Shaping the Tourbillon: The Unsigned Carriages
This series explores the often-uncredited work of specialist watchmakers who designed and built the tourbillon carriages, the rotating cages housing the balance and escapement. Their craftsmanship was crucial to the success of brands that sold these watches, yet their own names rarely appeared on the finished movements. The opening installment delves into how their contributions entered the watchmaking trade and the challenges in precisely identifying these makers.
The work of carriage makers like Ernest Guinand, Auguste Grether, and Albert and James C. Pellaton established the reputations of brands selling tourbillon watches, but their names were seldom featured on the movements.
A 1914 report in Der Bund noted that Albert Pellaton made the tourbillons for several watches exhibited at the Swiss national exhibition, including those by Paul Ditisheim, Zenith, and Girard-Perregaux, yet these watches only bore the names of the exhibiting f
Recognition for carriage makers was rare; for instance, when Paul Ditisheim's chronometer No. 16'639 achieved a high score in 1903, the Revue internationale de l’horlogerie credited Albert Pellaton for the escapement, but this was an exceptional case.
In the 1929 Geneva observatory trials, Patek Philippe won top prizes for tourbillon pocket chronometers regulated by François Modoux, with results naming the firm and the régleur, but collectors and auctioneers later attributed the carriages to makers like Jam
Abraham-Louis Breguet filed a patent for his 'Régulateur à Tourbillon' in 1800, claiming invention in the balance's continuous rotation alongside its oscillation.
Early tourbillons made by makers in Le Locle, such as Urban Jürgensen and Jacques-Frédéric Houriet, initially carried their own names, but this practice changed as the tourbillon became a more commercial product.
The establishment of the Cantonal Observatory of Neuchâtel in 1858 provided watchmakers with accurate time signals for regulation and a facility for testing chronometers.