Graham presented a simple, smart, and straightforward watch-Geo.Graham Tourbillon. It is quite delightful to look at. Geo.Graham Tourbillon limiteds to 100 pieces.

The Geo.Graham range features three watches, each one designed to celebrate George Graham himself. Each of the three – the Geo.Graham Tourbillon Orrery, the Geo.Graham Tourbillon, and the Geo.Graham Moon – features a tourbillon, which I’m sure Graham would have liked to see. Unfortunately, the tourbillon wasn’t invented until nearly 50 years after his death, so he never got the chance. Still, the idea is valid. We associate tourbillons with the past, and Graham‘s legacy is certainly more closely associated with a nice, classical complication than it is with the petrol-coloured case and bog-eyed display of the Swordfish model. These are really high-end watches in the context of Graham’s existing range. I guess this was their game-plan – roll out whatever sells until the brand is big enough to release something genuinely interesting that they can charge a lot more for. The Geo.Graham Moon watch and the Geo.Graham Tourbillon Orrery are both very busy, rather impressive-looking contraptions. The Geo.Graham Tourbillon, however, is incredibly restrained, civilised, and mature. It is, in actual fact, a very nice watch. If this was coming from another brand, say Piaget for example, I would be quite impressed. So from an aesthetic standpoint, I must admit, I do like it. I do not like the indecisive usage of the Graham name, or the total incongruity of the brand’s offerings. But the Geo.Graham Tourbillon is, in isolation, a success.

And to truly appreciate the aesthetic success of the Geo.Graham Tourbillon, you need only turn it over and study the truly beautiful movement. The off-center rotor weight, wonderfully engraved with the Geo.Graham name and an awesome patten is a triumph of flare and symmetry. The arrangement of the functional elements, the symmetry of the bridges, and the excellently balanced circular finish that frames the evenly-weighted engraving is a massive departure from the Graham norm, but a welcome one in my opinion.
The G1796 movement offers a 72-hour power reserve. This movement is not in-house, but it is proprietary and exclusive to Graham. Impressively, this tourbillon movement is thin – less than a centimetre thin. Given that is also self-winding, that’s quite an achievement. Many of its peers are thicker before you factor in the rotor weight! This surprisingly svelte movement is encased within a 40mm 18ct rose gold housing, which itself is only 9.85mm thick. This all goes together to make an extremely comfortable and wearable timepiece, quite unlike anything one would associate with the modern history of the brand. It’s also water resistant to 50 meters, which I find quite impressive given its materials and thinness.The Geo.Graham Tourbillon looks to the past for inspiration. Blued hands and tourbillon cage attachment screws enliven a domed, white, enamel lacquered dial that is decorated with Roman numeral hour markers and Arabic minute markers, separated by a railway track minute scale. The dial and movement are viewable through what Graham describe as a “sapphire crystal glass box”. The “sapphire crystal glass box” is basically a thick crystal designed to enhance depth and clarity of the movement. All the sapphire is treated with anti-reflective coating. The case back crystal, which is a huge 3.35mm thick, has special cut-out for the rotor weight.