Complex machines never fail to fascinate men. An expensive wristwatch is regarded as a symbol of high status all the time. Tourbillions, with its exquisite virtuosity and its mystery engineering, are considered to be the king of mechanical watches. Tourbillion is a French word which means whirlwind. In horology, it is a special accessory which is added to the mechanics of a watch escapement in order to improve the watch??s accuracy. At the end of the seventeen century, there was a remarkable raise of people??s expectancy to the accuracy of watches. ?Time gap? became unacceptable. The French-Swiss watchmaker, Abraham-Louis Breguet, spend a lot of time to find the solution. Finally, he found a fantastical means and successfully improved the accuracy. It is so-call tourbillion. We all know that there must be a power source to provide energy for the familiar ?tick-tock? of a watch. Generally, a coiled spring is used as the power source in mechanical watches. Another important component is called escapement, which is designed to slow and regulate the power of the coiled spring and to keep the watch accurate. So, it is easy to understand that a watch??s accuracy mainly depends on the escapement. But gravity often makes the escapement less accurate. You may find out that stationary mechanical clocks are more accurate than watches. The reason is the different effect of gravity when watch is held in different positions. For most of the day, they are working in a vertical position around people??s wrist. At night, however, they are placed on a table. The position is level. In a tourbillion, the escapement is not stationary to the watch. Instead it rotates! This feature compensates for all negative gravitational effects, especially when changing position frequently. So tourbillions negate the effect of gravity, which are more accurate than other mechanical watches. Watch designer usually expose the tourbillion mechanism on the watch??s face in order to show its charm and mystery.
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