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To celebrate the 10th anniversary of his brandname in 1997, Alain Silberstein created his Tourbillon Chronograph, which for some reason, he calls "Krono." The chronograph uses a column wheel, which is the movement classic developed by LEMANIA. For the tourbillon to be visible on the dial, Lemania developed a tourbillon rotating frame that is much smaller than the conventional model. Ten watches were made, if you can find one, it would cost you at least $200,000.

Click on either picture to visit Alain!

Take the kronograph out of the Tourbillon Krono, and you get the Alain Silberstein Tourbillon on the right. As far as I can tell (in all honesty, I did not make any serious inquiries) the tourbillon is available at about half the price of the Krono. Now, why anyone in his right mind would spend that kind of money for something that looks like it came out of a Cracker Jack box is beyond my understanding, but then, so are many things.

I do realize full well that this is the third time that products by A. Lange & Söhne make an appearance on this site, but can there possibly be enough times? On the left is their Tourbillon Pour le Mérite in rose gold (very bad picture for such a beautiful thing), which was produced in an edition of only 50, I believe. I came across a quoted price of $150,000, but believe that would be a speculative figure. On one hand, the piece is so rare, one is unlikely to stumble upon one. On the other hand, Lange wristwatches have not been around long enough to assess their collector's value. On the right is the slightly more accessible Lange 1A, with a gold guilloché dial. Some of the movement's parts are made of gold as well, apparently to improve both durability and anti-magnetic properties.

The tourbillon movement is one of many inventions of Abraham-Louis Breguet, who is generally considered the greatest watchmaker of all time and the father of the modern watch. For instance, while we generally consider the wristwatch to be a thing of the 20th century, Breguet was actually commissioned by the Queen of Naples in 1810 to produce the first wristwatch, which was completed in 1812. He first came up with the idea for a tourbillon in 1795, received a patent on 26 June, 1801, and marketed tourbillons from 1805 on.

The device was meant to compensate for the rate errors brought about by gravity in the different positions a watch can find itself: horizontal when in the hand to tell the time and more often in a vertical position in a waistcoat pocket. Then, if it is most effective for a pocket watch, why bother to put a tourbillon movement in a wristwatch? In many ways, it is like asking: why bother still making mechanical movements at all, if quartz seems to do everything better. Aestheticism is defined as the strive for and enjoyment of beauty. In a paradoxical way, the more highly industrialized and mechanized a society is, the more it puts a premium value on hand-made artifacts, and especially those of the highest quality.

Even the cheapest quartz watches today achieve a rate of accuracy that would shame the best chronometer. Still, they are merely mass-produced pieces of electronic hardware, like computers or TV sets. The mechanical watch, with all the craftsmanship and cunning that goes into its creation, is as admirable as any work of art, and the tourbillon is one of the most exceptional creations in watchmaking. The complexity of its execution, the expertise required to develop and assemble it and then to set it, have made it a masterpiece of human proficiency and ingenuity.

As a general rule, if you have a question about watches, just post it on TIMEZONE, and you will get the answer! I was puzzled by contradictory statements about Girard-Perregaux chronograph movements, and fellow-Timezoner Hans Zbinden in this case informed me that except for special editions, they do use ETA, and who doesn't ? I suppose the watches here would fall into the category "special!"

It is often quite difficult to confirm the price of objects whose sales tax might exceed the equivalent of one year's tuition fee at Harvard. It depends not only on the dealer, but on the country of purchase, and in many cases, the objects may be so exclusive that they can only be obtained through special order. For the prospective clientele, it would be gravely disappointing if anyone could just walk into the nearest mall to make the purchase. Anyhow, when I received my Girard-Perregaux catalogue, I flipped through it and made a tentative, very difficult choice, just in case I would finally win the lottery: I picked the model on the left, a minute repeater "Tourbillon with three Golden Bridges." Then, I checked the price list and gasped: $300,000 - that lottery win would have to be big! Above it is a plainer version of the tourbillon with one golden bridge, which should retail for about a third of that price. For how much the amazing Chronograph Rattrapante Tourbillon with three Golden Bridges Minute Repeater in the center might be offered, I have no idea! The same goes for the nervous glitter that is the Girard-Perregaux Petit Tourbillon on the right.

The Ulysse Nardin collection is in the proud tradition of quality and mechanical innovation. Today, Ulysse Nardin continues to develop and produce specialized timepieces of the highest technical level in limited editions. Using the company's patented inventions, these often include complications offered by no other watchmaker, such as the renowned Trilogy of Astrolabium, Planetarium and Tellurium and the Jaquemart Minute Repeater, seen here in "plain" and "Jungle" versions, retailing for $200,000 and up.

Gérald Genta learned his trade in Geneva. Beside making watches under his own name, he has designed timepieces for many other famous houses. Inventive and bold, Gérald Genta is one of the greatest creative and original watchmakers of our time. When he started his own company in 1969, he had already created some notable classics on behalf of prestigious brandname watchmakers. Widely acclaimed by collectors throughout the world for his one-of-a-kind timepieces, Gérald Genta also delights select buyers with several watch collections that share the distinctive mark of his creative genius.

Precise and precious, the Gérald Genta watches deserve exceptional service. To guarantee the kind of customer service worthy of a prestigious timepiece, Gérald Genta has developed a worldwide network of carefully selected dealers. All are highly qualified and reliable watchmakers dedicated to service and committed to quality maintenance expected by those who have acquired a watch designed by the master watchmaker himself.

