A Tourbillon wristwatch by Breguet, manual wind movement, circular silvered engine turned dial with off-set hour and minute subsidiary dial with black Roman numerals, tourbillon carriage at six, sapphire crystal, signed case, dial and movement, 18ct gold case with hand engraved plate to reverse and visible movement, twenty one jewels, reference number 2294A, movement number 111, calibre 558, to black crocodile leather bands, diameter 36 mm, boxed with papers. In very good overall condition. Some minor wear to bands. Ticking at time of inspection. Not recently serviced or timed. Approximate 50 hour power Reserve.Water Resistant to 30m/100ft., Developed around 1795 and patented by the French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on June 26, 1801, a tourbillon aims to counter the effects of gravity by mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage, to negate the effect of gravity when the timepiece (thus the escapement) is stuck in a certain position. By continuously rotating the entire balance wheel/escapement assembly at a slow rate (typically one revolution per minute), the tourbillon averages out positional errors., originally an attempt to improve accuracy, tourbillons are still included in some expensive modern watches as a novelty and demonstration of watchmaking virtuosity. The mechanism is usually exposed on the watch's face to show it off.
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- Engine Turned - Engine turning is a decorative technique used on metal surfaces to create intricate curving or geometric pattern. The process involves cutting a series of lines into the surface of the metal using a rose engine or decoration lathe which rotates the metal as it cuts, allowing the operator to create a repeating pattern that covers the entire surface. The resulting surface has a shimmering, reflective quality that is often described as "engine turned." Where an engine turned item has been enamelled, the term used to describe the decoration is usually guilloche.
Engine turning was originally developed to decorate metal objects such as firearms, scientific instruments, and other metal objects that required precise and elegant design.
- Movement - The technical name for the workings of a clock or watch, and does not include the dial or case.
- Timepiece - In today's usage, the word "clock" is the name given to any instrument used for measuring time, but the word clock is derived from the Celtic word meaning "bell", and traditionally a clock without a bell or chime was known as a timepiece.
- Subsidiary Dial - On a clock or watch, a subsidiary dial, also called an auxiliary dial, is a dial that is secondary to the main dial and may show seconds, day of the week or month, or strike silent. A subsidiary dial may be within our outside the main dial, and a clock or watch may have several subsidiary dials.
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