Ever since Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele created the Ferdinand Berthoud brand Martin Green has been a fan. Here Martin shares impressions from a recent visit to the boutique brand’s workshop in Fleurier.
Imagine my surprise when, in one of my rare predictions about the future of 3D printing in watchmaking, I got one right: the Panerai Lo Scienziato Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT Titanium says it all. It is (as far as I know) the first production watch to utilize 3D direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) printing for the case construction. The case is made of titanium for extra lightness, but that’s not the only, or even the main, reason for using DMLS titanium.
Extraordinary engraver Kees Engelbarts loves his skeletonized watches as they do very much showcase his art form. “I wanted to make another kind of skeleton watch,” he says about his latest creation called Tourbillon Organic Skeleton. “Most skeleton watches are, as you know, very symmetric. My plan was to make a skeleton watch without a drawing or plan before starting, by just taking away material from the base plate and bridges that is not needed.”
In GaryG’s view, every successful independent watchmaker has elements of a “house style” that may attract some buyers and put off others, but nonetheless sets him or her apart. And, at the highest level, this style goes beyond “branding” to become an expression of the personality and artistic vision of the creator. In the picturesque Swiss town of Thun, Beat Haldimann and his small team distinguish themselves by focusing on technical virtuosity of the highest order, as typified by the Haldimann H1 Flying Central Tourbillon.
Why is the A. Lange & Söhne Tourbillon Pour Le Mérite important from a holistic view of horological history? Elizabeth thinks that the reasons are manifold and include the unheard-of technology nestled within its movement, the audacity of a German newcomer in challenging Swiss status quo, and the symbolic value for A. Lange & Söhne’s rebirth as well as the golden age of mechanical timepieces.
The story of the Angelus U50 Diver Tourbillon is still being written, but given a chance, Joshua Munchow thinks that it may be a story that holds with watch lovers.
Joshua pontificates upon the unadorned cleanliness emphasized by the new Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Vision Enamel. The chapter ring and center inset are gone, and for good reason: enamel. This entire fresh dial is made of oven-fired enamel, with thinner numerals and markers harking back to classic pocket watches or vintage wristwatches, and a cutaway to admire the perfect finish of the 24-second tourbillon.
Since the model’s launch earlier in 2018, Sabine has a new favorite Bubble: the Bubble 47 Central Tourbillon, also christened the Bubble Swoosh. As the name implies, it is the first Bubble to feature a centrally placed tourbillon.
AHCI member Antoine Preziuso’s mind-blowing Tourbillon of Tourbillons embodies the ideas of fractal geometry and recursion by producing a ten-minute tourbillon driven by three sixty-second tourbillons. It is an amazing machine. And as the only indications are minutes and hours, the Tourbillon of Tourbillons is something that exists as much for its own sake as it does for telling the time.
Released in 2010, the RGM Pennsylvania Tourbillon made a pretty big splash among those who have educated themselves about such things. It is, after all, the only serially produced tourbillon made in America and is simply an increditastic watch from any perspective. Design, function, and finishing: it is at the head of its class.