Blancpain

SuitbertW
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I believe......

Hello, Jeff,
I believe there's no question AP's autmatic tourbillon presented in  1986 was the first automatic wrist watch tourbillon.
And, all matters of tastes aside,  I'd say is a remarkable example as well - titanium  tourbillon cage (this tourbilllon even has it's balance wheel in center )  and impressively  thin (IIRC the entire watch is 4.8mm only!) . Achieved  by using the case back as movement mainplate and I believe it's also the reason fo rusing a pendulum weight for automatic winding. It's an incredibly slim watch (and IMHO calling this "..., it was that strange looking TV screen on edge piece." doesn't  really do it  justice). 

As for "What most people don't know was that it was ETA that did the watch for AP. " ....thhat's really interesting and you've  made  me really curious.
"Eta did the watch for AP" surely  sounds like "this watch is physically made by ETA" and just labeled AP??
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a specialised part of the ETA  group played a role in design, construction or delivering specialized parts - as they
do for many, many others....
But as said - "ETA did that watch for AP" sounds like much.  much more.
As I know you're  a real industry  insider  and you'd not use this sort of explicit phrase thoughtlessly - I'm really keen on learning more about the background on this!!!

As for the reason designing the cage/porthole at  this position - of course I believe this to be the reason if  Mr. Calabrese told so, but....
first, I've to admit that I personally would very  much prefer the (decorated or not) rotor as background for thetourbillon any time - to me almost anything looks
more attractive as a hairy skin pressed against glass    
Of ourse that purely personal and to me that's also the reason  I can admire skeleton  movements only if not on the wrist.....

Best regards and keen tol earn more!
Suitbert