In the 18th century, the aptly named "Age of Enlightenment", several scholars were interested in astronomy. They understood the rigorous arrangement of celestial bodies. The movements of planets, the stars, and likewise the rotation of the earth are thus precisely fixed. These cycles, once determined, appear as constants of a mathematical rigor. We are a long way away from what Galileo muttered during his public retraction in 1633! And so, when Abraham-Louis Breguet filed his patent for a watchmaking mechanism to improve timekeeping, he permitted himself to call it the "tourbillon", in reference to the rigor and precision of interconnected astral movements. First presented in 1801, this device was initially made in very small quantities before being incorporated in a variety of timepieces from the middle of the 19th century. At the end of the Watchmaking Crisis, around 1990, by migrating from the pocket watch to the Custom Luxury Watches, the tourbillon sparked a great craze of enthusiasm amongst lovers of exceptional watches. And that the Earth turns on its own axis? This theory of Galileo's was only proved in 1851, by Foucault's pendulum.

The classic construction: the combination of the balance spring and escapement is placed in a cage which pivots between two bridges. This cage replaces the second wheel. A pinion fixed to the cage meshes with the intermediate wheel, itself driven by the mean wheel. The rotation of the cage drives the escapement wheel, placed in the cage, because its pinion works with a wheel fixed on the plate. The motive force from the barrel thus drives the escapement wheel via the rotation of the cage. Thanks to the escapement and the rhythm given by the balance-spring, the cage performs one rotation per minute.

The flying tourbillon: the cage is held by a ball bearing. It carries around its edge gear teeth which mesh with the mean wheel. The rotation of the cage drives the escapement wheel because the outer portion of the ball bearing, fixed to the plate, acts as the fixed wheel. As for the inner part of the bearing, it is attached to the cage. This is the only difference in construction, the operating principles remaining the same. The second of the two has the advantage of positioning the balance and escapement appreciably further forward on the dial side as they rotate freely in their space, hence the name flying tourbillon.

The primary purpose of the tourbillon is to increase the accuracy of a timepiece. Historically, this was proven effective with pocket watches. The considerable advances in manufacturing techniques due to the arrival of CNC machines, together with developments in metallurgy, have made obsolete many of the techniques our forebears used, for example tempering recipes and other similar subtleties. But there still remain today, as yesterday, the manual adeptness, the long patience of the Custom Mens Watches watchmaker at the bench, and the skills required to master the assembly of a cage and precisely adjust its working. In the creation of wristwatch tourbillons, it is much more the aspects of technical mastery, the look and setting of this fascinating device on the dial that are sought after. Especially since a wristwatch, which is by nature very mobile on the wrist, places the timekeeping contribution of the tourbillon sharply in perspective. The drive to build new mechanisms has demonstrated itself in flying tourbillons, in cages that rotate around multiple axes, and in other displays of mastery. And here particularly, technological progress provides support for the intense determination of watchmakers to produce exceptional pieces.