The ‘’ Tourbillon of Tourbillons ‘’ is a triple tourbillion escapement design which was built on an idea that was born in 2004 and required a ten year period to fully realize. Sporting three one-minute tourbillon regulators mounted on a main plate that revolves once every 10 minutes ( making it an orbital, triple tourbillion ), the Tourbillon of Tourbillons won both the Innovation and Public Prizes at last year’s Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.
Preziuso is a Geneva based, independent watchmaker which begun his career in early 1980s. He became more prominent in 1990s upon his fascinating timepieces featuring tourbillion escapements, a notable achievement back when the complication was still extremely rare.
He is best known with the timepiece Harry Winston Opus 2 Tourbillon.
As an expert in designing Tourbillon movements, Preziuso takes the complication to an extreme level with the Tourbillon of Tourbillons that sports a trio of tourbillons joined by a differential in the centre.
Initially released in 2005 as the 3volution Triple Tourbillon, the watch had a great success. In fact, it was based on a technology which was abandoned due to the reliability issues. The success was refining that technology by adding a differential after years of research and development.
The timepiece features 570 individual parts which is roughly equivalent to the number in a grand complication with a minute repeater, perpetual calendar and tourbillion. The movement has been named the AFP-TTR-3X, with “AFP” stands for “Antoine and Florian Preziuso”. It was a manual-wound movement with an impressive 48-hour power reserve thanks to the twin barrels.
As mentioned before there are three tourbillions in the movement with their individual cages making one rotation a minute. They are placed half way away from each other on the same main plate that itself rotates, making six rotations every hour, or one every 10 minutes.
Preziuso states, while the frequency of each balance wheel is 3 Hz (or 21,600 vph), the actual frequency is slightly higher due to the aspect of vibration. It is basically the same work principle that derives the F.P. Journe Resonance wristwatch. Since the oscillating balance wheels are located so close to each other, the vibrations transmitted through the main plate and air inside the watch cause all the balance wheels to combine on a naturally occurred frequency.
Initially released in 2015 in the glamorous Power GTS case with bared screws, the triple tourbillon has been face lifted this year to give it a cleaner style. Named the Chronometer Tourbillon of Tourbillons, the latest version is housed in a large case with a diameter of 48 mm. However the stainless steel case now features more simple lines and a cool looking satin brushed finish, ensuring all the attention to be focused on the triple tourbillons.
The Antoine Preziuso Chronometer Tourbillon of Tourbillons in stainless steel retails for 420,000 CHF with a variety of customization in terms of case materials and colors.
