Due to the sheltering-in-place and Covid circumstances, many watchmaking brands have yet to introduce a 2020 novelties lineup. One of those is highly anticipated. Girard-Perregaux haven't been making the front page when it comes to a category where they had long been a reference, high horology. This is a fundamental, flag-bearing segment, which bestows pride and produces astounding watches, where Girard-Perregaux need to find a new footing.
It should be said that they were busy relaunching the Laureato collection, pushing the Classic Bridges collection and propelling the Laureato Absolute collection. Not to mention merging their manufacture into that of Ulysse Nardin (they share the same shareholder) and changing their logo : under the Girard and Perregaux names now lies a double-arrow bridge, a nod to the emblematic shape found on the Tourbillon sous Trois Ponts d'Or.
But bear in mind that Girard-Perregaux set the haute horology tone for the better part of the 1990's and 2000's. Way before the tidal resurrection wave of high end watches, they had been offering multiple versions of their Tourbillon Sous Trois Ponts d'Or, a trailblazing and absolute reference of a timepiece.
At the same time, they were supplying collectors with the most daring chiming watches one had ever seen, the three successive versions of the Opera. Plus perpetual calendars, split-seconds chronographs and foudroyante, and several combinations of those.
By choosing to manufacture a wide range of base movements and an even wider catalog of complication modules to fit them, Girard-Perregaux treated themselves to capabilities and opportunities one can only dream of. Flyback chronograph, big date with moonphase, annual calendar with equation of time, perpetual calendar, worldtimer, tourbillon with one or three bridges, flying tourbillon, several skeletons and even micro-rotor-powered movements... there are maybe ten manufactures with such a technological array.
Most of these complications were, and still are, in-house developments. For those which weren't, like the minute repeaters, the multi-axis tourbillons or the Jackpot models (essentially, portable slot machines with a tourbillon), Girard-Perregaux are the ones doing the decorating, assembling, setting, encasing and servicing. For there is also a culture of top-of-the-line finishings within the manufacture, which has most certainly survived when the staff moved workshops. For those who doubt it, forgot about it or don't even know it, this brand can do actual wonders.
Case in point, the Neo Tourbillon with Three Bridges, which is one of their most fertile creations of late. A modern take on the classic Tourbillon Sous Trois Ponts d'Or, the Neo is a resounding design success : three-dimensional, sleek, complex, aerial, full of details, it's also a shape shifter. The timepiece first began with gold cases and black, full bridges and mainplate.
Then came a skeleton version. Then came a sapphire-case version, named Quasar. Then in 2020 came the ultimate step in transparency, Quasar Light. Its skeleton movement bears three sapphire bridges and is borne by a sapphire case. It doesn't get any more transparent (and auspicious) than that.
