The Carrousel is a rotating cage that turns the escapement through different positions, so rate errors caused by gravity cancel out over time. Bahne Bonniksen patented it in 1892. It works like a tourbillon, but the cage and escapement are powered separately, which makes it tougher and better at handling shocks.
How does a carrousel work?
The escapement sits in a cage that keeps turning. Because it never stays in one position for long, the errors that gravity causes in each position cancel each other out over time. A tourbillon does the same job, but the drive is different. In a tourbillon, a single wheel drives both the cage and the escapement. In a carrousel, each has its own source of power. The cage is driven by the third wheel, not the fourth wheel as in a classic tourbillon. This arrangement is what makes the carrousel the sturdier of the two.
Where it comes from
Bahne Bonniksen was a Danish watchmaker who lived in England. He filed a British patent for his karrusel in 1892, and it was described as a kind of tourbillon. He made a series of these watches in a workshop in Coventry. Some carried the words “English Tourbillon” on the dial. In the traditional design the cage turns very slowly, about once an hour rather than once a minute. A later version of his movement sped it up, cutting one full turn from 52.5 minutes to 34 minutes.
Is the carrousel still made today?
In 2008 Blancpain launched a karrusel designed by Vincent Calabrese and based on Bonniksen’s invention. It differs from the original because its cage makes a full turn every minute, as a tourbillon’s does, rather than about once an hour. To get the one-minute rotation, Calabrese added two extra wheels to the karrusel’s gear train. Watches from Ulysse Nardin also use the device.
Not to be confused with
French speakers also use the word “carrousel” for an off-centre style of tourbillon. That device shares the name but not Bonniksen’s design, so the two are easily mixed up. Bonniksen’s carrousel is defined by its drive: the cage takes its power from the third wheel, and the escapement has a separate source of its own. When the word turns up in a watch description, it is worth checking which of the two is meant.
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