With the new GP4800 base calibre featuring non-recoil fine adjustment, the manufacturer has reached a new level of horological excellence. The modern movement with extended power reserve also incorporates important traditional features of Girard-Perregaux.
Founded in 1791, the manufacturer can look back on a long tradition of unique movements, in which improving precision was often an important aspect. Foremost among these is the famous three-bridge tourbillon, which Constant Girard built for the first time in 1867. A unique construction, it is as functional as it is aesthetic with its three horizontal bridges. The shape of the bridges with their pointed ends is so iconic that it has become the Girard-Perregaux brand logo.
In 1965, the La Chaux-de-Fonds-based manufacturer developed the Gyromatic HF, the first high-frequency movement with 36,000 vibrations per hour. This significantly improved accuracy. The following year, the Neuchâtel Observatory awarded Girard-Perregaux a special prize for its exceptional contributions to chronometric precision.
The first quartz watch, introduced in 1971, was even more precise. With a frequency of 32,768 hertz, the brand set a standard that still applies today. The model first introduced in 1975 as the Quartz Chronometer and later renamed Laureato was also powered by the manufacturer’s own quartz movement. After the quartz crisis, Girard-Perregaux built another pocket watch with a three-bridge tourbillon in 1982, and in 1991 the manufacturer succeeded in incorporating the iconic design into a wristwatch.
In 1994, the manufacturer developed the GP3000 automatic calibre, a flat base calibre that still powers many Girard-Perregaux watches with three hands today. In 2013, the brand introduced the revolutionary Constant Escapement L.M., an escapement with a flexible silicon blade that replaces the anchor and escape wheel. This technical innovation ensures greater precision by providing a constant force to the balance wheel, thus compensating for the decreasing torque of the mainspring. The escapement was awarded the Aiguille d’Or at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. Today, Girard-Perregaux manufactures 30 different movements and has obtained over 80 patents.
The brand is now introducing the new GP4800 base calibre, which is developed and built entirely in-house. Thanks to numerous measures, it achieves a significantly higher level of watchmaking technology. With a diameter of 25.6 millimetres and a height of 4.28 millimetres, it strikes a good balance between compact design and robust construction, making it ideal for watches measuring 38–40 millimetres. The new automatic movement was developed with a particular focus on accuracy, reliability and aesthetics. It was also designed so that additional complications can be added at a later date.
The anchor and anchor wheel are made of the high-tech material silicon, with which Girard-Perregaux has already gained a wealth of experience in the innovative Constant Escapement L.M. The material is ideal for escapements due to several properties: thanks to its non-magnetic properties, the magnetic fields that lurk everywhere in everyday life cannot affect silicon. In addition, its low weight and low-friction, smooth surfaces ensure less power loss in the movement. Finally, the material’s wear resistance makes the movement more durable, less maintenance-intensive and prevents abrasion from affecting its accuracy.
The regulator-free fine adjustment also represents a huge step forward. With this feature, Girard-Perregaux catches up functionally with movements from Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. The calibre GP4800 can be precisely adjusted using four recessed white gold screws on the balance wheel.
Unlike the usual adjustment via a regulator moved by an eccentric screw, which changes the functional length of the balance spring, the new system allows the balance spring to breathe freely, keeping its centre of gravity the same and thus offering chronometric advantages. Girard-Perregaux also relies on a high balance wheel torque of 8 mg per cm. This is intended to make the oscillating system less susceptible to shocks – or rather, to maintain its steady beat – and improve accuracy in the event of vibrations. Another visual advantage is the beautifully large balance wheel, measuring 8.8 millimetres.
A seconds stop, which stops the balance wheel when the crown is pulled out and allows the time to be set to the second, has also been integrated into the movement.
The winding system has also been improved: the unidirectional rotor runs on a ball bearing with wear-resistant ceramic balls. This minimises abrasion and thus a decline in winding performance. A single-sided winding mechanism is generally more effective, but it can generate noise when idling. Girard-Perregaux has countered this by integrating shock protection into the movement. This is intended to make the movement quieter. Above all, it reduces susceptibility to damage from impacts, thereby increasing robustness. The winding mechanism’s clutch system has also been redesigned and is now ball-bearing mounted.
Once the rotor has wound the spring to its maximum, the movement runs for a long 55 to 60 hours. This is enough to take the watch off on Friday evening, for example, and put it back on again on Monday morning without it stopping. According to Girard-Perregaux, an even higher power reserve is of little practical use in an automatic watch, but increases the height of the movement and would no longer allow for such flat and elegant models.
Great importance was also attached to aesthetics in the design: as with the iconic three-bridge tourbillon, there are three vertical bridges – one skeletonised for the balance wheel, one for the gear train and the third for the barrel. In addition, a balance bridge fixed on both sides instead of the usual single-sided screw-mounted bridge provides greater stability.
Girard-Perregaux decorates the rhodium-plated bridges with Geneva stripes, gold-lined engravings and bevelled and polished edges. The screw heads are also polished. The wheels feature a sunburst finish. Even the invisible side of the plate is decorated with perlage, or cloud-like engraving.
The skeletonised rotor is a small work of art in its own right: it has bevelled and polished edges, the spokes are polished and the outer bevel is decorated with fine knurling. Enclosed within this is the brand name and the bridge logo as a raised and polished relief engraving on a sandblasted background.
The development of the new automatic movement took around four years. With it, Girard-Perregaux has made a technical leap forward: less sensitive to shocks, less susceptible to magnetic fields, more precise and with a longer power reserve. In addition, the movement’s construction with three bridges ties in with the rich history of the manufacture. With its non-detent fine adjustment in particular, the movement is technically on a par with calibres from significantly more expensive manufactures.
Girard-Perregaux is still keeping quiet about which model the GP4800 will make its debut in. So it remains exciting – especially as smaller and medium complications are to follow based on the movement.
