In 1999, watchmakers Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey left Renaud et Papi, he was conceived of a new swiss movement replica watches tourbillon mechanism, the mechanism will reduce the impact of gravity on accuracy. “We have seen that the demand for complex mechanical watches is constantly evolving. We want to see what we have done in the past and improve on this basis to add new ideas to the watchmaking industry. Retro Bentley. After four years of development, the duo Introduced Double Tourbillon 30°, the tourbillon has two tilted tourbillon cages to avoid extreme horizontal and vertical positions, which will hinder the accuracy of the mechanical watch. Last year, they were in the Greubel Forsey invented work 1 for $470,000 Demonstrated his mechanical achievements (counter page).
“Let’s let it go,” Forsey explained, the art design places the double tourbillon 30° at the center of the offset time display, which consists of two rings, one minute and one hour. Two triangle indicators (blue for minutes and red for hours) indicate the elapsed time on two concentric semicircles. The inner tourbillon cage completes the complete rotation in 60 seconds, while the outer cage completes the rotation in four minutes. Forsey pointed out: “There are four different systems spinning.” The dial is cut off around the tourbillon mechanism to show the concentric gears driving the hour and minute hands. The movement is composed of 388 parts, including 128 double cages, and weighs only 1.17 grams.
Greubel Forsey will produce 11 of each of the three metal variants (white gold, rose gold and platinum). The seemingly simple matte surface (Greubel Forsey design logo) on the dial surface contrasts the different layers and provides evidence of excellent hand modification. “One of the main factors limiting the number of watches we manufacture is manual finishing-the level of detail in each watch,” Forsey said. “Today, one-third of the team specializes in manual finishing work. In the final analysis, finishing is more art.”
In order to explain this novel work of watch art, Greubel decided to inscribe its story on the back of the watch. The hidden 200-word information cannot explain the history of the 30° double tourbillon, so it cannot take pictures, so it is reserved for the eyes of the watch owner. “One aspect of my vision for the watch industry is to enter the unknown and further promote innovation,” Greubel said. “I refuse to accept that everything already exists. We have learned traditions, but we have an obligation to supplement them.”
Greubel Forsey launches completely hand-made tourbillon watch
Handmade 1.
Greubel Forsey said that “Hand Made 1” is a “95%” watch produced “only with hand tools” and takes about 6,000 hours. This is equivalent to three years of work, mainly completed by Greubel Forsey’s special team of watchmakers and independent experts who produce certain parts.
Functionally speaking, Hand Made 1 is a simple and easy-to-use timepiece-it displays time, hours, minutes and seconds, and is equipped with a tourbillon regulator. The movement consists of 272 parts, which are within the usual range of such movements. The complexity of watches comes from the way manual or hand tools are manufactured, which is why only two or three watches are produced each year.
The origin of Hand Made 1 is the division within Greubel Forsey, which produces prototypes, which are essentially disposable hand-made watches. The production process used for Handcraft 1 is the same, except that they have a higher level of craftsmanship in order to create the same technology as the prototype and have the same fitting and finishing parts as the standard Greubel Forsey movement.
Therefore, each screw is made on a manual lathe, which may take up to eight hours to complete. The housing parts are milled on a pantograph lathe. The pantograph lathe is essentially a manually operated CNC machine tool that requires the operator to manually guide the cutting tool.
Even the hairspring is rolled by a manual rolling mill, which gradually flattens the wire to the fineness required for the hairspring, which is a special process completed by an independent workshop. Similarly, the escapement fork of the escapement was made by an independent craftsman who once worked for Greubel Forsey.
Due to the manual production process, many movement components must be simplified. Instead of individual parts, they must be divided into subassemblies. Therefore, compared to traditionally produced watches online shop, more parts are required to complete the movement.
According to Greubel Forsey, the only components that are not handmade are sapphire crystals, spacers, spring bars, jewelry and clockwork.
Not only is the manufacture of parts done by hand, all finished parts are hand-decorated according to the highest standards, until the inner edges of the gears and the sharp inward angles on the spokes.
Meaning of time
Many of the philosophies behind Handmade 1 are reminiscent of Naissance d’une Montre, a hand-made watch project supported by Greubel Forsey that aims to continue the old hand-made watchmaking process.
The cited 6,000 hours of working time is significantly higher than the time required by other high-end timepieces.
For example, it is believed that George Daniels spends 2500-3000 hours on each handmade watch, but most of his watches are essentially prototypes without any decoration or finishing. Daniels’s philosophy focuses more on invention and construction than detailed decoration, which he considers to be a disguise of internal intellectuals.
Philippe Dufour (Philippe Dufour) spent about 1,000 hours to complete each large Sonnerie pocket watches cheap he made, but the movement and its components are naturally larger in size, and at the same time produced with the help of automated machinery, although Du Fu Mr. did everything by hand.
In contrast, “Handmade 1” combines two methods: it is made from hand-made parts, and its technology is similar to the technology used in prototyping, but then refined and refined to reach the traditional Greubel Forsey Watch to the same degree. This means that not only are the parts highly decorative, but they are also interchangeable, just like machine-made parts.