Preowned Girard-Perregaux Watches

About Girard-Perregaux

Swiss watch metropolis La Chaux-de-Fonds is where Girard-Perregaux is located. An Art Nouveau building on Rue Numa Droz erected in 1904 today houses the lion's share of the production department. The building, the length of which stretches almost all the way down the block, once served as the offices for the Tavannes watch factory outside the city, which employed around 2,000 people during its heyday. 'We could have built a new factory on the outskirts like many of our competitors do,' owner Luigi Macaluso remarks, before adding, 'that would probably have been much cheaper too.'

The building was completely renovated in order to recreate its original look. Old style elements were restored with great care. The majority of the 360 employees moved to various other locations on Rue Numa Droz at the beginning of 2003.

In manufacturing movements, Girard-Perregaux is for the most part autonomous, and even movement design is done in-house. Naturally mainsprings, gear wheel sets, balances, and escapement parts are purchased. Base plates, however, are created on modern CNC machines. All flat components are hand-finished with decorations like perlage and cotes circulaires, and all edges are beveled at a 45 degree angle before they are polished and treated with a galvanic precious metal coating. The edges of steel components are polished and given fine tin polishing. All this work is chiefly done in-house at Girard-Perregaux. Alongside movements, cases and metal bracelet elements are also created in the building on Rue Numa Droz. Additionally, the departments for research and development and 'methode' are also housed here – the latter occupying itself with purchasing tools and machines as well as developing them when they are not regularly available. The eight employees in the research and development and methode sections dispose of a budget that on average comprises about 10 percent of the company’s annual turnover. Haute horlogerie watches are manufactured in another building located on a hill above the manufacture. Especially talented watchmakers occupy themselves with assembling complicated watches such as models belonging to the repeater family Opera and the Tourbillon with Three Golden bridges.

The delicacy of a tourbillon and the clever sound and motion technology of a repeater are united in the new Vintage 1945 Jackpot model, lustily crossing the border between tool and toy. This watch is namely an authentic slot machine for the wrist, inspired by a vintage American slot machine. The lever on the right side of the case sets three little cylinders in motion that are each printed with five different symbols. The system disposes of a stop mechanism that halts the cylinders randomly. At the same time, a chime is activated whose little hammer hits a gong, making a little 'ding' sound when one of the cylinders stops.

A fully new movement was developed to realize this charming complication: manufacture caliber GPFAY08 Jackpot Tourbillon measures 38.6 x 32.6 mm, beats at a frequency of 21,600 vph, and has a power reserve of four days (96 hours).