ELEGANCE AND TECHNIQUE MEET IN THE NEW GIRARD-PERREGAUX MINUTE REPEATER TRI-AXIAL TOURBILLON

It seems incredible but Girard-Perregaux blows our minds again. The two-century-old Swiss firm outdoes itself with an extraordinary perfect timepiece, thanks to the artisans’ experience and to the hands of a single, outstanding master craftsman. The final product is pure jewellery – we’re talking about the Minute Repeater Tri-Axial Tourbillon.

MECHANICAL PERFECTION

How did they come to such a high-quality result? Maniacal craftmanship, attention to design and the study of the tiniest details made this possible. More than 140 miniscule components in a 1.24g cage are necessary to assemble a refined, chronometer-like tri-axial tourbillon. Any balance defect is cancelled thanks to the three axes rotating at three different rhythms (the first takes 120 seconds, the second one 60 and the last 30). The outcome is the defeat of gravity. The physics law is tackled by the man – every single second follows the other without the shortest delay, regardless of the watch orientation.

THE PUREST SOUND

The Swiss brand has always demonstrated its ability as far as complications are concerned; this time, acoustics is the challenge. To get the most out of the minute repeater, the sound must be pure, clean, neat – all this needs a work as demanding as clockwork study. Girard-Perregaux watchmakers succeeded and the result couldn’t be finer.

SOPHISTICATED AND FUNCTIONAL

The Minute Repeater Tri-Axial Tourbillon aesthetic is not only a stylistic quirk, but a perpetual search for the purest of sounds and the most sophisticated mechanics. The movement lies in an awesome titanium grade 5 case, that makes the minute repeater ring spread at its best, thanks to the ratio between the metal low density and the carrure size, included in a 48mm diameter case that endures up to a 30m depth in water. Complications and movement are fully visible in all their complexity thanks to two anti-reflective box-type sapphire crystals on both sides of the mechanism – nothing to hide, just ostentation of the finest watchmaking craftmanship.

The lucky owner of the Minute Repeater Tri-Axial Tourbillon will certainly notice the absence of a proper dial, replaced by a less invasive visualisation mode, where minutes and hours are independent from each other, on sapphire counters at 3 and 9 o’clock respectively. All this was only planned in order to improve the quality of the minute repeater sound – hammers and gong-rings, now placed above the movement, make it resonate seamlessly thanks to the titanium case, instead of being muffled by the mainplate or by the wrist itself.

Lastly, we can’t miss mentioning the materials selected to craft this refined timepiece. Apart from the above-mentioned metals and crystals of the case, the hand-crafted black alligator strap, secured by a titanium clasp, also deserves attention.

Well, looks like perfection exists. And that it bears Girard-Perregaux’s signature, once again. (Price €.437.000)