Gerald Genta's automatic jumping hours movement shows the hours of the day in large Arabic numerals through the watch window. It embraces an original alliance between mechanical watch making and digital display in a watch at the crossroads of yesterday and today. The retrograde minute hand travels the entire minute segment before returning to its point of departure each time the hour changes. If given a choice between one of Alain Silberstein's things and Gerard's tribute to American culture on the right, I would opt for Genta's Mickey without hesitation.

Leonardo Spinelli, who created the chrono on the left, joined the AHCI (Académie horlogère des créateurs indépendents) in 1987, and is currently the only Italian among the members of the association. One of his strong points are his jumping hour models, of which Spinelli and Genta are the masters. He produces relatively simple versions, but also ones with a medley of auxiliary functions.

François-Paul Journe believes that watchmaking has a bright future, both in terms of creativity and technical invention and has adopted the motto "Inventit et Fecit," the Latin phrase meaning "invented and made." One of his recent creations is his Resonance System Chronometer on the right, which is a world premiere. It uses two entirely independent movements, which operate in conjunction with each other to ensure an exceptionally high degree of precision. In addition, this timepiece is the only precision chronometer, which is not affected by variations due to being worn. The balances oscillate in natural opposition and therefore absorb the shocks and compensate for any disturbances encountered during wearing

	For almost 10 years, VENTURA design on time has been one of the leading innovators of contemporary design in the watch-making industry.
As one of the top 20 manufacturers of officially tested chronometers worldwide, this small company from the town of Wangen near Zurich has left more prominent watch-makers far behind. Apart from Rolex, ventura is the only other manufacturer of a chronometer COSC for women (the v-matic small) and it is the only watch company to release a ladies chronometer-chronograph. The young Danish designer Flemming Bo Hansen and the Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein created watches for Ventura, which are already recognized as "classics" of modern product design.

For example, Hansen's watch forms part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the State Museum for Applied Art and countless other institutions and is recognized as the "most beautifully designed digital watch". For his v-matic chronometer collection, Wettstein has adopted elements of classical measuring instruments that are at the same time classic and futuristic. The v-matic has been honored with many international awards, among them the title of "Best of Best" 1995 from the Essen Design Center in Nordrhein-Westfalen; the 1995 prize from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and a commendation in the "Durability" 97/98 competition from the Design Center in Stuttgart. Ventura's purest model is the aptly-named EGO: when I first saw a picture of it in a magazine, I thought that the quoted price of $15,000 must be erroneous. It was not!

This just in: WRISTWATCH FETCHES NEW WORLD RECORD OF ALL TIME AT THE ANTIQUORUM, GENEVA THEME AUCTION: THE ART OF HOROLOGY IN GENEVA, NOVEMBER 13-14, 1999. Antiquorum Auctioneers set the new all time world record price for a wristwatch with the sale of a Patek Philippe wristwatch, lot 448, for SFr. 2’973’500 (US$ 1,918,387): a probably unique 18K yellow gold gentleman’s wristwatch, produced in 1922, with the function of the chronograph controlled by the single button and the split-seconds chronograph controlled by the crown, with 60-minute register, (diam. 32 mm.). This is also the second highest price ever fetched at auction by any watch, after the famous Patek Philippe "Calibre 89" (SFr. 4’950’000/US$ 3 M - Antiquorum, Geneva, April 1989). The rarity of the present wristwatch, other than it being most probably a unique piece and a highly important collector’s item, is that it is the earliest known wristwatch of this type, with split-seconds chronograph, produced by Patek Philippe and it is also exceptional that it features a white enamel dial with Breguet numerals, which exists in no other such wristwatch by this important Genevan manufacturer. The previous all time World Record for a wristwatch was also held by Antiquorum since the sale of April 20-21, 1996, (lot 266), when SFr. 2’090’000 (US$ 1,715,000) were paid at auction for a Patek Philippe 1939 "Calatrava" astronomic, minute repeating, platinum wristwatch with perpetual calendar and moon phases. This record was published in The Guinness Book of Records. There you go!

Page 1: hello	Page 2: nice things	Page 3: Audemars Piguet	Page 4: IWC, JLC	Page 5: Patek Philippe
Page 6: Flieger	Page 7: more Flieger	Page 8: Zenith, Eberhard	Page 9: chronographs	Page 10: big money!
Page 11: mo' money	Page 12: more chronos	Page 13: less known gems	Page 14: moonstruck	Page 15: pictures & links

	In 1795, Breguet invented the so-called *Sympathique clock*, presented to the public for the first time at the national exhibition of 1798. This clock was designed to hold a watch, which was automatically regulated and reset when it was placed in a recess. Although the mechanism enhanced Breguet's fame, it was complex and costly to make so that Abraham-Louis sold only five examples before his death in 1823, and his son Antoine-Louis only one, in 1830. All were bought by kings or princes. In 1991, a third generation of the clock was perfected, which now resets and rewinds a mechanical wristwatch. Several models of wristwatches can be selected, one possible choice is on the right.
	Price upon request! To visit the official Breguet web site, click on the clock!


... has quietly established itself as one of the top names in luxury wristwatches. Founded in 1846, the company was named after its founder, Ulysse Nardin, an accomplished watchmaker. In 1983, Ulysse Nardin was purchased by Rolf W. Schnyder, its current President.