch col- lectors out there who are all about being complicated. Because of this reason, some of the most respected Swiss watchmakers in the world have started to offer more in the way of variety to their female customers, including (but not limited to) producing more women's tourbil- lon watches. "What's a tourbillon?" You say? I was hoping you would ask that question. A tourbillon (and we'll go with the Wikipedia explanation here for the newbies in the room) was developed around 1795 and patented by French- Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on June 26, 1801. It was a mechanism that aimed to counter the effects of gravity by mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage to negate that grav- ity when the timepiece was stuck in a certain position. By continuously rotating the entire balance wheel/ escapement assembly at a slow rate, the tourbillon averaged out positional errors. If you're a person who doesn't know anything about watchmaking, that defi nition sounded like a bunch of fancy words, and in your mind fancy words can sometimes lead to dollar signs, (and in this case, you wouldn't be totally wrong about that). But if you know a bit about what goes into manufacturing a well-made watch then you know that a tourbillon is an extraordinary complication that is most often visible on the watch's face. They are – by all accounts – consid- ered a noble in horology's monarchy, and they're being sought after more and more by the watch world's prin- cesses and queens. Having said that, we bring you four temporal tourbillons for the consum- mate timekeeping temptress, starting with the originator of the complica- tion. C LASSIQUE "GRANDE COMPLICATION" IN 18K WHITE GOLD BY BREGUET According to the company's history, "Abraham-Louis Breguet based his work on the observation that gravity provokes variations in timing adjust- ment with each change of position of a watch when worn." The tourbil- lon remains a milestone in Breguet's career and is a frequent complication used in today's Breguet novelties. The Classique "Grande Complication" wristwatch with tourbillon con- tains a hand-wound movement and compensating balance spring with Breguet overcoil. The watch's be- zel and lugs are intricately set with 74 diamonds weighing an approxi- mate total of 1.33 carats. Its moth- er-of-pearl dial is accompanied by

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