Alexander the Great

Glass tourbillon “Alexander the Great”
A new edition of the success.

Every watch lover dreams of owning a tourbillon in his collection. It fascinates by the smooth movement of the wheels and bridges inside the tourbillon cage, by the precision and of course by the high technology of manufacturing.
The first tourbillon was developed around 1795 by the French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, based on an idea by the English chronometer maker John Arnold. A tourbillon is designed to compensate for gravity by mounting the escapement and balance in a rotating cage to cancel out the effect of gravity when the timepiece, and thus the escapement, is stuck in a certain position. These first tourbillons required many months, sometimes years, of manual labor to make. Many small parts had to be made with high precision and carefully assembled to make a perfectly functioning watch. Today, it is easier to make these small and very precise parts with the help of CNC – machines, but steel needs highly skilled watchmakers to assemble them.

With its very experienced watchmakers, the company “Poljot-International” in Germany under the name “Basilika” in 2013 produced a glass tourbillon in a limited edition of 100 pieces in steel and gold-plated cases. They were quickly sold and are now among the most successful models of the brand. For the 30th anniversary of “Poljot-International” in 2022, it was decided to re-produce this successful model in a limited edition of 30 pieces each. This model bears the name “Alexander the Great”. He was one of the most famous conquerors of the world, which emphasizes the strength of this model.
There are not so many companies that use a glass dial for a watch. It needs a special “know-how”, experience and good material. The designers of “Poljot-International” have found a solution to use a special hard sapphire crystal for the manufacture of the dial. The complication of making the tourbillon glass dial was to drill many holes in the glass, apply it to the dial and fix this glass to the movement. By using very precise instruments and materials, the first two goals were achieved. To achieve the third goal, the company made special screws for the positions at 2 and 7 o’clock, drilled very fine holes there and fixed the glass dial on the movement.

In the “Basilika” glass tourbillion, the tourbillon cage is mounted at the 6-hour position, and the arrow bridge inside, which moves the 60 seconds, can also be used as a seconds counter. Many small parts such as the balance, escapement and wheels are always visible when in motion, giving the magical feeling of a small mechanical machine.
The beauty of the movement, its curved skeletonized bridges and tourbillon cage are fully visible through the sapphire crystal dial. The back of the watch is also covered with a transparent glass, allowing a wonderful view of the back of the skeletonized movement.
At the 3h position, there is a day & night function. When the sun appears fully in a small round window, it means noon time, when the moon appears fully in this position, it means midnight time. At the 9 o’clock position is the GMT function. By turning the crown counterclockwise, it is possible to set the second time zone to 24h mode. The classic stainless steel case is water resistant up to 5 atm.