Cat’s Eye Tourbillon with Gold Bridge

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Cat’s Eye Tourbillon with Gold Bridge - Girard-Perregaux
The aesthetic refinement of this timepiece - shortlisted for the 2016 GPHG - is equalled only by the virtuosity of its mechanical movement.

Girard-Perregaux’s Cat’s Eye collection is twelve years old this year, and ever since the first model was launched in 2004 it has continued to delight women with its refined designs and beautiful mechanics. Like many women’s watches, it owes some of its success to the unconventional case shape. The original Cat’s Eye was launched in a sensuously curved horizontal oval case; it subsequently switched to a vertical orientation, while losing none of its femininity. Whether in gold or steel, the Cat’s Eye comes with a minimum of a diamond-set bezel, the gems multiplying further in the high jewellery variants. Their dials are richly and elegantly decorated, whether with diamonds, guilloché mother-of-pearl or even embroidery, tastefully offsetting the rounded Arabic numerals. The mechanical heart of this collection beats to the rhythm of movements that offer functions such as small seconds, power reserve indicator, day/night display, annual calendar and zodiac.

But where the vertically-oriented Cat’s Eye really comes into its own is as a perfect frame for Girard-Perregaux’s iconic tourbillon with gold bridge at 6 o’clock, one of the rare tourbillons available in a women’s watch. The Cat’s Eye Tourbillon with Gold Bridge, which has been shortlisted by the GPHG jury for the 2016 Ladies’ High-Mech prize, is nevertheless not the first of its kind. It is preceded by a high jewellery version (2011), a version with a floral mother-of-pearl dial (2014) and another with a pearl-drop motif, all driven by the famous hand-wound GP09700 manufacture movement.

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The white gold case of the Cat’s Eye Tourbillon with Gold Bridge shortlisted for the 2016 GPHG is topped with a bezel set with 50 diamonds, which frames a natural white mother-of-pearl dial engraved with delicate droplet-shaped petals, tiny stars and slender fronds that twine elegantly beneath the leaf-shaped hands. At 6 o’clock sits the tourbillon beneath its white gold bridge, also engraved with floral motifs. The in-house GP09700-00012 manually-wound calibre, made up of 174 parts, provides a minimum power reserve of 70 hours. The movement is beautifully finished, as befits the subtle design of the dial: rhodium-plated, circular-grained baseplate, Geneva-striped bridges and a hand-engraved, polished tourbillon bridge, as well as brushed sides and back.

As if the beauty of the watch itself were not sufficient to draw the eye, an ultra-feminine strap in bold red alligator leather provides a stunning foil to the radiant white gold case and mother-of-pearl dial.
This watch is also available in rose gold with a navy blue strap, as well as in a more precious variant with a white gold case set with 294 brilliant-cut diamonds, which also comes with a red strap.

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Featured brand
Girard-Perregaux