Thematic Auction in Geneva:The Evolut...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Nov 16, 2002

LOT 445

Glasshütter Uhrenbetriebe GUB, No. 39, recent production.Fine large model of Helwig's flying tourbillon with free-sprung spring detent escapement in original mahogany box.

CHF 10,000 - 15,000

EUR 6,700 - 10,000

Sold: CHF 20,700

C. Wooden, darkened molded base, glazed dome. M. Circular brushed brass full plate, cylindrical pillars secured by screws, going barrel, tourbillon arbor between the potence and the plate, pinion fixed with a pin protruding through the axis, three-arm Hellwig-type carriage with Earnshw type escapement, bimetallic balance with temperature and mean-time adjustments screws, blued steel freesprung balance spring.Signed on the bottom plate, described and numbered on the top.Dim. Height 13 mm, base 20 cm diam..


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Grading System
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2

Very good

Notes

In the early 1920's Albert Helwig, technical director of the Deutsche Uhrmacherschule invented what is now commonly known as the flying tourbillon: "?My idea of constructing the free-standing cage that is without a bridge, was to make a tourbillon as flat as possible ? The weight of the cage is only 700 milligrams; no one believed that it would be strong enough. Therefore, I tied a string on one side of the cage and another one on the other side but with a weight of 250 grams. I then hung this ithe display case at the entrance hall to the Deutsche Uhrmacherschule and left it hanging there for four weeks, which stopped all critics?"Flying Tourbillon.As opposed to regular tourbillon regulators in which the carriage is fitted in a plate and secured by a bridge, in flying tourbillons, the lower bearing of the carriage is fitted in the plate in the regular way, the upper bearing is fitted beneath the carriage, and the carriage is built around a free (flying) arbor. On the top of the carriage, there are neither pivot nor bridge.