Ratskunk
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Nun aber selbst ein Tourbillon zu bauen mit Hilfe von Herrn Daners...
Thomas Engel in his 2003 autobiography tells of the decision to make tourbillons with Richard Daners...
Nun aber selbst ein Tourbillon zu bauen mit Hilfe von Herrn Daners, das war eine große Herausforderung, die wir beide annahmen. Daners wollte das Drehgestell konstruieren und bauen, ich das Werk, Ziffernblatt und Gehäuse. Es dauerte nur etwas mehr als ein Jahr, bis das erste Tourbillon tickte. Was für eine Freude! Herm Daners ließ es ziemlich kalt. Für mich als Laie war es aber ein unvergesslicher Augenblick in meinem Leben. Ich war machtig stolz. Richard Daners kennen, den meiner Meinung nach begabteststen Uhrmacher der Schwiez.
The enclosed Engel-Daners 1-minute Tourbillion No. 3 (circa early 1980s) is curious in that when the watch was sold in 2000 (Ineichen Zürich) the dial had letters for the hour-markers i.e. Dr. K. Ste_grad; when the watch was sold in 2014 (Dr. Crott Auctioneers) the dial had Roman numerals; I guess the watch was originally made for the good doctor and after the first sale the new owner had Thomas Engel make a new chapter-ring for the watch. Breguet fans will remember a similar case of dial change regarding Breguet No. 4704 and M. Antoine Jobal.
Readers will notice Tourbillon No. 3 has an interior temperature display (Grad. 30°–5° Celsius); Thomas Engel had a fondness for the temperature display though usually placed on the exterior of the watch but a couple of Engel's tourbillions have the temperature display inside the case, e.g. Tourbillon No. 28, Tourbillon No. 2b and Tourbillon No. 1 (not to be confused with the Benoit Tourbillon No. 1); Engel's naming conventions are befuddling as often numbers are repeated and there is a mixture of Roman and Arabic.
Never mind the bollocks here's Richard Daners
Nice to see a Richard Daners pocketwatch on the cover of the current Horological Journal (June 2024) and a reminder for those not having the book Richard Daners Sein Werk Son oeuvre to run, don't walk, to your local bookstore and buy the book. ...
Benoit Tourbillon No. 1
The Horological Journal notes the Daners pocket-watch on the cover used a re-worked Zenith movement (by Thomas Engel); Richard Daners fans will remember Richard Daners used these Zenith-Engel movements in at least a handful of his own tourbillon creations...
Nun aber selbst ein Tourbillon zu bauen mit Hilfe von Herrn Daners...
Thomas Engel in his 2003 autobiography tells of the decision to make tourbillons with Richard Daners... Nun aber selbst ein Tourbillon zu bauen mit Hilfe von Herrn Daners, das war eine große Herausforderung, die wir beide annahmen. Daners wollte das Drehg...
Apropos of Thomas Engel's fondness of the temperature display...
The Zenith-Engel pocket-watch collaboration echoes Thomas Engel's affinity for the temperature display: one-third of the Zenith-Engel pocket-watches (Zenith Caliber 68 I think) feature a temperature display, these Zenith pocket-watches may be the only Zen...
Zenith-Engel thermometer watches...in varietate voluptas
The Zenith-Engel watches with temperature display are curious to the curious in that the temperature display is positioned in sundry variations; most obvious is whether the arc is pointing Northwards, Southwards or East and within these directions the tem...
Apropos of Antoine Jobal and Breguet 4704
A similar case to Thomas Engel's Tourbillon No. 3 where the personalized dial was replaced is Breguet No. 4704 (circa 1828). Breguet fans will recall a sketch of Breguet 4704 featured in Emmanuel Breguet's Breguet Watchmakers since 1775 ; the dial spells ...