Weekly Watch Photo – Montblanc Tourbillon Bi-Cylindrique

04/04/2011 | By Frank Geelen | 2 min read |

Now Baselworld 2011 has just finished, it made me think of ‘the other’ watch fair, the SIHH and I stumbled across a perfect Weekly Watch Photo of the Montblanc Collection Villeret Tourbillon Bi-Cylindrique.

Montblanc is one of the brands exposing its novelties at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). This yearly watch fair takes place in Geneva and only brands of the Richemont Group expose at the SIHH. Now I’m just back from Baselworld I went through the photos and reports of the SIHH and found this beautiful close-up of the bi-cylindrical tourbillon that I just have to share with you.

The Montblanc Collection Villeret Tourbillon Bi-Cylindrique proves the high-end watchmaking skills of Montblanc as a watch manufacture. The new Tourbillon Bi-Cylndrique is exemplary of what the Montblanc Manufacture in Villeret, the former Minerva Manufacture, can do. In-house development, in-house production, movement finishing to the very highest degree and technical novelties are all part of what Montblanc offers. And this is remarkable and impressive for a relatively young watch brand.

Earlier I wrote about the Montblanc Collection Villeret Grand Tourbillon Heures Mysterieuses, which features the same ‘teardrop’ shaped case. And although its a rather large case, it sits remarkably comfortable on the wrist. And guess what… it also looks great on my wrist!

The beautifully executed tourbillon escapement occupies the upper part of the dial, which is actually the movement’s mainplate, that serves as the dial. Manufacture calibre M65.63 features two cylindrical balance-springs, positioned concentrically one inside the other, each spring has its own diameter, but both supply the movement with identical torque.

Expanding and contracting in an opposite phase, this design ensures a much flatter effective torque diagram. This is in fact the first wristwatch featuring such escapement, that was used only in ship’s chronometers. Here are some of the movement’s specifications.