Greubel Forsey recently unveiled an experimental watch designed using advanced nanomechanics.
The Nano Foudroyante EWT is the world’s first perpetual Nano Foudroyante — and represents the first time Greubel Forsey has created a flying tourbillon. This flying tourbillon is more sophisticated than most and uniquely features an embedded foudroyante mechanism. There’s also a 60-minute flyback chronograph.
As you expect with Greubel Forsey, everything is finished to the highest level possible, including the 18K white gold caseband with hand-finished straight-graining. The tantalum bezel is polished by hand, and the caseback consists of a tantalum ring with a flat sapphire crystal secured by 7 screws. The conservatively sized case measures 37.90 mm in diameter by 10.49 mm thick, has a domed sapphire crystal, and is water-resistant to a depth of 30 meters (ISO 22810:2010).
Greubel Forsey’s Nano Foudroyante dial has a multi-level gold construction with rhodium-colored, engraved, and black lacquered markings — which exude the prestigious fit and finish customers demand at this price point.
The Nano Foudroyante EWT is powered by a 3Hz, hand-wound, 428-component movement (142 for the tourbillon cage) and is protected by 2 patents. With 42 olive-domed jewels set in gold chatons, circular-graining, polished bevels, frosted surfaces, flat polished screw-heads, straight-grained flanks, and engraved GF logo — every component is immaculately decorated to Haut de Gamme standards.
According to Greubel Forsey, “To demonstrate the feasibility of nanomechanics, Greubel Forsey has reinvented the foudroyante second. Its hand completes one revolution per second, dividing it into segments according to the movement’s frequency. In this Nano Foudroyante, each oscillation of the 3Hz balance wheel produces two beats, totaling six beats per second, allowing the hand to divide the second into six distinct segments. This is an energy-intensive complication by nature. However, by managing energy on a nanojoule scale, Greubel Forsey has radically rethought its design and construction. Compared to a traditional foudroyante that consumes 30μJ (microjoules) per jump, the Nano Foudroyante operates with only 16nJ (nanojoules) per jump, reducing energy consumption by a factor of 1,800. The mechanism’s volume is therefore reduced by 90%. Here, the focus is not just on measuring fractions of a second but as a proof of concept for a completely new approach to watchmaking, which is why this Nano Foudroyante was chosen to be a perpetual display. It eliminates the entire gear train required in a traditional foudroyante to divide the second, as the information is sourced directly, distributing and managing the energy from the movement through a minimal number of low-inertia wheels. Fewer components mean less volume: this Nano Foudroyante EWT is very compact, with 428 components, and the movement measures no more than 31mm in diameter within a 37.9mm case (the smallest ever built by Greubel Forsey).”
Greubel Forsey paired each watch with a hand-sewn black textile strap with an 18K white gold pin buckle and hand-engraved GF logo. Limited to 11 pieces, the Nano Foudroyante EWT is the horological equivalent of an experimental Ferrari.
Learn more at Greubel Forsey.
Photos by Greubel Forsey.
