Girard Perregaux

[antonis_ch]

Ομορφο ρολοι!

[marios_ch]

GIRARD-PERREGAUX - Dominique Loiseau joins the team
Girard-Perregaux is proud to announce the addition of legendary watchmaker, Dominique Loiseau, to its manufacturing team.

Dominique Loiseau has worked at the summit of complex horology for more than 30 years and is the creator of remarkable timepieces such as the six Montres de Sables, the Rose des Temps clock, the Renaissance or Capriccio pocket watches and the famed Blancpain 1735 wristwatch. His latest timepiece, the Loiseau 1f4, is the most complicated automatic watch in the industry with eight patents in its movement. A restorer of collectors’ timepieces, artisan and teacher at the International Museum of Watchmaking in La Chaux-de-Fonds, where the Girard-Perregaux manufacture is located, Loiseau is no stranger to the brand’s historical heritage and innovations.



“Girard-Perregaux is a unique brand in that it is a true manufacture founded in very rich history and heritage”, says Dominique Loiseau. “I am very excited to have become a part of this amazing team and look forward to a successful partnership”.

Loiseau was brought in by the Sowind Group (Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard) during the last quarter of 2011 in order to strengthen the brand’s “think tank”. He will not only bring a fresh perspective to the brand but has also taken on the project of developing new complications and movements.

“We are extremely happy to have a man such as Dominique Loiseau on board”, says Michele Sofisti, CEO of Sowind Group (Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard). “He is a true visionary, a legend within our world, but more importantly, he understands the values Girard-Perregaux stands for: heritage, manufacture and passion”.

http://www.worldtempus.com/en/news/top- ... -the-team/

[Megalos]

μπραβο στην GP ... τρομερη κινηση νομιζω ...ενας αξιολογος ωρολογοποιος ειναι ο ανθρωπος
δειτε το ρολοι που εφτιαξε το 1f4

[antonis_ch]

SIHH 2012: Girard-Perregaux 1966 Minute Repeater

[marios_ch]

SIHH 2012: Girard-Perregaux Laureato Tourbillon with 3 Bridges

The new Girard-Perregaux Laureato Tourbillon with 3 Bridges is a limited edition of 10 pieces that pays homage to its predecessor, the GP tourbillon three gold Bridges which was first introduced in 1889. The tourbillon and other components are visible on the dial-side behind three translucent blue parallel bridges. The octagonal platinum bezel alternates satin-brushed and polished finishes for an interesting effect if you examine it for a bit.

Girard-Perregaux Laureato Tourbillon with 3 Bridges

Numbered, limited edition of 10 pieces

42.6mm titanium case with platinum bezel, automatic mechanical Girard-Perregaux 9600-0004 movement with tourbillon, display back, titanium bracelet





http://blog.perpetuelle.com/watches/sih ... 3-bridges/

[antonis_ch]

Φαινεται αρκετα δουλεμενο απο μηχανικης πλευρας..
Απο αισθητικης δεν μου λεει τπτ παντως...

[Megalos]

SIHH 2012: Girard-Perregaux 1966 Minute Repeater

Αντωνη εμαθες οτι μου αρεσουν τελευταια τα minute repeater και βαλθηκες να με ψησεις
για πες μας και εσυ οπως ο Στεφανος ποσο παει το μαλλι ??

[antonis_ch]

Δυστυχως δεν ξερω Κωστα μου..

[Georges]

Αντωνη εμαθες οτι μου αρεσουν τελευταια τα minute repeater και βαλθηκες να με ψησεις
για πες μας και εσυ οπως ο Στεφανος ποσο παει το μαλλι ??

Τώρα κατάλαβα τι σημαίνει η ιστορική πλέον φράση..."Λεφτά Υπάρχουν"


Φιλικά Γιώργος

[marios_ch]

GIRARD-PERREGAUX - Centuries of Elegance

Girard-Prerregaux celebrates its 220th anniversary with new timepieces and looks back at its rich history.


IW Magazine - 20 January 2012

Elizabeth Doerr



Stefano Macaluso receives me in an office filled with the beautiful autumn light of La Chaux-de-Fonds. However, it’s not the light streaming through the large, slanted rooftop windows that catches my attention as I come into the room. It’s the Ferrari and other engine blocks on show as part of the room’s décor that capture my attention.

“Interesting decoration,” I say. Macaluso smiles. “These belonged to my father; this was his office and I haven’t changed anything,” he replies.

That makes sense. Stefano’s father, Luigi (known to his friends by the Italian diminutive form Gino), passed away quite suddenly last year at the age of 62. He was considered the savior of this traditional Swiss brand after it emerged from the difficulty of the quartz crisis. Gino was an Italian distributor and watch wholesaler for Omega and Girard-Perregaux and in 1992 was offered the chance to purchase the entire factory.



Stefano was thirteen years old at that time and his brother Massimo, who is in charge of the firm’s sister brand JeanRichard, was eleven. Their father possessed a degree in architecture and much experience as a rally driver. He rented an apartment in La Chaux-de-Fonds and went to work to restore the traditional brand to its former glory.

