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You don’t find many tourbillon watches under £2,000, and it’s easy to understand why. Tourbillon movements are highly complex and require hundreds of components, plenty of artistry and a bucket load of technical prowess. So as a young watch collector, I concluded pretty quickly that this complicated mechanism would be out of my reach for a while… until I came across the Geckota Tourbillon watch.
Geckota Tourbillon Hand Wound Watch - Credit Geckota
Somehow, using their Geckota magic, the British watch brand has created a tourbillon watch for £1,299. This is one of those rare watches you have to get your hands on to see it’s too good to be true. So here I am, getting up close with the Geckota Tourbillon watch for myself and spoiler alert: it’s beautiful.
The Geckota Tourbillon collection has three models in the mix. The first is a classic steel-cased, silver-dialled model with traditional blued hands. The second has the same steel case but with a black and gold display. The third and final Geckota Tourbillon, and the one I had the pleasure of testing out, has a full gold-plated case and warm gold and black dial.
Geckota Tourbillon Hand Wound Watch - Credit Geckota
Tourbillon watches are typically done in a dressy style, and it makes sense since having the tourbillon feature on display is flashy in itself. It seems only fair that the rest of the watch has some je ne sais quoi too. It’s safe to say that Geckota has taken this into consideration when creating the Geckota Tourbillon, pairing the 6 o’clock complication with opulent finishings and decoration.
The Geckota Tourbillon is the epitome of a dress watch with a full gold-plated case and multi-layered guilloche dial. It has a quintessentially British feel to it thanks to the large Roman numerals and reminds me of some old-school British pocket watches in its stylings. But then you have the addition of the tourbillon complication which adds some contemporary complexity to the design. It’s a wonderful meeting of two worlds.
Geckota Tourbillon Hand Wound Watch - Credit Geckota
For me, the most notable trait of the Geckota Tourbillon watch is its dial, so let’s start there. The first thing you’ll notice is the tourbillon complication. The delicate, finely crafted components of the mechanism dance away at 6 o’clock, the balance wheel flicking back and forth in a hypnotic animation to regulate timekeeping. The complication is surrounded by a brightly polished gold ring to match with the same hardware used on the Breguet-styled hour and minute hands.
The main backdrop of the dial is done in black guilloche which bursts from the centre in a sunray fashion, subtly catching the light with its tiny textured waves to provide a bit of light play. The gold hardware contrasts against the guilloche nicely for easy readability, especially the brushed gold outer ring which presents the Roman numerals in black.
Geckota Tourbillon Hand Wound Watch - Credit Geckota
There’s just something about black and gold together that works so well, especially in a dress watch like this. Black is classic while gold screams opulence, and together they make things feel instantly more sophisticated and elegant. It’s exactly why the pairing works so well on the Geckota Tourbillon watch in my opinion.
The gold-plating used on the Geckota Tourbillon isn’t your traditional yellow gold, nor is it as pink as rose gold. It’s somewhere in the middle and has a wonderful warmth to it that reminds me a little of bronze – just without the risk of any patina developing. Almost the entirety of the case is gold-plated, including the screw down crown at 3 o’clock which has a nice touch of black enamel on its tip. The only element that’s not gold is the case back which is left uncoated as pure stainless steel.
Geckota Tourbillon Hand Wound Watch - Credit Geckota
When I first read the spec list for this watch, before having seen it in person, I was a little dubious about the case size. Not the 40mm width – that works perfectly well for a watch like this - but more the 14.2mm height. It is a fairly tall dress watch, but after sporting it on my wrist, I found out rather quickly it wears very well despite these numbers.
I don’t know whether it’s simply the way the lugs taper down or the contrast between the brushed finishing on the case sides and the polished finishing on the bezel that make it appear slimmer, but it wears a lot lower on the wrist than expected. In fact, the height plays well into the watch’s showy personality, and it feels like a sturdy, robust dress watch because of it.
Geckota Tourbillon Hand Wound Watch - Credit Geckota
The case of the Geckota Tourbillon watch also presents edge curved and double-domed sapphire crystal glass with anti-reflective treatment and a water resistance of 100 metres. As mentioned, the case back is left uncoated and delivers a large window for viewing the movement from within. A final nice touch for the case back is an engraving down the top left lug which displays your specific model number out of the very limited 10 pieces.
For the movement within, Geckota has opted for the PTS 3300 hand wound tourbillon movement. It offers a power reserve of 40 hours, a frequency of 28,800vph and an accuracy of +/-25 seconds a day. It’s nice to be able to view the movement from the back including its gold-plated striped mainplate and sunray brushed gears.
Geckota Tourbillon Hand Wound Watch - Credit Geckota
Finishing off the Geckota Tourbillon watch is warm, chocolate brown leather strap with contrasting cream stitching and a gold-plated pin buckle. The strap has a subtle distressed finish to it, which I’m sure will increase even more over time the more you wear it, adding to the watch’s timeless personality.
To conclude, the Geckota Tourbillon is a stunning watch and it’s honestly quite hard to fathom this level of design complexity at a retail price of £1,299. There’s nothing bad to say about it. The level of finishing is second-to-none and the oversized tourbillon complication demands attention, something it certainly deserves. If you’re looking for an affordable tourbillon watch for yourself, this is the one to get.
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