This year's Watches and Wonders was a more subdued edition, particularly with regard to complications, which were relatively scarce. Not that we can ignore the remarkable Portugieser Eternal Calendar from IWC, "programmed" to scrupulously keep track of the anomalies of the Gregorian calendar until 3999 and with a precision moon phase whose display will show a discrepancy of a single day after… 45 million years. Jaeger-LeCoultre is also due a special mention for its trio of Duomètre watches, which centre on the principle of two gear trains regulated by a single escapement: testament to the brand's dedication to precision timekeeping. The standout model among these new releases, all in a reworked and refined case, is the Duomètre Heliotourbillon Perpetual which combines a perpetual calendar with a triple-axis tourbillon. This brings us neatly to what was probably the show's hottest property; a complication that has continued to fascinate across its multiple interpretations since 1801, the year Abraham-Louis Breguet registered the patent for the tourbillon.

Vacheron Constantin shot out of the starting-blocks with Les Cabinotiers - The Berkley Grand Complication. One of one, it takes the title of world's most complicated watch with no fewer than 63 complications, including a Chinese perpetual calendar. This litany of features extends to a tourbillon with three rotational axes, equipped with a spherical balance spring for enhanced isochronism. Keeping its Richemont stablemate company in the record-breaking stakes is Piaget, with its Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon. Only a few years ago, its two millimetre thickness, tourbillon included, would have been deemed impossible to achieve. The general sentiment among attendees was that this is a record unlikely to be beaten.

Nor was this the end of the mechanical ingenuity on show in Geneva. Hublot took the wraps off an MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System which, in the brand's words, "revisits the fundamentals of watchmaking." This futuristic design replaces dial, hands and oscillating weight with a roller display, a circular power reserve and an inclined tourbillon that is automatically wound by two linear weights. The same high-level engineering is in action at Cyrus Genève, in the capable hands of master watchmaker Jean-François Mojon. The dial of the Etheral Twin Orbital Tourbillon, which carries the two regulating organs, is in constant motion. As the brand explains, "as the hours pass, the jumping hours, the minute indication and the two flying tourbillons change position, keeping time perfectly readable always horizontally." Cyrus Genève has filed three patents for the movement: the manual-winding CYR518-E manufacture calibre composed of 510 components.

Not all brands are inclined to stage this unique complication as a visual attraction. Some, increasingly convinced of the tourbillon's capacity to improve the precision of a mechanical movement by offsetting the effects of Earth's gravity on the balance and balance spring, choose to hide it from view, not least for a question of dial space. A. Lange & Söhne has taken this route for its Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Honeygold "Lumen", whose tourbillon is visible only from the back of the watch. At Panerai, whose tourbillon rotates parallel to the plate, hence perpendicular to the axis of the balance, the Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa in Carbotech™ offers a distinctly sporty view of its regulator at work.

Compare this with the purely classical approach of models such as Péquignet's Royale Tourbillon, Vacheron Constantin's Overseas Tourbillon Titanium or IWC's Hand-Wound Tourbillon, all of which place the spinning mechanism at 6 o'clock, as the unique focal point in an openworked dial. Not enough, in the eyes of certain brands, who prefer the additional complexity of a tourbillon that takes pride of place in the centre of the dial. Such is the thinking at Hermès for its most complicated watch to date, the Arceau Duc Attelé. Its triple-axis tourbillon spins majestically at the centre of the dial above the visible hammers for the minute repeater. Roger Dubuis offers an equally original construction with its Orbis in Machina. The rotations of the central flying tourbillon underscore the concentric circles of the display, which integrates a patent-pending planetary system. The tourbillon takes the starring role.