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The watch brings the innovations of outstanding watchmakers of yesteryear and the present day together with the very best finishing and decorating techniques as maintained at the manufactory in
Glashütte, the watchmaking town in Saxony.
The dial: staging the mechanics
With absolute devotion, attention is paid both to the watch’s inner workings and its features. The TOURBILLON Tremblage’s dial is one of its special features – a multi-part construction made of German silver in a symmetrical design.
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The inner part with tremblage revives a historical technique. It is engraved by hand using a variety of burins: the tools are moved across the metal in a trembling motion, which is also where the name comes from, with the
French ‘tremblant’ meaning ‘to tremble’ in
English.
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The challenge is to achieve an even look, creating an effect which is both rough and matt. In the case of the inner dial of the
TOURBILLON Tremblage model, this has been achieved to captivating perfection, as the tremblage surface softens the incident light, making it appear wonderfully matt. The other parts of the dial are matt opaline.
Click, to see the large size. ▶ BIG FOTO All the dial parts are subsequently galvanised in ‘black-or’ – an expressive anthracite colour. The processing of the dial, from the engraving to the finishing, requires several days to complete.
The presentation of time
At the heart of the dial visually is the tourbillon, which is flanked by the off-centre hour display at 3 o’clock and a second display at 9 o’clock.
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The hands are manually crafted from
750/000 gold in the rose gold version and from polished steel in the white gold version. The shapes of the handcrafted hands hint at their functions: the small second hand is more delicate, while the hour hand is stouter in design. They guarantee reliable time reading.
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The fine tip of the minute hand sweeps past the minute scale around the dial’s outer perimeter. As the minute display is interrupted by the aperture for the tourbillon in the lower half of the dial, the minute hand has been extended beyond the centre.
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This counterpart now precisely presents minutes 25 to 35 on a scale. This twofold minute display is likewise a special
Moritz Grossmann feature and is patented.
Click, to see the large size. ▶ BIG FOTO With its Arabic numerals in white and the very delicately tapered hands crafted at the company’s own manufactory, the
TOURBILLON Tremblage showcases the clear aesthetics of the
Glashütte precision measuring instruments of the 19th century.
The legacy of great watchmakers
The major personalities whose achievements serve as the basis for this latest innovation go by the names of Moritz Grossmann, Alfred Helwig and Abraham Louis Breguet.
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Grossmann, who founded the German School of Watchmaking in Glashütte in 1878, influenced watch manufacture in the 19th century and established a rich watchmaking legacy.
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Alfred Helwig taught at the German School of Watchmaking in the first half of the 20th century and filed a patent application for the flying tourbillon in
1920.
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As the author of the book Drehganguhren on tourbillons, he inspires the design engineers at the
Moritz Grossmann manufactory to this day.
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Breguet was at work in Paris even earlier, in the 18th and the early 19th century. He influenced the watchmaking generations that followed with his developments. One of his best-known inventions is the tourbillon – a construction that mounts the escapement in a rotating cage to offset the effects of gravity on the balance.
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Click, to see the large size. ▶ BIG FOTO The tourbillon became a highly respected complication in wristwatches too as it attests to the very height of watchmaking expertise.
A modern version of traditional mechanics
The Moritz Grossmann manufactory unveiled the first calibre with a tourbillon more than ten years ago. It bears the company’s unmistakable signature as the manufactory does not settle for repeating the past, instead creating modern versions of traditional mechanics. This involves handed-down techniques being completely reimagined, such as the construction of the tourbillon in the hand-wound calibre 103.0.
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What was created here was a generously sized oscillator which, influenced by Alfred Helwig, is only mounted on one side. The tourbillon is therefore visually impressive too, especially with its unusually large diameter of
16 millimetres and its reduced aesthetics.
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It additionally boasts a longer cycle time: whereas traditional tourbillons generally turn on their axis once a minute, the
Moritz Grossmann construction takes a full three minutes to perform a rotation.
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Other features include the filigree cage top resting on just two pillars and the characteristic V-shaped balance bridge, which is protected as a registered design.
Stop-second function with elastic brush made of hair
The cage’s elaborate design with two triangular pillars is the prerequisite for another special construction feature. According to the Grossmann watchmakers’ understanding, the precise mechanics of a tourbillon first call for exact time setting.
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To halt the balance uninterrupted, this stop device needs to avoid the frame pillars. An elastic brush made of human hair can easily glide past the triangular pillar and gently slow the balance down at the rim perimeter. The patented stop solution rounds out the mechanism in keeping with a
Grossmann precision timepiece.
The finish: detailed perfection
The devotion with which timepieces are constructed and manufactured at Moritz Grossmann is also seen at the highest level at the decoration stage: each and every component is individually finished by hand.
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The plates and the tourbillon cock are finished with hand-engraved
Glashütte ribbing, while edges which are bevelled by hand and three-band snailing on the ratchet wheel are especially aesthetic. The polished screws are set in gold chatons and the jewels are white sapphire.
Perfection in white gold and rose gold
The new TOURBILLON Tremblage is premiering in two versions: with a case in rose or in white gold and hands in rose gold or steel.
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The rose gold model is worn on a brown alligator leather strap, while the white gold version is combined with a black alligator leather strap. Both versions are limited to eight pieces each.
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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Model:
BENU Tourbillon Tremblage Gold Edition
Versions:
Reference: MG-003617 - Rose Gold
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Dial: Multi-part in German silver, galvanised in ‘black-or’, tremblage inner dial, printed Arabic numerals
Hands: Handcrafted, 750/000 gold, polished
Limitation 8 watches 🔴 Price : 237 400 € 💰
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Reference:
MG-003616 - White Gold
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Escapement: Lever escapement
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Oscillator: Grossmann three-minute tourbillon with stop seconds; shock-absorbed
Grossmann balance with 4 inertia and 2 poising screws, suspended Nivarox 1 balance spring with No.
80 terminal curve,
Gerstenberger geometry
Cage diameter: 16.2 mm
Cage speed: 1 revolution in three minutes, anti-clockwise when viewed from dial side
Balance diameter: 14.2 mm, frequency
18,000 semi-oscillations per hour
Power reserve: 72 hours when fully wound
Functions / features
Flying three-minute tourbillon with screw-secured driving wheel and V-shaped balance bridge (design patent pending)
Sweep minutes, off-centre hours and seconds with stop seconds,
replacement of the missing minute scale segment from 25 to 35 minutes
with a separate scale swept by the extension of the minute hand on the
opposite side (patent pending)
Stop seconds at the balance wheel rim with a pivoting fine-hair brush (patent pending)
Asymmetric-arm lever escapement with counterweight and lever banking pin
Grossmann balance with suspended balance spring, adjustable with poising screws in the rim
Newly developed mainspring barrel jewel bearing
Brake ring on the fourth-wheel arbor made of very hard, oily guaiacum
ARCAP train wheels
Grossmann winder with pusher to deactivate the handsetting mode and start the movement
Modified Glashütte stopwork with backlash
Pillar movement with 2/3 plate and frame pillars in untreated German silver
Hand-engraved 2/3 plate and tourbillon cock
Broad horizontal Glashütte ribbing
3-band snailing on the ratchet wheel
Raised gold chatons with pan-head screws
White sapphire bearing jewels
Separately removable clutch winder