Delma Launch 1924 Tourbillon for 100th Anniversary with First Proprietary Movement

When thinking about Delma the watches that tend to stick in my mind are their professional tool watches like the high spec Blue Shark III and distinctive Quattro Decompression Diver. What doesn’t come to mind is haute horology, until now that is. For the occasion of their 100th anniversary Delma have launched the new 1924 Tourbillon wristwatch.

A tourbillon, if you are unfamiliar, is a device designed to combat the effects of gravity in a watch’s movement. They were originally designed by Abraham-Louis Breguet (as most things were) for use in pocket watches because pocket watches were held vertically for the majority of the time and so the effects of gravity on a watch’s accuracy were more pronounced. In a wristwatch a tourbillon is largely redundant as the movement of your wrist performs the same job as the constant rotation of the tourbillon. However, that doesn’t stop them from being A. cool and B. an impressive feat of watchmaking.

And ‘feats of watchmaking’ is particularly relevant here because the new Calibre DT100.01 is Delma’s first ever proprietary movement. It’s a manual calibre with a whopping 105-hour power reserve, which is very impressive for a power hungry tourbillon. On top of that it’s equipped with a variable inertia balance with a shock absorption system that protects it up to 5,000G as well as featuring an alloy hairspring and Glucydur balance wheel for magnetic field resistance up to 2,000 gauss. In terms of decoration, the baseplate is adorned with perlage and then through the exhibition caseback you can see the Côtes de Genève striped pattern.

Zooming out from the movement, the 1924 Tourbillon features a brand-new case made from stainless steel with a tonneau shape featuring a circular polished bezel, polished chamfers and brushed flanks. Emerging from 3 o’clock is the oversize crown with hobnail grip, nestled between two prominent crown protectors. The size of the crown and protectors make the watch seem much wider than its 41mm diameter. It’s a really interesting design and I’m finding it difficult to form an opinion on it because there are parts I like and others I don’t.

In isolation I like the tonneau shape and I like the big crown, but I don’t think they necessarily gel together. It would feel like a more cohesive piece if it had a cushion case that’s slightly squatter to match the bulk of the crown. At the same time, it would look great if it had the tonneau case that it has now but with a hidden crown to emphasise the sleek profile.

Moving to the 1924 Tourbillon’s dial, it’s pretty classy. Sable black with a grained finish adorned with appliqué hour markers and matching palladium hour and minute hands with white Super-LumiNova. Occupying the lower portion of the dial in its entirety is the titular tourbillon which goes right from the central handstack to the inner edge of the bezel. It’s a 60-second tourbillon meaning it rotates once every minute, allowing it to function as the watch’s seconds indicator, for which it is equipped with a blue hand.

The Delma 1924 Tourbillon is available to pre-order from January 16th – March 16th at £8,900, or from Delma boutiques starting April at £12,500. It’s being produced in a limited edition of 100 pieces to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the brand. It’s exciting to see Delma creating proprietary movements and moving into fresh areas of horology, which is something they have confirmed they’re going to continue with. Here’s hoping future projects are consistently as high spec as this.

More details at Delma.

​Oracle Time 

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