Girard-Perregaux Watches Switzerland is a watch brand renowned for taking the long view, and as a result, over time, they have produced some of the best gold, rose gold and stainless steel watches, of any vintage. Virtually any model from the Swiss brand, on both the men’s and ladies’ side, and no matter whether with stainless steel, rose gold or gold case, will always be complete with a highly detailed dial and highest quality leather strap. Girard-Perregaux Watches Switzerland and models such as the Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph,  Girard-Perregaux Seahawk, Girard-Perregaux Chronograph Ferrari F1, the Girard-Perregaux 1945 XXL Chronograph Limited Edition and Girard-Perregaux Laureato Skeleton, display the type of qualities in watch case and dial design that only a brand and company that has been established for the length of time that Girard-Perregaux has been around, is capable of.

As both a company and a watch making brand at the pinnacle of Swiss watch manufacture, not only is Girard-Perregaux regarded by many as among the very best the industry has to offer, but also one with the richest of histories. Ladies’ and men’s watchmaking by Girard-Perregaux, and its model range with perfectly decorated dial and case, usually in stainless steel, gold or rose gold, adorned with beautifully matched best leather straps, in fact dates back to a time far beyond the ‘vintage’ period, and the work of Jean-François Bautte in Geneva. Completing apprenticeships as watch case assembler, jeweler and goldsmith from the age of 12, which was not unusual for the time, Jean-François Bautte unveiled his earliest watch making independent work in 1791 in Geneva. Jean-François Bautte’s mastery of technique, including guillochage for example, were matched, and this was unusual for the time, with very astute commercial sense. Travelling widely to sell his watches, Jean-François Bautte was able to establish manufacture giving employment to a total of some 400 craftsmen and artisans, with men expert in the fine watchmaking skills being established at the time, and the rival of any contemporary watch making brand or company. Boutiques were set up in Paris, Florence and most spectacularly Geneva, where the high families of Europe, became his clients, including Queen Victoria.

The watches produced at the time from the Bautte house would offer the purchaser details such as an exquisitely decorated and florally engraved 18k (carat) gold case and dome, enamel dial with Roman numerals and Breguet hands, the frosted gilt escapement and three-arm brass balance. The time consuming and painstaking case, dial, movement and leather-work undertaken by Jean François Bautte, his associates and his son Jacques Bautte and the manufacturing skills and excellence they had achieved formed the essential parts of the succession later to be acquired by Constant Girard-Gallet, founder of the Girard & Cie watchmaking firm in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1852, and who, after his marriage to Marie Perregaux in the same year, formed the company Girard-Perregaux Manufacture in 1856.

The Girard-Perregaux manufacture, gave an early signal of its own intentions for greatness in 1884, when Constant Girard submitted a movement design to the United States Patent Office, which was to form the basis of gold case watch that was to become the Haute Horlogerie emblem of the brand, the renowned “Tourbillon Three Gold Bridges” pocket watch for men, subsequently awarded a gold medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889. A short time later, the undeniable genius of Girard-Perregaux was to be married with what had by then become the ultra-thin case and movement specialists the Bautte house, which merged with Girard-Perregaux & Cie in 1906, thus forming a new, complete, brand, company and manufacture, with watchmaking premises in La Chaux-de-Fonds and a sales network stretching beyond Europe and New York to Japan, Singapore and South America that was able to compete with the very best in gold, rose gold and stainless steel watch production of the time.

While the 20th Century was to witness setbacks for Girard-Perregaux, with the historic  originator of the ‘three gold bridges’ tourbillon watch epitomized in models such as the Girard-Perregaux Observatory Chronometer Tourbillon Pocket Watch from 1889 almost falling victim to the Great Crash of 1929, only to be rescued by Otto Graef and his family, the postwar period was to see Girard-Perregaux Watches Switzerland return once again to greatness. 1966 saw the release of the remarkable 36000 vph high-frequency caliber and the stainless steel case Gyromatic HF Watch, its accuracy rewarded with the Centenary Prize of the Neuchatel Observatory. The steps forward taken during this period are today celebrated by Girard-Perregaux in a series of stainless steel and rose gold case men’s and ladies’ watches, including the Vintage 1945 XXL collection, the  ‘World Wide Time Control – second time zone – (WWTC) watch collections, the vintage Girard-Perregaux 1966 Collection of simpler, predominantly  stainless steel case delights, the Girard-Perregaux Laureato Chronograph and modern marvels such as the Cat Eye ladies’ model, the gold watch / gold case Neo Tourbillon, and arguably most spectacularly, the Girard-Perregaux Bridges Quasar.

The latter, a massive contrast to the stainless steel case simplicity of many Girard-Perregaux vintages timepieces, follows the skeleton movement and dial complication that has been a hallmark of the brand for many years, witnessed in contemporary models from the company such as the Girard-Perregaux Laureato Skeleton, but combines this with the tourbillon complication of the gold case and three gold bridges motif epitomized in the contemporary Perregaux Neo Tourbillon in a stunningly transparent entirely sapphire crystal case, a far cry from the gold watches of old, and a real space-age model. While the 2019 Girard-Perregaux Bridges Quasar from Girard-Perregaux watches Switzerland retains a classic men's watch black leather strap this model from the brand offers an incredible way to tell the time, with the entire movement, the Three gold bridges here replaced by black PVD coated versions, on full view for all to see. The completely transparent sapphire crystal watch case offers a complete view of every element of the watch movement, tourbillon, and PVD rather than gold bridges, and as a statement of where men’s and ladies’ watch making from the brand has reached Watch Girard-Perregaux, and indeed what we might expect from the company in the future, it is a perfect testament to the work of Jean-François Bautte, his son Jacques Bautte, the original Gérard & Cie firm, and of course, the long, Neuchatel award-winning history of innovation at Girard-Perregaux Watch Switzerland.