Aaron Becsei is one of those amazing talented fellows who just creates extra-ordinary horological art. His style is quite Baroque and will appeal to those that appreciate this, others may find his creations a bit too busy. Heavily hand engraved and looking like something from the 1800's, his watch and pocketwatches are simply brilliant. The tourbillon features in most of his work so far, other than Aaron's miniature Zappler pendule clock. I saw the pendule clock 2 years ago, together with the tourbillon #1, and was fascinated. The level of skill required to make these pieces, looked to me like one would have to spend 15-20 years honing one's ability, yet here was Aaron, who had to be in his mid 20's, a young man in the watchmaking world, creating fabulous pieces. I knew he had to be brilliant, and last year was the debut of his Primus, the triple axis Tourbillon wristwatch.
The Primus, cased in platinum, quite amazing:
Here is a close up of the Primus, showing the regulateur style dial, hours, minutes, seconds & power reserve:
This year I met Aaron again, and this time spent more time with him, talking about his work and photographing his watches. He also come from a watchmaking family and is following his father who was his original teacher. Restoration is a large part of Aaron's life too, by working on some of the old pieces from past, a young watchmaker can glean much about the art of watchmaking. I know Peter Speake-Marin credits much of his design sense from working in London's Piccadilly area and repairing and restoring great watches from the past. I suspect we'll be seeing quite a collection of extra-ordinary of work coming from Aaron in the future, I know he is working on a more simple wristwatch, not sure what complications it will include.
So to his other pieces, the Zappler pendule clock, quite mesmerizing to watch them flick back and forth at quite a rate! This clock is only the size of about a quarter, housed under a glass dome to keep dust and grime from getting into the movement:
Here it is glass dome removed, close up:
And here the mighty Tourbillon #2:
All in all, quite superb.