Introducing The Harry Winston Histoire de Tourbillon 10

The Histoire de Tourbillon series from Harry Winston has been an ongoing project for the company since 2009, when the Histoire de Tourbillon 1 was released as a 20 piece limited edition. The idea behind the series was rather similar to that behind the Opus series: take the mechanical watch as a starting point for a no-holds-barred exploration of the limits of watchmaking (in this case, the tourbillon specifically) and see just how far design and mechanical complexity can be pushed. The notion was not, and is not, necessarily to break new ground in high precision timekeeping per se, but rather to make something so visually, mechanically, and aesthetically striking that it becomes its own raison d'être, rather than appealing to functionality as a justification.

The Histoire de Tourbillon 10 is the final installment in the series; in 2009, a nascent HODINKEE didn't cover the very first chapter but we followed along as the series evolved, with multi-axis, inclined axis, and double multi-axis tourbillons all making appearances in the various models. Histoire de Tourbillon 10 is billed as the very first watch to contain four tourbillons with four separate balances, and as far as we can tell, Harry Winston is accurate in making that claim – while there have been quadruple tourbillons before (from Greubel Forsey, for instance) and while there have been watches with four balances before (the Quatuor, from Roger Dubuis) as far as we know, no one's ever put four balances inside four separate tourbillon cages before now.

The tourbillon cages rotate (all clockwise) once every 36 seconds (this is faster than the standard 60 seconds, found in most other tourbillon watches, although various speeds are possible depending on the gearing; Breguet, for instance, made four minute tourbillons during his lifetime) with the balances oscillating at 21,600 vph/3 Hz. The energy costs are quite high; the watch is powered by two pairs of fast-rotating barrels that provide a 55 hour power reserve, which seems low for a watch of these dimensions – the rectangular case is 53.30mm x 39.10mm, and 17.60mm thick – until you remember that they have to drive four tourbillons, after all. 

The four tourbillons inevitably run at four slightly different rates, so the four rates are averaged to produce a single output for the time display; this is done via three differentials. The rates of each pair of tourbillons are averaged by the first two differentials, to produce two rates, and these two are further averaged by a third differential to produce the final output to the hour and minute hands (there's no seconds hand). Harry Winston has produced tourbillons for the Histoire de Tourbillon series, over the years, with varying rates of rotation (the Histoire de Tourbillon 4, for example, was a triple axis tourbillon with three concentric cages, rotating at 5 minutes, 75 seconds, and 45 seconds from outermost to inmost) but 36 seconds was the rotational speed of the double tourbillons in the Histoire de Tourbillon 1 (the tourbillon systems for which were designed by Greubel Forsey) so there's a certain symmetry to finishing the story that way. 

Generally speaking these have been six-figure watches made in very small numbers – ten to twenty pieces per installment, more or less – and Histoire de Tourbillon 10 will be a limited edition as well, of ten pieces in platinum, ten in white gold, and one piece in "Winstonium" which is a proprietary platinum alloy. Pricing is CHF 700,000 to CHF 770,000 depending on the case material.

There's an interesting phenomenon in evolutionary biology called a Fisherian runaway, which has to do with the evolution of exaggerated secondary sex characteristics – specifically, in males of species like the peacock, where floridly excessive male ornamentation signals better reproductive fitness to the female of the species; the notion is that things like the peacock's plumes basically read as, "If I can afford to waste this much metabolic energy on making feathers five times my body length, imagine how much I'd rock more, ahem, intimate matters." I thought of this phenomenon while looking at the Histoire de Tourbillon 10 (and think of it while looking at other, similarly extroverted efforts in ultra-high-end modern watchmaking) because watchmaking, like any other luxury craft, responds to evolutionary pressures as well, and one of the ways to capture the attention of both actual clients as well as the larger watchmaking community, is to create timepieces that exhaust one's supply of superlatives, and which have unique properties that set them indisputably apart from any other watch, or watches.

So it is with the Histoire de Tourbillon 10. Now, it's tempting to judge watches by a single standard and it's extremely tempting to make that single standard one's own personal tastes, but the Histoire de Tourbillon is both a watch, and only incidentally a watch (a phenomenon that brands which simply follow this to its natural conclusion by omitting hands altogether, or making the watch unreadable under any circumstances, clearly understand). 

The tourbillon was of course, originally intended as an aid to chronometry and has throughout the history of watchmaking, since Breguet invented it at the very beginning of the 19th century, always stood on something of an experimental footing; the rationale for it is theoretically sound (as far as I've been able to tell) in that indeed, it does produce a single average rate for all the vertical positions; as well, at least in a pocket watch and paired with an escapement that requires no oil, no less an authority than the late George Daniels found it worthwhile. 

In a wristwatch matters are much less clear, but the visual entertainment value of the tourbillon remains, irrespective of any functional advantage. While you can, if you want, make an argument for the chronometric advantages offered by four tourbillons with four distinct oscillator systems, producing an average of two averages as an output, I think at this point in the twenty-first century, this watch is all about the visual razzle-dazzle, not about producing a closer rate (I will always remember asking Stephen Forsey about multi-tourbillon systems as offering advantages in rate stability, and his reply that, " ... it's always a struggle to gain more than you lose.")

I give Harry Winston credit, however, for paying attention to details historically associated with watches intended as precision timekeepers – all four balance springs use a Phillips overcoil, with free-sprung, adjustable mass balances.

And, I still appreciate the fact that while just about everyone seems to be retreating into reflexive classicism and retro-chic (stocks of ecru-colored lume must be dangerously low in Switzerland by now) Harry Winston stays true to some of its more unapologetically extroverted watchmaking. (I miss the Opus series, though.) Having watched all the Histoire de Tourbillon watches, as well as all the Opus timepieces (which were often on pretty shaky ground from the standpoint of pure practicality as well, albeit they were always intriguing conceptually even when they didn't work so reliably) roll out over the last decade plus, I was intrigued to see this final chapter in the series. The client for this sort of thing is probably a person for whom the asking price represents a rounding error on their annual dry-cleaning bill, but it's a kind of horological entertainment that is reminiscent of a more exuberant time in the mechanical watchmaking renaissance – unexpectedly, and very much apart from the current retro trend in watchmaking design, a form of nostalgia as well.

Brand: Harry Winston
Model: Histoire de Tourbillon 10

Dimensions: 53.30mm x 39.10mm x 17.60mm
Case Material: Platinum, rose gold; single unique piece in Winstonium platinum
Dial: One-piece synthetic sapphire
Water Resistance: 30 meters/3 bar
Strap/Bracelet: Black alligator strap with rose gold or platinum pin buckle; stitching in 18k rose gold or platinum thread

Caliber: HW4702
Functions: Hours, minutes, power reserve indication on movement plate
Dimensions: 45.0mm x 32.0mm x 12.85mm (as measured from the tourbillon bridges)
Power Reserve: 55 hours
Winding: Manual
Frequency: 3Hz (21,600 vph)
Jewels: 95
Total Components: 673 components, including 78 per tourbillon
Additional Details: Four tourbillons, rotating once every 36 seconds; four balances, with Phillips terminal curve and Geneva-type stud; two pairs of fast-rotating mainspring barrels.

Price: CHF 700,000 – CHF 770,000, depending on the model
Availability: TBD
Limited Edition: 10 pieces in white gold, 10 in platinum, 1 unique piece in Winstonium

See the Histoire de Tourbillon collection at harrywinston.com.