WX-1 highlights the creativity of DeWitt which is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year. An authentic machine representing several contemporary worlds, the pulsating heart of the WX-1 is equipped with a vertical flying tourbillon with a carriage performing one revolution per minute and visible through a cylindrical “chimney” located on the back of the case.
The mechanical hand-wound movement comprises a parallel going train with five barrels ensuring a 21-day (approximately 504-hour) power reserve. The parts making up this engine – barrels, gear train, tourbillon carriage, power-reserve indicator and winding device – are all arranged in vertical order. {Timezone}
The power reserve is displayed by a coaxial roller, while the time of day is read off on two rotating discs. The first, showing the minutes, turns in a clockwise direction, while the one displaying the hours turns counter-clockwise by means of a clever gear system mounted on six runners.
The going train, playing the role of propeller shaft, passes on the time measuring indications to the hour and minute discs. This complex creation is a genuine first in the history of watch engineering. It can be viewed by sliding the “hood” or “bonnet” thereby revealing the entire mechanism – the display and the movement – housed beneath its transparent covering plate.
This device, which can be extracted from its recess by activating a bolt placed between the two cylindrical openings, serves to wind the watch. An electronically-driven tool specially developed for this object serves to wind the five barrels in a few dozen seconds.
