Already awarded “World’s Largest Tourbillon” title, the Maximus GR8 also conceals two patents which testify to this micro-mechanical marvel’s status as part of the history of inventive chronometry.
A Shaniah Asha Gibson’s selection / @TRP, Public Relations Cabinet
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The world’s largest Tourbillon is also an innovation lab
The Kerbedanz Maximus GR8 features a never-made 4-barrel generation power mechanism and an innovative index-assembly system, two patented innovations that add to the exceptionality of this masterpiece. A model easily identified by its domed sapphire crystal protecting the world’s largest Tourbillon mechanism ever, in a wristwatch.
Magnitudes and time measurement
Its world record still stands: Kerbedanz’s Maximus GR8 Timepiece has the largest tourbillon cage ever housed in a wristwatch! While the independent and niche brand embraces master complications, it does it does never compromise on their chronometric prowess…
So Maximus GR8 is more than a World Record, it’s also the scene for two innovations that show there are still conquerable areas to be opened up, even if History tries to convince us everything has already been invented. Who could believe that such creativity could be challenged in such a tiny space, even if Maximus GR8’s case is 49 mm in diameter?
Patent CH 713 607, a four barrel revolutionary system
Kerbedanz’s Maximus GR8 houses Caliber KRB-08-2, featuring an oversized central flying tourbillon, with a straight-line lever escapement and a 27 mm-diameter cage. Its energy is generated by a patented system of 4 independent, parallel- running and coplanar barrels, built around a central flywheel on a ball bearing. They provide the necessary torque to power an XXL-sized tourbillon. Above all, this configuration improves running accuracy without impacting the watch’s thickness.
The watch operates at 2.5 Hertz frequency, i.e. 18,000 oscillations every hour and its power reserve, visible on a dedicated indicator, offers a remarkable 54 hours of autonomy.
The Maximus GR8’s grade 5 titanium tourbillon cage of the Maximus GR8 achieves its revolution in two minutes instead of the usual 60 seconds
The watch operates at 2.5 Hertz frequency, i.e. 18,000 oscillations every hour and its power reserve, visible on a dedicated indicator, offers a remarkable 54 hours of autonomy.
Patent CH 713 605 A2, an innovative index-assembly device
A great deal of research has already been carried out on these elements of the caliber in relation to the balance-spring, aka the mystery soul of every mechanical watch. Could innovation still be possible here? The Maximus GR8 from Kerbedanz takes up this challenge with a patented invention featuring a pin- bearing, toothed, mobile index- assembly that can be driven in rotation by a toothed element. A distinctive feature is the sliding index-assembly set on a bridge.
For those who have been following the many progresses in this field since 1968, or even two years before, and for anyone keeping an eye on more recent developments towards devices whose aim is to adjust the balance-spring’s active length by modifying its open end, this Kerbedanz patent is obviously anchored in a completely different way.
Winding ritual
Alongside these patents, which testify to the advanced expertise of the master-watchmakers who conceived and manufactured this XXL tourbillon caliber, there is what the visuals might not show at first: beyond the perfected aesthetics, a distinctive Kerbedanz signature, Maximus GR8 reveals through its sapphire crystal caseback the interlacing of an ultra-complex caliber with a circular ratchet winding mechanism at its center.
This is Kerbedanz’s original hand-winding system, which is turned with two fingers. It’s a ritual that has a lasting impact on afficionados, especially as it’s accompanied by the pleasant notched sound so characteristic of Kerbedanz.
The Swiss luxury watch brand Kerbedanz, established in the heart of the horological cradle of Neuchâtel, keeps on conquering the emotional realms of the world’s connoisseurs. The company is expanding the horizons of co-creation processes, introducing one-of-a-kind pieces and limited numbered micro-series. Maximus, the brand’s iconic collection, never fails of impressing purists, and is now enhanced by several Maximus GR8 variants. Crafted by skilled master-watchmakers with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the basics of chronometry, the “world’s largest tourbillon” is also the arena of patented chronometrical inventions..
As a reminder, a tourbillon is a rotating cage that revolves on its own axis and houses the movement’s regulating organs, also known as the balance-spring assembly. In adapting to the positional variations inherent in thisrotational motion, it compensates for the variations in wristwatch accuracy due to the impact of gravity on the regular running of the watch, and due to the non-concentric unwinding of the balance-spring and its fixing point to the clamp.
The Maximus GR8 from Kerbedanz is a rare tourbillon with such a educational function. Thanks to its unusual size and the ease with which it can be observed, with its 2-minute revolution instead of the usual 60 seconds, it provides valuable insights about a mechanism as exceptional as it is complex to produce.
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