tourbillon

Noun

tourbillon (plural tourbillons)

1. A rotating frame, containing the escapement of a clock or watch, that significantly compensates for the effects of gravity.
   • Time was vulnerable to the force of gravity. So Breguet came up with the tourbillon, which isolated the balance wheel and escarpment off on a little platform of their own, geared to the third wheel, rotating about once a minute, assuming in the course of the day most positions in 3-D space relative...2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Bilocations”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 457
   • In their final year, each student must make their own watch with a complication—from a tourbillon to a chiming mode to having a date display.2023 May 28, Brian Ng, “Is one of these students the next Breguet?”, in FT Weekend (HTSI section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 43
2. A whirlwind.
3. A kind of firework that gyrates in the air.
4. Any part of a machine with a spiral movement.