Autoblog

This is a tourbillon. Nobody needs a tourbillon – it's sort of like the supercar of watches. And nobody really needs a supercar. You can get a rally-tuned all-wheel-drive four-door Japanese family sedan that will get you from A to B just as fast, and with less fuss. Likewise you could get a digital Casio that will tell you the time just as well. What the tourbillon and the exotic supercar have in common is that X-factor that sets it apart from the rest. Fitting, then, that this is no ordinary tourbillon; this is the Aston Martin tourbillon.

The tourbillon mechanism was originally developed for pocket watches, which, sitting in the same position most of the time, would throw off the balance of the mechanism over time. The highly complicated tourbillon, French for "whirlwind", involves a mechanism that rotates inside the case, counteracting the effects of gravity. The Jaeger LeCoultre AMVOX 3 Tourbillon GMT you see here showcases the company's own proprietary JLC caliber 988 tourbillon movement, which features an AM/PM indicator and a 48-hour power reserve. Oh, and that second hand? That's not a second hand. It indicates the time in a second time zone...handy for the world traveler. The seconds are indicated by the rotation of the movement itself. The mechanism is housed in a black ceramic and 18-karat rose gold case sandwiched between sapphire crystals. The strap is perforated with contrasting white top-stitching, just in case the watch wasn't desirable enough already. But you can keep dreaming: only 300 are being made, and with fine tourbillons typically selling for five figures, don't be expecting one as a retirement gift from the company pension plan.

[Source: Sybarites]