Happy Birthday Alfred Helwig, Inventor of Flying Tourbillon
Today is the birthday of Alfred Helwig (July 5, 1886), the inventor of the Flying Tourbillon. Standing on the shoulder of giants such as A.L. Breguet and F. Vetterlein, in 1922 while he was an instructor at the German school of watchmaking in Glashütte, he invented the flying tourbillon with a 5 minute rotation, where the primary distinction is that the balance and escapement is only supported on one side improving the tourbillon’s rate.
While useful for counteracting the negative effects of gravity on single oriented pocket watch, a tourbillons use in wrist watches is more of a cool kinetic art complication that can be used to tick off the seconds when implemented with a 60 second rotation. His tourbillon variant is now mass produced such that a watch geek today won’t be comparing the price against a new Tesla, but rather against the price of a turtle or G-shock.
Helwig retired from watchmaking in 1954 and passed away in 1974
I’m a software engineer and watch enthusiast. I’m not excited about brand or heritage, but rather engineering tech.... spring drive, solar GPS, electrostatic drive, transistor tuning fork regulation,...
Interesting stuff, thank you 👍🏻
Thx for this! And his name ofc lives on in the Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking in Glasshütte - and in the Glashutte Original Alfred Helwig Tourbillon 1920:
Despite my better judgment I just ordered a Swiss silicon-Ti tourbillon, designed and built completely in house by Horage
- apparently it’s the ‘flying’ variety, so thanks for this bit of history!
Despite my better judgment I just ordered a Swiss silicon-Ti tourbillon, designed and built completely in house by Horage
- apparently it’s the ‘flying’ variety, so thanks for this bit of history!
Congratulations! I’m looking forward to your NWA post and hearing what you think.
Congratulations! I’m looking forward to your NWA post and hearing what you think.
It’s a pre order with a looong lead time, which suits me as I need to save up. It’ll be my priciest watch purchase. I’m not expecting until after the summer.
But yes, I will make a big hullabaloo when I get it 😉