Helfried Meyer

Helfried Meyer, Steinbeck/L, N. 4, started in 1985, finished in 1986. Very fine and important 18K gold, keyless double-barrel one-minute tourbillon chronometer with 36-hour power reserve indicator, straight-line lever escapement and and special balance. Four-body, by Meyer, “pommes” with box hinges, polished, gold glazed cuvette. Heavy silver, matte, applied gold “bâton” indexes pinned from the underside, outer minute ring, sunk subsidiary seconds. Gold “lozenge” hands. Notes The movement is based on a design by Albert Helwig (1886-1974), the technical director of the Deutsche Uhrmacherschule, and Meyer’s professor, under whose direction he built his first tourbillon. Meyer employed a straight line lever escapement, for which he designed his own carriage. Tourbillons with straight-line lever escapements are exceptionally rare; the vast majority of tourbillons with lever escapements employ a lateral lever. This watch testifies to Meyer’s exceptional watchmaking skills. He used a special balance with outer lamina of gold and cut it far from the arm in an attempt to eliminate the centrifugal force error. It is likely that he also wanted to decrease Middle Temperature Error without employing a Guillaume balance. He made the escapement free-sprung and employed two pins for adjustment between horizontal and vertical positions, an idea also used by Richard Daners. The execution of the watch is outstanding: the balance screw holes for the mean time adjustment are slotted, givin