Thoughts On The Greubel Frosey Nano Foudroyante EWT

Whereas we all know Greubel Forsey for outsized and fairly outgoing wristwatches with not less than one, but often two or even four tourbillons, their newest timepiece appears average, each in measurement and in appears. Sure… let that sink in… The press launch is usually trumpeting about saving nano joules of vitality with their tenth basic invention, a particular energy-saving foudroyante. On a really private observe, I’ve to say, that I discover fast-rotating foudroyante palms visually annoying and distracting. So, reality be advised, the tenth Basic Invention from Greubel Forsey began – in my inbox – with a setback. Nonetheless, the case measurement talked about, 37.9mm (and that coming from Greubel Forsey), made me particularly curious to take a more in-depth look and see what it’s all about.

So… a a lot smaller Greubel Forsey. That in itself is already large (pun supposed) information. And to my shock, it’s their very first chronograph, one thing that’s nearly not underlined within the press launch! Plus, it’s their first flying tourbillon. Nonetheless, after seeing so many watches with a number of tourbillons from GF, you’ll nearly not be swept off your toes by a ‘easy’ flying tourbillon. And there’s extra right here as we’ll see later. However once more, a pleasantly sized, 37.9 mm in diameter and 10.5 mm thick, wrist chronograph from Greubel Forsey is already a severe novelty. And for the reason that model will not be solely recognized for including quite a lot of tourbillons to their watches, they’re additionally recognized for spectacular, finest at school, ending of the actions. So, altogether one thing that ought to be of curiosity to severe collectors – with a really severe funds.

What popped into my inbox:

Press launch: To rejoice the twentieth anniversary (2004-2024), Greubel Forsey presents its tenth Basic Invention: the Nano Foudroyante EWT. The mechanism’s vitality is managed on the nanojoule scale, considerably decreasing the variety of elements and the general dimensions. The result’s a 37.9mm timepiece that mixes the world’s first perpetual Nano Foudroyante with Greubel Forsey’s first flying tourbillon and handbook wind flyback. This timepiece, set in a white gold and tantalum case, will probably be restricted to only 11 items.

… This new Basic Invention is probably the most technologically disruptive—not just for Greubel Forsey but in addition for the universe of mechanical watchmaking. What’s nanomechanics? It’s a realm past the miniaturization of elements to the nanometric scale. Once we speak about nanomechanics, we’re speaking about controlling vitality on a nanojoule scale inside a mechanical motion. This revolution in vitality administration inside a caliber permits for a drastic discount in each vitality consumption and the variety of elements.

…and the press launch goes on about saving nano joules.

However let’s get again to what’s behind the fairly pompously named “tenth Basic Invention”. A foudroyante is a hand that completes a full rotation in a single second to show fractions of a second. The complication is normally integrated right into a chronograph to measure time intervals with better precision and/or legibility than a sole second hand would do. However that’s not the case right here, because the foudroyante hand will not be related to the chronograph and can’t be stopped. So when it comes to exact studying of the elapsed time very precisely, it’s ineffective.

Right here the foudroyante hand is related to the escapement (extra particulars additional down the article) and with its small foudroyante dial, it rotates fortunately in round actions atop the flying tourbillon whereas continually in a vertical orientation.

And if you happen to permit me a small digression, curiously early examples of a foudroyante had been made by Tixier (the great-grandfather of the independent watchmaker now working together with Dominique Renaud!) circa 1850 within the Val de Travers. These weren’t related to a chronograph operate both, nevertheless right here they served as a easy second hand. Its mechanism consisted of “merely” mounting a hand on its 4-toothed escapement wheel that was rotating as soon as per second with its 14.400vph frequency (visualised within the drawing beneath).

Again to trendy days and Greubel Forsey, what they’ve carried out to drive the foudroyante deserves a more in-depth look, though not a lot is talked about within the press launch. The system appears to be derived from their 2017 Nano release (patent EP 3220207 A1) referring to the creation of a show mechanism for a system driving by means of a primary toothing and comprising a second toothing; a brilliant small gear module, to drive a show immediately or not directly. The intention of it’s to permit a measurement discount and subsequently a discount of inertia and vitality consumption. EWT stands for Distinctive Wheel Expertise, to make clear.

For the foudroyante, the concept is to use these “nano-mechanics” on to the escapement wheel (axis) to drive 6 jumps per second. Within the occasion of this new 2024 Foudroyante, the show is now not lateral, thus seen by way of a gap of the case flank, by means of a loupe.

As a substitute, it makes use of a devoted set of gears, a differential, to show it “dial facet” – which is far more sensible. A further problem for GF was to embed this right into a flying tourbillon, creating an meeting that may be small and lightweight sufficient. One could surprise if it is sensible to include such an meeting in a tourbillon whose goal is to enhance precision – one thing that has at all times been a very severe matter at Greubel Forsey.

What will be the affect on the watch’s precision of this additional ‘burden’ on such a important component of the escapement? The Tourbillon cage finally ends up at 142 components! The model reassured us that it was mild sufficient to make sure that chronometry was not disturbed. And that they’d have by no means moved ahead if it did. In any case, the entire concept of this “nano” idea is to exhibit the capability to miniaturize mechanisms. So, if I’m not absolutely satisfied by the Foudroyante performance right here, the complexity of this flying tourbillon and the technical feat in itself is fairly spectacular.

One other feat on one of many details of this tenth basic invention, as defined by the press launch, is a “revolution in vitality administration”. The foudroyante is historically an vitality grasping mechanism and the miniaturization carried out by GF is, as soon as once more, fairly spectacular.

Nonetheless, this identical press launch mentions an influence reserve of solely 24 hours when the chronograph is operating which sounds a bit disappointing. We needed to verify this with the model… They usually knowledgeable us that the ability reserve was truly approx. 40 hours, however talked about within the press launch is a “chronometric energy reserve” – 24-hour to make sure good chronometric efficiency and so they encourage customers to maintain their watch correctly wound.

Now that now we have talked in regards to the foudroyante, I want to say a number of phrases in regards to the excellent chronograph itself; Greubel Forsey’s first chronograph! And once more the press launch has nearly no data besides that it’s a “handbook wind flyback”. As if GF’s first chronograph is a facet concern…

Greubel Forsey’s first chronograph ought to be large information, though the factor that triggered me was the concise measurement because the phrase “chronograph” is absent in the whole press launch. The motion measures solely 31mm in diameter and is subsequently sufficiently small to slot in a fantastic, reasonably sized watch. The compact calibre, with 428 elements, is a hand-wound column-wheel actuated flyback chronograph with a vertical clutch. The motion gives a panoramic view of the standard top-notch Greubel-Forsey finishes; beautiful chamfers, the ending of the surfaces and the chatons. There are a number of troublesome internal angles, however nothing too complicated at first sight. Perhaps the chamfers on the lengthy curves are tougher to acquire by hand.

The case is crafted in white gold, whereas the bezel and caseback are crafted from tantalum. It comes on a hand-sewn non-animal materials strap with a white gold folding clasp that’s engraved with the model’s GF monogram. Restricted to 11 items solely, it’s priced at CHF 465,000.

For extra data, please go to Greubel-Forsey.com.