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The businessman’s ultimate world timer

Few names in the rarefied world of Swiss “Haute Horlogerie” are as evocative and rich in history as Girard-Perregaux. The activities of the company can be traced as far back as 1791 and are marked by exceptional timepieces such as the Tourbillon with three gold Bridges.

Girard-Perregaux is one of the rare genuine Manufactures. Under the leadership of Luigi Macaluso, President of the Brand since 1992, the company, takes a holistic approach to watchmaking, designing, creating, developing and producing both the external components of a watch and its core, the movement.

“For us the movement is not a marketing tool but is the heart of the company,” says Stefano Macaluso, Vice-president of Girard-Perregaux. “Over the last 30 years we have made huge investments in R&D. We have invested time and money producing different families of movements, not just watches.”

As a consequence, Girard-Perregaux has one of the most comprehensive movement portfolios with more than 100 different versions: a wide collection of haute horlogerie movements, a complete range of self-winding mechanical movements which can be fitted to all watch types, and also a quartz movement collection, which is why other watch companies are buying Girard-Perregaux movements.

Alongside the development of the movement portfolio, Girard-Perregaux also pays a great attention to ergonomics, shapes, and materials. This holistic and passionate vision has given rise to emotionally charged watches.

“As my father says,” under-lines Stefano Macaluso, “we must be more Swiss than the Swiss and in the meantime our Italian culture helps us to find most interesting details and shapes.

“For us it is important to find the best combination between design and engineering and the use of contemporary materials. The main target is to find the best balance between what is inside the watch and what is outside.” To achieve this they spend years in trials and research making up to 20 different prototypes in order to be satisfied with the result.

This integrated approach means that the Manufacture brings together many different skills, from engineers to master-watchmakers, via enamellers or movement decorating specialists. Each specialist devotes all his experience to perfecting the watches, with meticulous patience and know-how enriched by generations of craftsmen.

“Behind our cases, behind our movements we have extremely skillful people,” comments Macaluso. “We need watchmakers with at least ten years training. It sometimes takes years to develop and produce a new model. We produce just a few thousand watches per year, all handmade. We do not have a mass market attitude, we are much more interested in quality than in quantity. We make a limited production since each watch takes so many hours to make.”

“For Only Watch 09 we have created a special World Time wristwatch,” explains Stefano Macaluso. “It is a special edition from our ww.tc collection – that means, World Wide Time Control. It integrates two important complications: a world timer and chronograph.”

This unique watch has white luminous central hands that display the local time and an outer rotating ring displaying 24 world time-zone cities.

Every city symbolizes a time-zone in the world. For this unique Only Watch edition, Girard-Perregaux has chosen Monaco to represent Europe.

“So, if it is 2:45 p.m. in Monaco,” says Macaluso, “and you want to know the time in Tokyo you look for the city of Tokyo on the outer ring, and you see it is 10:45 p.m.. The rotating discs make one turn every 24 hours. The day hours and the night hours are also indicated by a small moon over the night hours and a small sun over the day hours.

This is also the first ww.tc chronograph to feature a fly-back function thanks to the Girard-Perregaux mechanical movement GP3387. This means that the chronograph can be instantly re-set to zero and restarted without pushing a stop button, thus saving precious time.

This watch also has a 43 mm black ceramic case. “Ceramic is interesting,” says Macaluso, “because in the last ten years the technology has developed tremendously. This outstanding material is extremely resistant, antiscratch and is also very light, which gives the watch a sporty look which is enhanced by the red hands.” This case – made of 43 different components– is the result of an advanced technology design and involves ultra-modern production methods.

“This piece represents the spirit of the brand quite well,” says Macaluso. “Firstly because it is a world timer and secondly because of the ceramic used for the case – Girard-Perregaux is a historical brand with a contemporary approach translating traditional crafts into a modern attitude. This complication and this material really prove this. Today we live in a society where people move around all the time, so this type of complication is completely coherent in terms of design and in terms of function to a contemporary lifestyle.”

 

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For more information contact:
Ita McCobb
Patrizzi & Co Auctioneers SA
Tel +41 22 318 28 38
e-mail i.mccobb@patrizziauction.com

Audrey Baylac
Association Monégasque contre les Myopathies / Monaco Yacht Show
Tel +377 93 10 41 70
e-mail audrey@monacoyachtshow.mc