Tiffany & Co. Bird on a Flying Tourbillon

Bird on a Flying Tourbillon brings together four different and highly specialized artistic crafts: gemstone marquetry, gold sculpting, snow-setting and the hand-faceting of sapphire crystal.

The dial is formed of turquoise marquetry, an intricate craft in which wafer-thin slices of natural turquoise gemstone are cut into 16 different cloud-like shapes. The pieces are hand-polished before being laid down edge-to-edge, with some of them set on slightly different levels to add a sense of depth and movement. The turquoise marquetry represents 45 hours of work.

Against the backdrop of the turquoise ‘sky’, a pair of miniature diamond-set birds appears to take flight. Each of these tiny birds is hand-sculpted from 18k white gold before being set with a total of 147 diamonds. The miniature-sculpting and diamond setting of the birds require more than 30 hours.

The flying tourbillon mechanism is visible beneath a dome of faceted sapphire crystal – unique in watchmaking – that resembles a diamond. Weighing a mere 0.3 grams, the ultra-thin sapphire is faceted using hand-operated diamond tools.

The snow-setting technique was chosen for the decoration of the case and the movement. Acknowledged to be the most challenging gem-setting technique, it requires that stones of different sizes are placed in such a way that almost no metal remains visible.

Highlighting Tiffany & Co.’s expertise in diamonds, Bird on a Flying Tourbillon is set with 848 diamonds (for a total of 4 carats). The winding crown, inspired by the emblematic Tiffany® Setting, features a prong-set solitaire diamond of 0.42 carats. The process of setting the diamonds on Bird on a Flying Tourbillon exceeds 100 hours in total.