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At SIHH, Girard-Perregaux’s Haute Horlogerie collection is going to be enhanced by adding one inspired by its background and its complication: the Girard-Perregaux 1966 Tourbillon with Gold Bridge. Indicating the essence of Girard-Perregaux the watchmaking industry tradition, it will likely be obtainable in an edition of fifty individually-designated pieces.

Within the mid-1800s, Constant Girard-Perregaux produced a watch which was granted an initial-class prize through the Neuchatel Observatory. Its tourbillon movement featured three parallel bridges, to which the barrel, center wheel and tourbillon were aligned. Within this innovative concept, the tourbillon offered not just like a technical and funcational component, but because a design element too. In 1889, the watch manufacturing company received the best accolade: Girard-Perregaux won a gold medal in the Paris Universal Exhibition for his Tourbillon with Three Gold Bridges.

The brand new 1966 Tourbillon With Gold Bridge brings up its illustrious forerunners and pays tribute to tourbillon pocket watches. The “Breguet” Arabic numbers colored around the silvered dial, along with the blued steel leaf-formed hands, are generally obvious references to a period when only pocket watches been around. The clean lines of their 40-millimeter situation disguise a classy design and production process. Its curvature and lugs happen to be carefully fashioned to sit down perfectly around the wrist. The situation-back, closed by 6 screws, is hands-engraved to stimulate the domes of Girard-Perregaux’s tourbillons dating in the 1800s. Each bit bears its very own individual number, also engraved manually consistent with the Brand’s tradition.

The situation houses a Girard-Perregaux 9610 movement composed of 224 components, the refined decoration and architecture which will also be inspired by 1800s pocket tourbillons.

The tourbillon bridge from the new Girard-Perregaux 1966 Tourbillon comes with an unusual shape: referred to as “bassiné”, the 2 arms from the bridge are rounded off. The rounding off process includes filing the finishes from the arms to ensure they are perfectly uniform, providing them with a semi-round shape while retaining the demarcation from the center and also the heels. To complete the operation, the craftsmen use gemstones, buffs, boxwood and gemstone pastes to smooth these to a wonderfully rounded finish. The smallest imperfection could be immediately detected through the human eye alone. This craftsmanship necessitates the greatest degree of skill and concentration.

The fragile tourbillon also demands extreme focus on detail: incredible skill is needed to put together its 72 components, which squeeze into a diameter of a single centimeter. It weighs in at .3 gram – comparable like a swan’s feather. Associated it’s a self-winding system patented through the Manufacture: a little-diameter platinum oscillating weight is located within the space below and round the barrel. This elegant design leaves the movement’s dimensions and architecture intact.

2010 marks a double anniversary for Girard-Perregaux: 35 many years of the Laureato collection and 4 decades since its first Quartz movement wrist watches. The Manufacture performed a huge role in the introduction of Quartz movement actions it set the regularity of 32,768 Hz, since adopted by all producers because the universal standard.

The Storyline of Quartz movement at Girard-Perregaux

Within the sixties, Girard-Perregaux was among the couple of brands by having an in-house R&D department, positioning the firm to reply to the arrival of then cutting-edge Quartz movement actions. American, Japanese and Swiss firms competed to create we’ve got the technology to promote. Some Swiss watchmakers were undertaking joint research, from 1962 the G-P manufacture struck out by itself, hesitant to be determined by outdoors providers. In 1969 the company received its first patent relevant to Quartz movement technology.

In the 1970 Basel fair, G-P revealed the Elcron, a Quartz movement watch featuring an 8,192 Hz Quartz movement oscillator. The Manufacture individually introduced this discovery at Basel simultaneously because the arrival from the CEH consortium’s watches outfitted using the Beta 21. Other brands also released Quartz movement watches in 1970. The year after G-P presented another generation of watches, using the Quartz movement oscillating the very first time at 32,768 Hz, a frequency adopted since that time like a universal standard.

The GP-350 movement were built with a rate error of a single minute each year. Girard-Perregaux posted it towards the Neuchatel Observatory. The very first time, Quartz movement wrist watches passed both static and dynamic tests. Following 38 times of testing, Girard-Perregaux Quartz movement watches were licensed through the Neuchatel Observatory in 1971-1972, testifying for their precision and reliability. A lot more than 20,000 GP-350 actions were produced for Girard-Perregaux as well as for other brands. A couple of years later, in 1975, the Manufacture made the decision to devote its progress within the area of Quartz movement to the latest creation, the Laureato.

The Anniversary Laureato Quartz movement

Introduced in 1975, the Laureato was completely remodeled in 1995 and outfitted using the brand’s GP3100 automatic mechanical movement. The road went through an additional transformation in 2003 and many complications were offered. The brand new anniversary model is outfitted with a brand new Quartz movement movement. The GP13500 naturally oscillates in a frequency of 32,768 Hz. This important number in G-P history is written around the dial at 6 o’clock. The brand new movement is created in Girard-Perregaux’s own training courses, which focus just as much attention on its technical performance as on its finishes. The transparent situation-back discloses the movement using its Cotes p Genève decoration and blued steel screws. Battery cover is personalized with “golden-bridge” formed retainers and placed using the Manufacture’s logo design.

The 35th Anniversary Laureato Quartz movement watch is going to be created inside a designated limited number of 40 pieces in stainless having a recommended retail cost of $12,000.

Technical Specifications

Steel situation

Dimensions: 42.60 mm diameter x 11.6 mm thick.

Antireflective azure very

Azure situation-back guaranteed by 6 screws

Water proofing: 100 meters

Girard-Perregaux GP13500 Quartz movement movement

Frequency: 32,768 Hz

Jewels: 7

Functions: hour, minute, second, date

Steel bracelet with folding buckle

Limited and designated edition of 40 pieces