Tourbillon Watch question

My understanding is that there are some chinese made turbillons in the cheaper range, but I haven't heard as cheap as $150. I thought they were in the $800-$1000 range. Don't know how good they are, but they are probably adequate.

 

A $150 tourbillon is like a $7.99 bottle of wine.

 

I think it's even worst.

More like a $150 Ferrari 550 maranello.

 

Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes.

No. Tourbillions (luxury watches in general) are expensive because of marketing. Nothing else. Don't ever believe the cost/difficulty of making the movement arguement.

Girard perregaux tourbillon with three golden bridges. About $50-80K.

One from Patek will set you back $225K.

 

Tourbillions are effectively worthless nowadays, unless you like shoving a $225,000 watch into people's faces and explaining to them that, while the watch looks like nothing special, it is actually worth more than their wife.

The whole point of a tourbillion was to allow pocketwatches to remain accurate while in a pocket with 12 pointed up. As nobody (save my stepfather) uses a pocketwatch anymore, the only purpose of a tourbillion is to make rich dudes jealous.

The "flying bridge" looks cool, but so does a finished skeltonized swiss movement.

 

the most affordable tourbillion is the Jaeger Master Tourbillon.....30k euro.
in the days of cnc machining all watches should come down in price as the designing and manufacturing is so much easier. but the don't.

if you insist on a tourbilon go with on of the big 3 names...AP, Patek or Breguet.

then again you might want to consider a perpetual calendar...complicated movement and so much more useful.

IWC has a nice Portuguese Tourbillon as well.....

 

I have to disagree here. The fit and finish and delicate nature of a Tourb in a wristwatch size case is really quite a feat. Now is that worth $100+k who knows but probably if a standard manual wind is worth $20k.

IMO, they are for people who appreciate the engineering of it and marvel at the piece. People who want to show off buy watches with a brand name and diamonds not complications.

Possibly my favorite watch ever (that I will never own)

-dsd
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My fav as well (A. Lange & Sohne that is).

This is on my wish-list:
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First $150.00 Tourbillions even Chinese are not real Tourbillons. They just have the look of them at the front. A real Chinese Tourbillion watch would actually cost about $500.00 this would be for one with a very low grade/brand movement. Of course a Chinese example would be the cheapest. I know as I looked into having some made in China and brought in about a year ago. Those this would have cost about 1k as I would have used one of the best brands and grades of Chinese movements. But I decided to let that good idea die. =) Also a word of advice for those who might be thinking of buying a German brand of watch. Many of them are really Chinese. In Germany the laws are so lax that companies can get away with this sort of thing so buyer beware.

Best Regards,

Thomas Carey

 

There are many fake tourbillons. I even saw a "quartz-tourbillion" -- basically a fake tourbillion using quartz technology.

I think unless you get the real tourbillons, it's not worth the money. If you want to invest some $$$, I think Breguet makes one of the most beautiful tourbillions.

 

I am afraid I have not shoot down the statement that " basically a fake tourbillion using quartz technology. ". I am sorry sir but this is just not correct. In fact most of the fakes are really automatic just as Tourbillons are which really adds to the confusion. This is why many will think they have a real Tourbillon as it's self winding and I can see the tourbillon on my dial (Most of which are indeed fake.).

I agree with you about Breguet as well. They invented them in the first place and actually only produce a few thousand at most in a year. I believe it actually takes them about a week to build a watch with this type of movement. This movement is quite complex and it takes great hand fitting and adjustment by the most capable watchmakers to do it properly. That being said there are plenty of other higher end brands like Lange that also make an equally fine Torubillon.

Best Regards,

Thomas Carey

 

I have two Trias Tourbillions and they work great. <$300 ea.

 

I have had those as well and they are not real they just have the look but are really just regular auto's.

However after checking again it appears that some of those do have the real functional Torubillon movement. So whoops I stand corrected! =)

Here are some threads you might be interested in. Of course you do realize the tourbillon movements in those are Chinese movements and of varying quality.

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=104753&highlight=trias+tourbillon

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=31280&highlight=trias+tourbillon



Best Regards,

Thomas Carey

 

Thomas is right - Tourbillion watches under about $750 are not true tourbillions. The Chinese made tourbillions start on average at $750 and go up to about $2500 depending on the fit and finish. They work fine, but can have spotty QC at times. Also, if you have an issue, good luck getting it serviced.

The watch out for Made in Germany argument is silly. There are tons of companies who claim Made in Germany, Swiss Made, etc who use some Chinese parts, but if you do your research before jumping, plenty of true Swiss and German made watches powered by a ETA 2824 movement can be had in the $500-$2500 range no problem.

If you really want a mechanical watch that will hold up for under $300, I highly suggest you look at Seikos, Citizen, Orient, & Vostock. The PMWF poor man's watch forum is an excellent resource for low end watches.

If you really want something in an auto that has some "panache" but won't rape your bank account, look at some of the Tags, Wenger/Swiss Army autos, etc.

One of the dealers here looks like they carry quite a few brands of luxury watches that are reasonably priced. Good luck in your search, PM me if I can answer any questions for you.

 

You are bang on sir. According to surveys done recently by a leading trade publication the $200.00 - $600.00 price range is strong now as many move down to lower priced watches. The brand that seemed to be the hottest based on what I saw was in fact Swiss Army, Followed by, Citizen, Seiko, Orient, Bulova, etc. Interesting to note here as well the Citizen Holdings owns Seiko, Citizen, Orient, Bulova, Accutron, Wittnauer, Caravelle, plus movement maker Miyota. If you look at the brands that are strong for many retailers now you will see Citizen owns quite a few of the strongest selling brands at the moment. German laws are so darn lax just about any Chinese watch can be called German made. While I do have to say watches that are called Swiss Made Can still be tricky but there are rules here that are much tighter. http://www.fhs.ch/en/swissm.php You can check out that link which also links to other pages which states what is required to say a certain components is Swiss such as the movement. The rule now is pretty much this. In order to be called Swiss made a watch has to be 51% Swiss made. There was a recent push to get this number up to about 80%. This has been shelved for the time being. Another thing folks should know as just because two different watches have an ETA 2824-2 which is the most common now of the Swiss movements. Does not mean they are identical. There are about four different grades in this and other Swiss movements. This is the same story for Chinese movements some of which are getting to be quite good while others are rubbish. As I like to say an informed buyer is a wise buyer.

Best Regards,

Thomas Carey

 

Any tips on how to differentiate between the grades?

 

Usually there are certain shock protections that are offered with higher grades, along with a higher level of decoration. (not always)

I would pick out a watch you have an interest in, and search the major forums such as WUS, TZ, & PMWF for info. An honest dealer can help you as well.

FYI - even the lowest level ETA movements keep excellent time/reliable and are an industry standard for that reason.

 

Learn about different finishing standards and methods used on all watches, this will help you learn about all watches. This isn't something you learn overnight. Go to local watch shops and check out cheap and expensive watches and compare them. Some good advice on here, go to timezone and other forums and read, read, read.

Here is one by Parmigiani with Minute repeater with Westminster chime and second timezone. I had one in rose gold the sound was amazing!
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Ray is correct. It's best to take the time to learn what's out there before making a purchase. It does take quite awhile as well to get to speed on things. As far as the grades in movements go it's not always easy to tell what you have while the movements in the watch. That's really something you should as the manufacterer of the brand. The watch Ray posted is a real sweet timepiece! =)


Best Regards,

Thomas Carey