EXCLUSIVELY
TOURBILLON
Every Bianchet timepiece is built around a single mechanical principle: the tourbillon. Making it the foundation of our entire collection​. Each movement is developed and produced in-house, allowing full control over the architecture, performance, and finishing.
The Origin of the Tourbillon
At the end of the eighteenth century, mechanical watches were worn almost exclusively in a vertical position, kept close to the body in a waistcoat pocket. In this orientation, gravity acted continuously on the balance wheel and escapement, introducing small but persistent rate variations that even the most accomplished watchmakers of the era could not overcome.
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In 1801, Abraham-Louis Breguet patented his answer to this problem. His invention placed the balance wheel, escapement, and their supporting components inside a rotating carriage that turned continuously on its own axis, averaging out the effects of gravity over time and bringing a new level of consistency to the rate of the watch.
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The construction demanded an entirely different order of manufacturing precision. The rotating cage had to be perfectly poised, and every component within it assembled with a level of accuracy that left no margin for error. A tourbillon even fractionally out of balance would perform worse than the problem it was designed to solve. For this reason, they were produced in very limited numbers and reserved for the most prestigious commissions.
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Over the centuries that followed, the tourbillon grew from a technical response into one of the most revered constructions in haute horlogerie. Today it represents something that transcends its original purpose, uniting precision, architectural beauty, and continuous motion at the very heart of the movement.
In-House Tourbillon Manufacture
Each movement at Bianchet is conceived from the ground up, the mainplate, bridges, gear train, escapement, balance wheel, and tourbillon carriage all designed in relation to one another from the outset.
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Production takes place entirely within the atelier. Components are first machined on CNC equipment before passing to the hand bevellers, who apply the cerclage decoration and finish each surface by hand before a single part reaches the assembly bench.
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Titanium is among the most demanding materials to work with at this scale, less forgiving and more resistant than the alloys commonly found in fine watchmaking.​
Redefining the Tourbillon
The tourbillon has long been regarded as horology's most fragile achievement. Suspended within a cage rotating once per minute, the mechanism is so sensitive that most manufacturers encase their movements in protective architecture simply to survive daily wear.
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The calibre at the heart of each Bianchet watch is an ultrathin flying tourbillon engineered to withstand 5,000G of shock force, a figure that places it 25 percent beyond the safety industry standard. At 3.85 mm, achieving that level of shock resistance is a feat of engineering.​​
Titanium Architecture
Every structural component of the Bianchet calibre is machined in titanium, including the tourbillon cage itself. The cage benefits directly from titanium's reduced mass, placing less strain on the mainspring and contributing to more consistent power delivery. The anti-magnetic properties extend throughout the entire architecture, not as an after-the-fact feature, but as a consequence of how the movement was conceived from the beginning.
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Titanium is significantly lighter than steel, corrosion-resistant, and offers a natural resistance to magnetic fields that steel cannot match. For a movement worn daily, in the electromagnetic environment of modern life.