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FRONT COVER
Watchmaker, Beat Haldimann, created
something of a stir on the AHCI stand
at BASEL-2002 with his “H1”; a wrist-
watch with a large, centrally placed,
flying tourbillon.
Beat, who lives and works in Thun
(near Bern) Switzerland, qualified as a
watchmaker/restorer in 1985 and, after
industrial and restoration experience,
set up his own workshop in 1991 to do
restoration work, produce prototypes
and carry out commissions.
The balance wheel in the flying tourbillon
is 14.14 mm in diameter and the carriage
16.8 mm, a tight squeeze in a 31.58 mm
(14’’’) movement which is a dainty
3.7 mm thick. Naturally, special arrange-
ments had to be made to replace the
centre wheel and motion work. The one
minute tourbillon carriage rides on a
bearing with seven ruby balls and is
driven by two gear trains to equalise the
lateral forces upon it.
TIMOTHY TREFFEY, PHD
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