Greubel Forsey is one of the those Swiss brands that doesn’t always get the recognition and credit it deserves.
But now the company is trying to change that by matching its amazing watchmaking abilities with good marketing.
This, for example, is the new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture, and it’s inspired by the visual cues of the landscape of a vibrant city.
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It’s spectacular. And spectacularly expensive at half a million dollars.
But we’ll talk about that in a second – let’s talk about the way it looks first.
So, what is a tourbillon?
The key selling point here is the skeletonized dial and the tourbillon movement that lies underneath it.
The tourbillon was invented in the late 1700s by Breguet and it was designed specifically for pocket watches, because wristwatches basically didn’t exist at the time.
The idea was that if you keep your watch in your pocket a lethal combination of vibrations and gravity will wear out certain components of your watch faster than others.
So, the tourbillon absorbs the shock by keeping the movement in constant motion.
Of course, this is not particularly useful in a wristwatch because, well, it goes on our wrist and our wrist is constantly in motion anyway, so the tourbillon is redundant.
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These days, it really only serves one purpose, and that is to showcase what the watch manufacturer can do.
Greubel Forsey is one of the most respected brands among those that make tourbillon movements and this timepiece is a testament to that.
What about the price?
We mentioned urban environments as an inspiration for this timepiece so let’s stay on topic.
Pick your favorite city in the world, and there’s a good chance you can afford to buy an apartment for the price of this watch.
It has a price tag of $500,000 and is limited to 65 examples. That combo is potentially quite appealing for wealthy collectors.
Still, having half a mill in the bank is not enough; prospective buyers will also need patience because the company won’t release all 65 pieces today.
Instead, it will only produce 11 units this year, and then 18 every year between 2023 and 2026.
