Beauty and the Beast…

Well, here’s a new one to ponder:  the new Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon 3 Watch.  This is the third series in Harry Winston’s exploration of the tourbillon, though in a much different form factor (see Histoire de Tourbillon 2, Hisotire de Tourbillon 1).  I see this watch as one part beauty, one part beast (a descriptor that HW probably deplores).  Beast:  the watch case is a whopping 65.9mm x 45.9mm (compare to Antoine Preziuso’s Mega-Tourbillon (65mm round) or the MB&F HM2 (59mmx38mm) for example).  Engineered to display the three tourbillon systems to their best advantage, however!  Beauty:  The hours and minutes are shown on discs rotating against their respective markers, and the seconds on a scale around the bi-axial tourbillon.  Harry Winston shows off its flair with gemstones by using blue sapphires and citrines to indicate the power reserve — very nice.

Only 20 of each tourbillon artwork in the Histoire de Tourbillon collection are produced, i.e. elite collectors only.  Officially unveiling will be in early March at Baselworld (the world’s largest annual watch show), so stay tuned in.

Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon 3 Watch

Limited edition 20 pieces

65.9mm x 45.9mm white gold case, caseband and lugs in Zalium (a hard and ultra-light zirconium alloy),manual-wind triple tourbillon movement w/50 hrs power reserve

Eleven color-graded blue sapphires from dark to pale show the power left in the mainspring. The markers for the hours and minutes are color-matched with the gemstones. When the six yellow citrines appear against the marker, it’s time to wind up the watch.

Three tourbillons are in action, each rotating at different speeds.  Two of them are nested one inside the other “to rotate the fourth dimension of time through the three dimensions of space.”  In this bi-axial tourbillon, one tourbillon carriage rotates every 40 seconds within a second carriage going around in 120 seconds on an axis perpendicular to the first.  This ensures that the vibrating balance moves through every possible plane in relation to the field of gravity to average out positional errors.  The third tourbillon carriage rotates a separate balance on a single axis in the conventional way, but at the relatively high speed of one revolution every 36 seconds. This tourbillon is most effective when the watch is in a vertical position, and by rotating the balance quickly it minimizes its exposure to the effects of gravity. For even greater precision, the two regulating systems are connected through a differential gear that gives an average of their two rates.

Physics aside, the seeing these three tourbillons in action will be a thing of pure beauty:

And here’s a look at the nicely designed case back: