Tourbillon Movements

Bullseye1

Since their Swiss counterparts are expensive have any of you guys considered buying a non Swiss Tourbillon watch?

I see there was some discussion as to whether these cheaper made Tourbs from China would create another problem for the Swiss watch manuafacturers.
http://rolex.watchprosite.com/?show=forumpost&msid=317682&ti=287901&fi=128&pi=1878396

What kind of reviews have these watches received?

Bullseye1

Some affordable watches.
http://www.perpetual-watch.com/tourbillon.html

marcus1971

The first link you posted is a bit off moneywise for the Chinese tourbys, the Rolex site posts estimates of <$750, and that would be about right.

There seems to be a lot of pro and anti propaganda floating about in different discussion groups about these new(ish) Chinese movements,
there was an accusation a while back in a few threads on WUS as to the fact that some of the smaller Swiss brands were using these movements with a bit of finishing and pawning them off as Swiss made Tourbillons, the "Swiss made" variants were, naturally, very expensive, some north of 10,000 while the almost identical Chinese releases were at the time around $500-$600, the Swiss models had the usual 1-2 year warranty whilst the Chinese versions had a lifetime warranty attached, you just paid for servicing and any repairs that would ever be needed were to be free of charge...... don't know the figures relating to dependability, I do know that it would be practically impossible to find a watchmaker to repair what is bound to be a fairly highly strung movement based on the fact that firstly most average watchmakers couldnt fix one and if they could the cost would be prohibitive and secondly the fact that there are probably no parts available to fix them with.

The lifetime warranty (if its even still included) looks good on paper, but means posting your watch to China and hoping that wherever you bought it from is still in business, although replacement movements are supposed to be down to $150-$200 for some variants, so thats really only Eta money.

Although this is based on opinion from articles I was reading well over a year ago....I'm sure lots has changed since then


If I had money to throw around I would consider one maybe for the novelty value, I wouldn't expect it to be any kind of investment nor would I expect to still have it working in 10 years.


There are also the other Chinese tourbillons, the ones that are less than $100, but really is just a balance on display, like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mens-Automatic-Mechanical-Wrist-Watch-Tourbillon-Luminous-Skeleton-Gift-/230673601082?pt=Wristwatches&hash=item35b537d23a

I'm sure they fool plenty of people who think that they have gotten the deal of the century on whats only barely worth the shipping

Bullseye1

It sounds like a bad investment if it's not going to be working in 10 years. It it the case that you would also need to send your Swiss Tourb back to Swizerland too or could it be repaired in Ireland or UK?

marcus1971

Bullseye1 wrote: »

It sounds like a bad investment if it's not going to be working in 10 years. It it the case that you would also need to send your Swiss Tourb back to Swizerland too or could it be repaired in Ireland or UK?

Well, not saying that it won't last 10 years....I just wouldn't expect it to.

Well, If you bought one of the Swiss models and forked ou the big money for it....... 7k, 8k 10k, 12k...... I would imagine they would of course manage to fix it for you somehow and shipping to Switzerland is no big hassle these days, I wouldnt send my Omegas anywhere else but back to the factory.

There probably is a handful of watchmakers across the UK that would manage to fix one for you, but considering that most traditional tourbillons start at over $50,000 - Jaeger, Patek, Omega etc. If you consider that a middle of the road brand like Omega will charge up to $1,000 to service some of their chronos, what do you think the repair bill on a tourbillon from a specialist would be?

If I was going to buy one of the cheap Tourbys I would pony up for an extra movement and just stash it away in case of emergency.....if they are now down to $150-$200 for the movement it would be a good insurance policy if you did someday try to get it fixed and couldn't....that and the fact that any service, anywhere, for even a basic watch is going to cost $300 (200 euros...... I don't have a Euro symbol on my computer so I always convert to $$$)

Are you itching to buy one?

PM me if you want a link to where you can get some...kinda in the same vein as your Getat

artem

I have a MontieK tourbillon with seagull movement. They were featured on Bloomberg a while ago, which is how I found them. They use chinese materials and movements but apply european quality standards to them which makes every single penny worth it. The accuracy of the watch is very good as well as the service so far. I got an e-mail after a month if I was happy with the watch and service which shows their dedication to happy watchfans.

Wristshot:

Bullseye1

That's a very classy looking watch. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Bullseye1

These are very reasonably priced.
http://www.flyingtourbillon.com/order-form