It is fair to say that, since the business was bought by its management team under Patrick Pruniaux, Girard-Perregaux has thrown its weight behind its most commercial sports-lux Laureato collection.
This is intentional, but the brand has been consistently clear since the takeover that it wants the history and haute horlogerie of its Three Bridges line (now renamed as simply the Bridges collection) to be maintained.
GP’s latest launch is a version of its Free Bridge watch with a meteorite dial.
The watch appears skeletonised, with its main barrel and balance spring on view at the top and bottom of the dial, but really the GP01800-2085 automatic movement is upside down, exposing the bridges that keep moving wheels, gears and springs in place and creating an anchor point for hours and minutes hands.
It is a technique that dates back to In 1889 when La Esmeralda, a chronometer with three gold bridges, won a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition for its inverted movement.
The watch’s monochrome dial is decorated with slithers of the Gibeon meteorite, a space rock found in Namibia.
Inside its 44mm polished and brushed steel case beats Girard-Perregaux’s GP01800-2085, an upgrade to its Calibre GP01800 with its escape wheel, pallet lever and balance wheel arms made from lightweight silicium. This helps it run efficiently and maintain a power reserve of 54 hours.
The manufacture movement has an open-worked rotor carrying the GP logo in gold, and plates decorated in the traditional Cotes de Geneve stripes; all visible via an exhibition case back.
The watch is on sale from today with a price of £21,900 / $25,700.
