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Blancpain Carrousel with Vincent Calabrese at SWA
26th October 7.00pm at
Sincere Watch Academy (SWA), Mr Vincent Calabrese and Mr Andre Meier of
Blancpain was in town to present on "The Tourbillon versus The
Carrousel".
At the entrance to SWA ...
Mr David Ponzo, President , Swatch Group - Singapore & Malaysia Mr Vincent Calabrese.
Mr Andre Meier (Head of International Sales, Blancpain), Mr Patrick Tan (Head of SWA) and Mr Vincent Calabrese.
To know a bit more about the background of Mr Vincent Calabrese prior to joining Blancpain, please click:
http://www.thepurists.com/watch/features/interviews/calabreseoct01/vcoct1101.html 
The guests recharged first to focus better later ...
A Blancpain clock. Forgot to press the pushers to check if the chronograph works 
Mr Patrick Tan welcomed all attendees ...
and introduced Mr Andre Meier (Head of International Sales, Blancpain)
Providing some background and history of Blancpain ...
and later handing over to Mr Syd Awyong, Blancpain Vice-President - Singapore providing some insight of the brand
as seen in the slides...
Also highlighted the world's first 'hidden calender correctors', considerably an innovation in 2004 and also relieved the owners
of doing some funny action using tooth-pick or ballpoint to adjust the calender.
Total there are 4 correctors, each hidden under the lugs for changing of the date, day, month and moonphase.
Next up was Mr Vincent Calabrese.
Everyone waiting in anticipation of an interesting topic...
As he communicates more fluently in Italian, a guest, Massi was requested to assist in the translation.
A brief history was mentioned too...that by end of 19th century, Caroussel was made by mainly by French. And the Swiss
capitalised on it by making a clear distinction that any 'tourbillon with balance wheel on top' was not a true tourbillon and
perceived to be cheap.
Mr Syd Awyong, Blancpain Vice-President - Singapore and a Blancpain watchmaker in full concentration ...
Translation is a challenging and required some energy, the translator removed his jacket to maintain his cool
For a start, previous Carrousel was uninteresting as could not observe any parts moving as it only revolve once per hour whereas
a
tourbillon is constantly in motion and revolution once per minute. The
challenge is to make a Carrousel more 'spectacular' according
to Mr
Vincent Calabrese. To just tackle the the one revolution per minute
carrousel was not a simple feat as it took Vincent about two years
to achieve it.
Slides used to explain the construction of tourbillion with reference to a normal movement.
More detailed diagrams at the end part of this post.
Blancpain Carrousel with Vincent Calabrese at SWA
Thanks for Sharing!
I very much enjoyed the photos and diagrams
very interesting the blancpain tourbillon
