According to Omega http://www.speedroc.com/replica-omega-planet-ocean-42mm.html they were the first wrist watch brand to place a tourbillon escapement based movement into a wrist watch. This was back in 1947. I am by no means going to discuss what a tourbillon is or its history in this article. Suffice it to say however that the ancient complication designed by Breguet back in his lifetime was originally meant to be in pocket watches. It was not until the mid 20th century that tourbillons found themselves in wrist watches. For omega Speedmaster Broad Arrow replica , it was a limited production piece that only had 12 movements ever placed in cases and sold. The 1947 movement was designed as a competition movement for the Swiss Observatory Chronometry competition. It was thought that applying a tourbillon to a modern movement would help further increase its accuracy and give it that edge to win the famous competition where brands would submit movements to see which was the most accurate. replica omega Seamaster 300m won that year with its tourbillon based watch movement (which oddly enough had more in common with older pocket watch movements as opposed to more modern wrist watch movements). Like I said, a few (12) were actually put in cases and sold to customers. One of those pieces is shown here in this article. A simple looking watch, it just says ��Omega Tourbillon�� on the dial and rest should be up to the wearer to understand. The movement itself is nothing fancy in appearance. It is a very industrial looking movement �C super accurate and with a tourbillon. It was called the Omega caliber 30I and the tourbillon made one revolution each seven and a half minutes. Seeing (and wearing) it in person was a thrill. Later in wrist watch history tourbillon-based wrist watch movements became the popular thing for the wealthy elite. Not so much because of what they offered performance-wise, but more because of their visual appearance and complicated nature. Omega was actually at the cusp of the neo-tourbillon watch crazy that seemed to start in the early 2000s, but actually started a bit earlier. Omega��s first modern tourbillon movement was released for sale in 1994. I had no idea it was that early. Since then Omega has steadily produced a handful of tourbillon watches each year. And by handful I mean it. If my recollection serves me right Omega��s tourbillon watch production is something like 10 watches per year. That is almost nothing compared to the brand��s larger production volume. So why do they do it? According to Omega they like to keep the tourbillon production workshop open to continue part of the brand��s history and offer something special. It is a passion department as sale of the tourbillon timepieces aren��t really a money maker for the brand. The watch makers who produce these timepieces have their own area at Omega and really just do their own thing in comparison to the other ��volume production�� areas of Omega.