Stefano Macaluso—now general manager of Girard-Perregaux—has followed in his father’s footsteps. Having obtained a degree in architecture from the Technical University of Turin, he is also highly enamored of automobiles and has competed in Italian, European and world championship rallies. A serious man, he is an obvious choice to continue to lead the brand the way that his father most likely would have.

“I don’t do anything for the short term—I always plan far in advance,” Luigi Macaluso said in a 2007 interview. The president of the Sowind Group, under whose roof the two watch companies Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard are united, was certainly referring to his many Swiss strategies.


Enter Gucci

In July 2011, PPR (the “Gucci group”) became the majority shareholder of Sowind Group with a 50.1-percent stake. In 2008, PPR had already acquired 23 percent of Macaluso’s company—certainly a move made within Luigi’s long-term vision.



“This was already on the way [before my father’s death],” Stefano confirms. “However, we do not plan any further big changes and look forward to stability from here on out,” he adds. “We are also directly connected to Mr. Pinault [François-Henri Pinault is the CEO of PPR]; we are not a branch of a branch of a branch.” Stefano is obviously quite proud of this and goes on to cite the fact that PPR’s annual turnover is bigger than that of both Richemont and LVMH, the other two luxury group giants active in the watch universe.

The acquisition of Sowind Group was a very clever one indeed if PPR is looking to get serious about haute horlogerie. Not only is Girard-Perregaux a grand historical name that has access to reliable base manufacture calibers thanks to Sowind Manufacturing, it also disposes of one other big manufacturing capability that enables the La Chaux-de-Fonds-based brand to rely on one less supplier.

EMG (named for Eric-Marcel Grandjean) was rechristened Ateliers Bautte on January 1, 2007, a date marking the hundredth anniversary of Girard-Perregaux’s acquisition of Jean-François Bautte’s company. Indeed, it is Bautte’s year of establishment (1791) that Girard-Perregaux now uses as its own founding date. Today, Ateliers Bautte’s function is simple: this is where cases are made for Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard. Not surprisingly, Bautte was famous for his artistic cases more than 200 years ago.



Products

One of Stefano’s main jobs lies in the design of the brand’s products. He is passionate about design and puts his architectural background to good use through his involvement in product creation. He makes it clear that not so very much is due to change at Girard-Perregaux in terms of direction or fundamental concept despite the new ownership relationship.

“We may perhaps be strengthening the high-end segment of minute repeaters,” he reveals with a nod toward SIHH 2012. “And we might be putting more effort into chronographs, including an automatic chronograph down the road.”


Constant escapement

He adds that his firm is also finalizing the movement architecture of the Constant Escapement. Avid readers will recall the brand having introduced the mechanical Constant Escapement with unusual geometry and two escape wheels in 2008. The so-called escapement spring is perhaps its most important component: it comprises a silicon frame, a connecting blade that is thinner than a human hair, and an impulse lever as one solitary piece. The other impulse lever and the winding lever are manufactured in LIGA nickel.

Girard-Perregaux calls this a constant-force escapement since it delivers constant power to the oscillator, constant amplitude and a constant rate. Additionally, it needs no lubrication. Though it has been successfully tested up to 7 Hz, Stefano explains that the brand has practically settled on bringing it out in a three-Hertz version with a large power reserve and a big balance wheel, the mass of which necessitates an “old style” lower frequency.

“It will be a couple of years before we see it appear within a watch,” he adds.



SIHH 2012

At the 2012 edition of the SIHH, one of the new Girard-Perregaux timepieces is a line extension of the 1966 Annual Calendar and Equation of Time—arguably the most stunning wristwatch the brand introduced in 2009. The new version boasts a ruthenium dial, which lends the entire timepiece a whole new feel. It should be well noted that the calendar functions of the 40 mm rose gold timepiece are set and adjusted solely by the crown and can be done in both directions—making this beauty very user-friendly in addition to being so incredibly aesthetic.

Paying direct tribute to the brand’s rich history, Girard-Perregaux will also launch the 1966 Small Second at the January fair. A classically elegant timepiece that is destined to remain timeless, this automatic watch powered by GP Caliber 3300 comes in a 38 mm rose gold case.

A numbered, limited edition of 100 pieces, it is characterized by a pure design putting emphasis on the subsidiary seconds found at 9, and the date window balancing it out directly across the dial. The numerals are painted against a hand-grained dial that was inspired by a nineteenth-century Girard-Perregaux pocket watch. The new launches at the Geneva fair will also include two more models from the 1966 range in 41 and 42 mm sizes.
Stefano is clearly enamored of the new additions to the fold. “We are paying tribute to both Bautte and Constant Girard with models like these,” he says. “And I’m part of this legacy. I feel the heritage from the generations before me.”



Historic Tour

Girard-Perregaux recently toured the globe with an exhibition of some of the 220-year-old firm’s most important historical timepieces. Here are examples of pieces from the exhibit, which touched down in New York, Singapore and Shanghai. These pocket watches and wristwatches that seldom leave Girard-Perregaux’s museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds. On hand to launch and explain each exhibition were Girard-Perregaux general manager Stefano Macaluso and Girard-Perregaux museum curator Willy Schweizer.

http://www.worldtempus.com/en/news/top- ... -elegance/