Abraham-Louis Breguet earned his 10-year patent for the tourbillon on 26th June 1801, but over a century later it was a watchmaker from Glashütte, Alfred Helwig, who made what is arguably the most significant improvement to it, creating what he called the flying tourbillon. The trick was to fix the tourbillon from the base of the movement with just one arm, rather than the usual bridge fixed the tourbillon carriage from above. The advantage was that the unique characteristic of the tourbillon – the fact that it rotates about its own axis once every sixty seconds – could now be seen without any interruption from the dial side. A common tourbillon design nowadays, it is one of several important contributions to watchmaking that have come from the isolated German town of Glashütte, nestled in the Erzgebirge of Saxony, along with the three-quarter plate and the introduction of the metric system.
It has taken almost another century since the introduction of the flying tourbillon for its German inventor to have a model attributed to him by name. The watchmaking school in Glashütte (where he taught for over forty years) now bears his name, but now he is recognised with a limited-edition watch of just 25 pieces with the new Glashütte Original Senator Tourbillon – Alfred Helwig Edition. It bears all the classic design traits from Glashütte Original, including the Roman numerals, railway-style minute track and finely textured, silver-grained dial, as well as the panorama double-disc date just below 12 o’clock. This limited edition is identified by a subtle inscription of the number, which replaces the hour marker at 1 o’clock.
Inside the 42mm white-gold case beats the in-house Calibre 94-03 movement which exhibits more typical features of the Saxon art of watchmaking beneath its sapphire crystal case back, such as the Glashütte stripe decoration, blued screws and a two-tone galvanised and skeletonised oscillating mass. The crowning glory, visible from both sides, is of course that flying tourbillon carriage. Weighing just 0.2 grammes, this lightweight assembly comprises no fewer than 72 individual components, each of which is decorated and assembled by hand.
