We received an RGM Tourbillon in for repair a few months ago that brought back a flood of memories.
Back in the mid 90's I worked on the design of a Tourbillon after I had visited Lemania in Switzerland. They agreed to sell RGM a small quantity of Tourbillon and Repeater movements. Of course I wanted something classic so I went to work coming up with what this piece would look like. I wanted an engine-turned dial, blued steel hands, solid rose gold case, something in the same family look as our first watch the model 101-M. The end result was our rose gold model 104-T, which exceeded my expectations. It was to be a limited Edition of 15 watches, I think we made about 6 of them in rose gold.
I always wanted a Tourbillon so I thought I would make one special watch for myself in white gold. I had this watch marked 0/00 as it would be my special prototype. RGM was a very young company at this time and the realities of financial pressures forced me to sell this watch when it was completed. I had forgotten all about this watch until it showed up for service 20 years later.
It took me a few minutes to process what it was, then I realized this was the watch that was supposed to be mine! It was like seeing an old friend again.
It had many scratches and marks on the case; whoever owns it was using it all these years. I was glad to see someone had enjoyed the watch that was to be mine.
Roland