Milestones in artisanship.
The tourbillon crowns the BENU family. After all, the flying three-minute tourbillon with stop seconds is one of the most formidable challenges in horology.
The complex choreography of mechanical precision can be admired through the sapphire-crystal back. It expresses technical virtuosity and stands for traditional craftsmanship.
The novelties
Pairing the Grossmann balance with a tourbillon made it necessary to question some classic principles of horological design. For the BENU Tourbillon, key movement functions were reconceived to accommodate the aspirations of Grossmann’s watchmakers with respect to precision, efficiency, and aesthetics. The Grossmann three-minute tourbillon is based on the insights of respected Glashütte watchmaker Alfred Helwig, who developed the flying tourbillon. The unusual size and the seductive gestalt of the tourbillon are beautifully showcased with a longer periodicity. A patent-pending stop-seconds mechanism with a fine-tipped brush made of human hair completes this stunning tourbillon implementation. The BENU Tourbillon comes in an exclusive limited global edition of 50 watches.
The dial
The solid-silver dial is tripartite. Two recessed subsidiary dials with unambiguous scales and distinctly different hand shapes complement the minute indication from the centre. The aperture for the 16-millimetre tourbillon cage is unusually large thanks to the off-centre positions of the auxiliary dials for the seconds and hours. When the minute hand progresses into the tourbillon aperture, the missing ten-minute segment is replaced by the scale on the opposite side and swept by the extension of the hand. This delivers a clear reading of the time span from 25 to 35 minutes in the space between the subdials. A patent has been registered for this dual display function.
The winding crown and the pusher
The conical pusher adjacent to the crown reveals the presence of an ingenious handsetting mechanism: the Grossmann winder with pusher. A short tug on the crown switches to the handsetting mode and at the same time stops the movement. The crown immediately returns to its home position but can now be turned to set the hands. Then, the movement is restarted with the pusher and the mechanism switches back to the winding mode.
The hands
The steel hands with the wispy tips are crafted manually in-house and annealed to a brown-violet hue over an open flame.
The butterfly clasp
The butterfly clasp affords extra protection and remains firmly locked until the lateral safety buttons are pressed. It features an engraved logo and assures a particularly snug fit on the wrist.
