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The Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Seconds Vision Is a Normal Watch, by Greubel Standards
Nov
The Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Seconds Vision costs roughly a quarter of a million dollars. At that price, and with that name on the dial, you might expect more to be going on when you look at it from the front. Then you turn it over and find a sapphire bubble rising off the back of the case.
That bubble exists because of one specific problem Greubel Forsey wanted to solve, and it explains most of the design.
Why the Tourbillon 24 Seconds Vision Has a Sapphire Dome
Greubel Forsey wanted to put their kind of watchmaking into a thinner, more traditional case. The tourbillon made that hard. Theirs sits at a 25-degree angle, and a tilted cage needs more vertical room than one lying flat.
The easy answer would have been a thicker watch. They went another way. They set the tourbillon deeper into the movement, then built the dome on the back to give that one part the clearance it needs. The rest of the case gets to stay slim.
I love that kind of thinking. Instead of letting one component dictate the whole watch, they made room for it right where it lives.
What the Dome Does for the View From the Front
The dome does more than make space. It forms its own glass chamber around the tourbillon, and that chamber lets light in from behind the movement.
You notice it most when you look through the dial. There’s real depth there, the kind a flat caseback can’t give you. Tilt the watch against different backgrounds and the light around the cage shifts each time. I could sit and play with it for a while.
A 25-Degree Tourbillon That Turns Every 24 Seconds
A traditional tourbillon makes one full turn every 60 seconds and sits flat in the movement. This one tilts the cage to 25 degrees and spins it once every 24 seconds.
Both of those choices chase the same goal. A tourbillon is there to reduce the effect of gravity on the movement as the watch sits in different positions on your wrist and on the nightstand. Inclining the cage and speeding it up is Greubel Forsey’s way of taking that idea further than the classic design does. I’ll leave the performance claims to them, but the reasoning is easy to follow once you see the cage moving.
If the mechanics are what pull you in, that’s a big part of why watchmaking matters more to collectors these days.
Understated From the Front, a Show From the Back
The understated look is my favorite thing about this watch. From across the room it reads like a dress watch, with hours and minutes plus a small seconds subdial. Nothing about it shouts.
Get closer and you catch the tourbillon turning on the dial. Turn it over and the caseback gives you the 72-hour power reserve display, along with hand finishing that moves from silver to blue.
For Greubel Forsey, this is the more normal watch, which still makes me laugh. Most brands would build an entire launch around a piece like this, and it’s what Greubel makes when they want something you can wear with a suit.
Independent Watchmaking at TNS
If independent watchmaking is what you collect, I’d like to hear what you’re hunting for. Stop in at 136 S. 8th Street on Jewelers’ Row, or browse our watches page to see what’s in the case right now.
For more from makers working outside the big houses, read our piece on the Krayon Anyday and why collectors are going independent.
