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Concept

Tourbillon

A conceptual illustration of a tourbillon, featuring a transparent clock face with Roman numerals and a rotating cage at its center, symbolizing the mechanism's intricate design and movement.

A small rotating cage that carries the entire escapement and balance wheel of a watch, completing one revolution per minute, or in some designs four or six. Patented by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1801, it averages gravity-induced rate errors in vertical positions to zero. In a wristwatch the benefit is mostly notional, since the wrist moves enough on its own, and the mechanism survives as a showpiece.

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