The devil is in the detail, they say. Nowhere is this truer than in watchmaking, where detail is everything. It's probably got something to do with your watch-mania. If you love a watch, it may be for what it looks and feels like to wear, but there's also a tiny thing about it that makes your heart flutter. I confess that I have two such guilty pleasures of extreme geek level. One of them is barrel click springs (I know, what can I say, it's who I am). And the other is tourbillon carriages. To me, quite subjectively, one of the most beautiful, unsung tourbillon carriages of the entire watch industry is the one used by Glashütte Original.
I'll admit it's not the most special, or the most sophisticated in design. It's not even really original, pun not intended, to begin with. But it is just magnificent. It's been a while since Glashütte Original made anything really new with their tourbillon. The last such novelty dates back to 2020 when they introduced the Alfred Helwig Tourbillon 1920. But be it in the latter, or their staple PanoLunarTourbillon, or even the gorgeous Senator Chronometer Tourbillon, they use but the one. Three arms, reinforced by a 220-degree arch, an elaborate, curved attachment point to two of them (similar to a bishop's cross), you think you've seen it somewhere else, I bet. But you haven't. It's just an elegant variation on an otherwise widespread carriage design.
What's special about this cage is that it's only featured in flying tourbillons. There's a straight line between the inventor of that construction and Glashütte Original. They even named one of their pieces after Alfred Helwig. Once a prominent professor at the Glashütte watchmaking school—now the German Watch Museum Glashütte – Nicolas G. Hayek—operated by their parent company, Swatch group, Helwig first decided to do away with the upper bridge that fastens the carriage to the other bridges. He thus revealed the entire carriage to the eye, even though hardly anyone spent much time looking at the inside of a pocket watch back then...that is in the years after his 1920 invention.
I guess the one thing that gets me every time is how thin this carriage is. The cage's arms are the skinniest I know, bar one, also dear to my heart, manufactured in few and far between quantities by Beat Haldimann. Any carriage has to be balanced, its weight distributed evenly to reduce friction and therefore, its influence on the gear train. But the sense of symmetry that this thing exudes makes me feel something special. The fact that the endstone on the main carriage axis is a diamond only adds to the overall poise.
Thinness in a tourbillon carriage is a virtue I cannot stop extolling. Visually it looks great, because once in motion, it's like the spokes in a bike wheel. They create a stroboscopic effect even at watchmaking speed, which is one rotation per minute. Mechanically, it's almost a requirement as a heavy carriage defeats the original purpose of the tourbillon by exerting undue weight on the gear train. It is the very essence of watchmaking to translate this need for lightweightness into visual properties, like a metaphor. Glashütte Original does that to perfection.
FAQ:
Q: What is a tourbillon?
A: A tourbillon is a mechanical watch component that rotates the escapement and balance wheel, usually once per minute, to average out the effects of gravity on timekeeping accuracy. Invented in 1795, it remains one of watchmaking's most prized complications, showcased today by Glashütte Original in models like the PanoLunarTourbillon.
Q: What is a flying tourbillon?
A: A flying tourbillon is a tourbillon carriage supported only from below, without the upper bridge that normally holds it in place, leaving the mechanism fully visible. Glashütte Original uses a three-armed flying tourbillon carriage across its collection, including the Alfred Helwig Tourbillon 1920 and the Senator Chronometer Tourbillon.
Q: What is Glashütte Original?
A: Glashütte Original is a German watchmaking manufacture based in the Saxon town of Glashütte, producing components for its movements in-house, including dials. Known for its flying tourbillon carriage design, the brand traces its roots to the town's 19th-century watchmaking school, now home to the German Watch Museum Glashütte.
Q: Who invented the flying tourbillon?
A: The flying tourbillon was invented in 1920 by Alfred Helwig, a professor at the Glashütte watchmaking school who removed the upper bridge holding the tourbillon carriage in place, exposing the mechanism fully to view. Glashütte Original later named a model, the Alfred Helwig Tourbillon 1920, in his honor.
