[Watch House Watch Culture] Tourbillon and Carosu, these two words appeared as soon as I was not sleepy. I told my friends who liked clocks about them for almost twenty years, and it took me about five years to study and distinguish between the tourbillon and the caroline in my early years. This is a particularly attractive twin flower in the field of clockwork. Of course, the tourbillon appeared earlier and became more famous.
Tourbillon device
The Tourbillon, literally "whirlpool", was founded at the end of the 18th century by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the grandmaster of the world's watch generation, A.-L. Breguet,1747-1823) invented and patented in 1801. From the acquisition of the patent to this year is exactly 220 years. To explain the tourbillon in plain language is like designing a delicate small cage, using this cage to wrap the heart of the mechanical clock (escapement), and then making the cage rotate continuously, so as to offset the impact of gravity on the accuracy of the operation of the mechanical clock, which is the tourbillon.
Breguet Classic 5395 ultra-thin tourbillon skeleton watch
Therefore, from a straight point of view, the biggest charm of the tourbillon is to rotate, turn dazzlingly, from the pocket watch era to the watch era; and because the size and internal space of the watch are smaller than the pocket watch, the tourbillon watch is also more difficult to manufacture. With a tourbillon watch, the price of the soaring phenomenon is also a common phenomenon, the tourbillon watch is also one of the important types of watch collection.
Nardinblast skeleton tourbillon watch
On the left is the Ysnacht BLAST tourbillon watch
On the right is the Nardin Nautical Series Large Flame Enamel Tourbillon
In the long years of 220 years, the tourbillon has been developing, upgrading, evolving, and has successively appeared many genres such as tradition, flight, eccentricity, spherical shape, and tilt, and each with its own characteristics, which can be called the jewel in the crown of mechanical clocks. And many cutting-edge materials and designs of human beings, such as silicon materials, are still adding bricks and tiles to the increasing perfection of tourbillons. For example, the BLAST openwork tourbillon watch of Nardin watch of Nardin and the nautical series of large flame enamel tourbillon watches are outstanding representatives of contemporary tourbillon watches.
In 1892 Karrusel was born
Karrusel, literally "carousel," appeared nearly a century later than the tourbillon. It was originally invented in 1892 by a Danish watchmaker in London (Bahne Bonniksen, 1859-1935) and patented. The same is to make the heart of the mechanical clock rotate, not to mention that the tourbillon has appeared for nearly a hundred years, why invent carosu? My own superficial understanding is that it was initially related to reducing costs. Early carosu pocket watches were not expensive, especially compared to ordinary pocket watches without carosu devices.
On the left is Blancpain's one minute carosu
On the right is the tourbillon of the Nardin watch
Carosu and tourbillon initially had several major differences:
1. If the tourbillon is a cage, then the carosu is more like a tray. The tourbillon takes the wrapping way, and Carosu is the supporter.
2. The speed is different, the tourbillon generally has to rotate once a minute, because if the speed is slow, it will not achieve the effect of counteracting gravity. When Carosso was first invented, the rotation speed was extremely slow, it took 52.5 minutes to rotate a week, which did not cancel out the effect of gravity, but more for the sake of appreciation and watchmaker showmanship.
3. Also the most central difference, the power of the tourbillon rotation comes from the conduction of the fourth gear, while the carosu is almost directly from the conduction of the movement barrel. To this day, this is also the symbol that distinguishes the tourbillon from the carosu.
Nardin Watches Free Vision and Freek X
It is made of the flying Carosu movement
Carosu has been invented for more than a century, and it has also been constantly evolving and developing, especially after human beings entered the age of watches. By 2008, the second caroline and tourbillon speed difference is no longer the difference, and the one-minute high-speed carosu can also counteract gravity. It's just that the watch brands that have the ability to develop and innovate carosu are obviously much less than the brands that can build tourbillons, and carosu's products are also much less than tourbillons. Freak's "whimsy" of Nardin watches is a unique and unique watch world of Nardin watches, which is a rare product belonging to the field of modern high-quality carosu.
On the left is the Blancpain Carosu Moon Phase Table
On the right is the Nardin Free X watch
The original intention of The Carossell was to create a simplified version of the tourbillon, but in fact, the structure of the Carosol was more complex than the tourbillon, which also caused the Carossell to fall silent for a long time. Later, watchmakers saved it from the years of silence. Whether it is Nardin or Blancpain, they have made a breakthrough in this traditional mechanism, and the breakthrough is not a sensationalism, but another way of inheriting, through innovation to bring this ancient technology to us again. Although the tourbillon and the carroll have always been controversial, for me, in today's watchmaking environment, these two are two very different mechanical beauty, the wealth left by history, and watchmakers will continue to carry forward these "watchmaking treasures".
How to understand the mystery of the tourbillon and carosu? There is a common premise, that is, to understand the working principle of mechanical watches. There are two core elements here: one is "isochronous output" and the other is "escapement". If you calculate from the northern Song Dynasty prime minister Su Song of Our country invented the water transport instrument elephant platform and thus created the history of human mechanical clocks, a thousand years of time, human beings only use small springs and gear sets to achieve accurate timing, I have to say that mechanical clocks are a great invention. And the tourbillon and carosu are the twin flowers in the crown, and their charm and competition will continue.