History of tourbillon
If you are not a mechanical watch enthusiast, you probably haven’t heard of tourbillon watches. The word “tourbillon” means “whirl wind” in French. In the watch industry it is used to describe 3 things interchangeably: the tourbillon mechanism, watch movements using this mechanism and watches wholly or partly powered by the tourbillon mechanism. This mechanism was invented in the late 18th century by Frenchman Abraham-Louis Breguet, a well known Swiss watchmaker. For centuries, he has been hailed as the “King of watchmakers” and “the Watchmaker of the Kings”. The Breguet brand today, although no longer owned by his direct descendants, is still a highly reputable luxury watch manufacturer.
In Breguet’s time, when seafaring and world exploration were at their peak, accurate timekeeping was essential for sailors and military commanders alike. His ingenious invention utilized a spinning balance wheel to counteract gravity and reduced its effects on the watch movement to the minimum. Tourbillon watch today remains to be the most accurate mechanical watch. Although, its accuracy is immensely inferior to quartz, which normally vary 3 seconds per month, whereas a good tourbillon watch keeps 3 seconds per day.
Expensive tourbillon watches
To many timepiece collectors and watch connoisseurs, each piece of tourbillon watch is a work of art. The price of tourbillon watches are exceptionally high. The ballpark price of a Swiss made tourbillon is around 150K US dollars. Some more expensive ones, like the Piguet Jules Audemars Tourbillon Chronograph watch, for example, priced at half a million dollars, costs twice as much as a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. No many of us average people can afford to buy one of these without burning a hole in our pocket or borrowing a substantial amount of money.
The high tourbillon price is mainly because of the fact that these watches have to be hand made by highly skilled watchmakers who have undergone many years of extensive training before qualifying as tourbillon makers. These watches are very complicated too, the most simple designs usually contain more than a hundred small delicate parts. To produce these parts and put them together into one watch manually, often take 4-6 months. These parts are also made of expensive durable materials such as titanium, beryllium and precious stones like rubies. This has also helped to boost the price to a greater extend.
Chinese Tourbillon Watches
China has a huge capacity of timepiece manufacturing. Every year the Chinese have produced more than 70% of all the watches and clocks consumed by the entire world. However they have not entered the luxury watch market until the beginning of the last decade. There are five Chinese watchmakers capable of making tourbillon mechanisms on a larger scale, namely Tianjin Sea-Gull, Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning and Dixmont. Thanks to the cheaper labor cost in China, Chinese tourbillon movements are considerably cheaper than their Swiss counterparts. To reduce the cost even further, they have used cheaper materials to make some parts that are considered “non-essential”. As the result, the average price of Chinese made tourbillon watches is only a fraction of a Swiss Made. For instance, Sea-Gull’s first double tourbillon watch, the ST8080G is priced at about $40,000 US Dollar.
How are Chinese tourbillons compared to Swiss tourbillons
Chinese tourbillons have made the ownership of such an amazing artwork possible for anyone without deep pockets. They are welcomed by millions of watch lovers worldwide. But are they any good? The feedback from watch connoisseurs have never reached a consensus. As a matter of fact, Chinese watches have inferior quality compared to Swiss watches. Some complained about them being noisy, some dislike the fact they are not as elegantly designed. However if the price difference is taken into consideration the Chinese watches are going to win on any day of the week. Although some Chinese tourbillons have found their way into luxury watch boutiques, the Chinese and Swiss watches are aimed at different buyers with distinct profiles after all.
Where to buy cheap Chinese tourbillons
If you have decided to buy a piece of Chinese tourbillon watch, where can you find them? Look no further, because of their affordable price, you may find them in your local watch shops or boutiques. These watches are Chinese branded watches with names such as “Sea-Gull”, “Beijing” and “Shanghai”. None of the Swiss brands are made or assembled in China. If someone tries to sell you a Swiss branded watch at the price of a Chinese tourbillon, please be alert. Most likely it is a replica, which does not worth your investment, steer clear of it. It may seem unlikely, but eBay is in fact another good place for buying Chinese tourbillons. On eBay you are dealing with Chinese retailers directly. You are most likely to find a cheaper tourbillon watch than your local shop. However, you should always check the seller’s feedback score and feedback comments before you part with your money. Shop around and compare lot of offers before buying is the best advice anyone would give you.