Here is a rare, mechanically accurate representation of Greubel Forsey’s patented Double Tourbillon 30°, the independent brand’s first technological achievement. This piece was created out of Meccano, a toy model construction system, to celebrate Greubel Forsey 10th year. The model, operated by a hand crank, replicates the functioning of the Double Tourbillon 30°, much like the original model Stephen Forsey, a childhood Meccano enthusiast, built as a proof of concept for the technology back in 2002.

The Double Tourbillon 30° was a bold statement of intent by Robert Greubel and Steven Forsey as they launched their new independent brand. The French and English watchmakers, who met during their time working at Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi in the early 1990s, announced their venture with the launch of a watch which had at its heart a reimagined vision of the tourbillon.

The tourbillon is the arrangement of the key timekeeping components of a mechanical movement – the balance and the escapement – in a rotating cage, to negate the effects of gravitational forces on them when a pocket watch was left in any one fixed position for a length of time. This, Abraham Louis Breguet, the man who invented the technology, proposed would create an average rate for all positions that the pocket watch could be oriented in, aiding overall accuracy of timekeeping.

Greubel Forsey reimagined the technology for the wristwatch, orienting the tourbillon 30° to the vertical axis, with an inner cage rotating once a minute fitted inside an outer cage going the same distance every four minutes. The result is a level of chronometry very few mechanical movements can achieve, averaging timekeeping accuracy of ±1 second over the course of 24 hours.

Once the idea was conceived, Forsey tested the concept by creating a model out of Meccano, much like the one on offer here. To mark Greubel Forsey’s 10th year, the brand created 150 models like the original, using Meccano pieces sourced from websites such as eBay. As a consequence, almost each model is unique in the components that have been used to create them. These were gifted to a select group of customers.

This model offers those enamoured by the mechanics of watchmaking the rare opportunity to closely examine and study one of the most advanced tourbillon architectures created to date.

Closer look

Conditions

The model is in excellent condition and the lever operating the patented the Double Tourbillon 30° moves smoothly. Some of the Meccano parts have age related patina, consistent with their vintage provenance. The model has been cleaned and is fully functional.