Things You Never Knew...

since it's the friday after a public holiday lots of people at the office took advantage of getting a super-long weekend with just one day's leave, i didn't get to meet my pupil master nor my mentor. in fact 3/4 of my team was away.

which resulted in a lot of time sitting around doing nothing. to be specific, sitting in the recep area on the 17th floor and perusing the publications placed there for goodness knows who to read. Harper's Bazaar's (so many posessives!) watch guide pour homme 2006 is a decently interesting read. And while reading it i learned about...

A tourbillon (IPA: [toɹ bi ˈjɑn], French for "whirlwind")...

... a type of mechanical clock or watch escapement invented in 1795 by Abraham-Louis Breguet that is designed to counter the effects of gravity and other perturbing forces that can affect the accuracy of a chronometer. This is accomplished by mounting the escapement in a rotating frame, so that the effect of gravity cancels out when the escapement is rotated 180°. The effects of gravity were particularly problematic when pocketwatches were carried in the same pocketed position for most of the day. In a tourbillon, the entire escapement assembly rotates, including balance wheel, escapement wheel, and pallet fork. The rate of rotation varies per design but has generally become standardized at one rotation per minute.

In a nutshell, how cool is that! I want a watch with one.

Addendum - Swiss-made tourbillon wristwatches are very expensive, typically retailing for tens of thousands of dollars. Oh well.