Lume Workshop / Interactive model
Understand the tourbillon
Start with what makes a watch tick. Then rotate its regulator, follow the energy supply and explore what rotation can actually change.
Understand the tourbillon
Start with what makes a watch tick. Then rotate its regulator, follow the energy supply and explore what rotation can actually change.
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The balance swings; the spring returns it
The large wheel turns back and forth rather than continuously around. The fine spiral is the hairspring. Together they establish the watch’s repeating rhythm.
In 1 minute: 1 carriage turn · 240 oscillations · 480 half-oscillations
Energy path
Winding stores energy in the mainspring, not in the balance’s hairspring.
In the conventional construction, the escape-wheel pinion travels with the carriage while engaging this stationary wheel.
Functional diagram. Arrows show relationships, not gear-tooth contacts.
Outside view: where is the axis?
The large ring is the dial plane; its marker follows carriage rotation. The selected scenario determines the orientation of the complete watch.
Without carriage rotation
- Rate at this instant
- s/day
- Average over elapsed time
- s/day
With a rotating carriage
- Rate at this instant
- s/day
- Average over elapsed time
- s/day
A +10 s/day rate means the watch would gain ten seconds if that rate remained unchanged for a full day. It does not mean ten seconds were gained during this minute.
Four positions, equal time
The table shows the upright example at quarter turns. The average is not calculated from four samples: it integrates the full rate curve over time.
| Model time | Carriage angle | Instantaneous rate |
|---|---|---|
| 0° | +10 s/day | |
| 90° | +2 s/day | |
| 180° | -6 s/day | |
| 270° | +2 s/day |
Average over a full minute: {rate} s/day. Averaging positional variation does not itself correct the baseline error.
Your own experiment and rate plot
These sliders change the invented rate example only, not the balance frequency or carriage period.
Solid: rotating carriage · Dashed: without rotation (s/day)
Eight-times slow motion makes the balance visible; the carriage barely moves.
Motion paused.
Check your understanding
Choose an answer to reveal the explanation.
What did we simplify?
An original teaching diagram, not a dismantlable digital replica of a specific watch. Components, teeth and layers are not to scale. Spring deformation, lever action and escape-wheel steps are indicative, not a dynamics, friction or contact simulation. Rate data are assumed, not measured.
Rate-example formula
r = b + 3 cos²α + A sin²α cos(β + φ)
α is the angle between the carriage axis and gravity; β is case azimuth; φ is carriage angle. Rotation does not remove the separate horizontal term. Curves are averaged over elapsed time.
An original educational illustration, not a complete simulation of a particular calibre.
What does a tourbillon rotate, and which error does it leave unchanged?
What to observe
Follow five steps from the balance to the spatial view. Compare rapid oscillation with the slow carriage rotation, then compare the average in upright and horizontal positions.
Model limitations
An original teaching diagram with invented rate data, not a gear-contact, energy or accuracy simulation of a production calibre.
Understand how it works
The tourbillon paradox: why we love a mechanism the wrist no longer needs in quite the same way ↗
Find the detailed explanation, technical background and sources in the accompanying article.
More models in the Workshop ↗Share preview image: Photographs and archival drawing: Montres Breguet. Editorial composition: Lume, using authentic watch photographs. · Image use approved by the site owner.