Omega's Understated Tourbillon Watch Was Way Ahead of its Time in 1947

The tourbillon could be considered a kind of watch escapement In the 1940s the tourbillon was a rare and largely forgotten curiosity of horological history, mostly found only in the occasional pocket watch Omega experimented with a wristwatch-sized tourbillon escapement meant to compete in third-party trials for "Observatory chronometers" - watches that passed these tests and were given this designation would give Omega a legitimate claim to high accuracy and marketing clout.

Omega's tourbillon movements were built to high standards and did well in the trials, but such competitions were essentially meant for R&D purposes as well as overall brand prestige - they were mostly never even put in watch cases Today, the watch and tourbillon scene is very different than it was when Omega's 1947 prototype hid its tourbillon behind a solid case back as part of a largely undecorated movement Even more notable is that brands are now trying to make "Affordable tourbillons": Stroll through the halls of the Hong Kong Watch & Clock fair, and scores of Chinese brands are offering tourbillons for far less.

The brilliant idea of displaying the highly animated tourbillon on the front of a watch is claimed by Franck Muller in a piece from 1984. . Source