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. 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:

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