Hello folks,

I fell in love with a 60's Girard Perregaux on chrono24, I love the shape of the arabic numerals and the shape of the hands. This would be my first non-Omega purchase and I'm not sure if it's a good move.
Does anyone have experience with GP's and their quality? Any specific problems or foibles I have to look out for?

Yours sincerely,
de Gaulle

 

GP was very successful during the mid-century, as evidenced by the huge number of their vintages watches that circulate in the market.

I'm no watchmaker, but the Gyromatic was a good and robust movement, and spare parts are readily available (through donor movements, if necessary). GP designs were widely varied, and often attractive, like the example that you show. Their overall quality was good, and they were a solid, mid-tier company.

Like most mid-tier companies, they also produced some especially fine models. I would suggest that anyone interested should look into their HF (High Frequency) chronometer models. They achieved remarkable success in the Observatory trials, and were among the most accurate production watches made during the '60s. They also remain quite undervalued, in my view.

 

Models like this can vary wildly (way too high usually) on asking price, especially on places like chrono24.

Do you have a link to the listing?

 

Oh very handsome. I was thinking of being more versed with other brands as well . I picked up a Ulysse Nardin a few days ago and was looking into a GP as well.

 

Very nice looking dial. Make sure you get a good look at the case, since it's out of focus in that photo. Something tells me it may have been polished pretty aggressively.

 

I do in fact, it's among my favourites on chrono24.
https://www.chrono24.nl/girardperre...atik-edelstahl-vintage-um-1960--id7240505.htm

 

As @Dan S suggested above, the case may well have seen some polishing. More importantly, whether intentional or not, the seller has provided photos that are not accurate, and in fact are potentially misleading. At that price I would definitely wait for a better example, and one will appear if you are patient.

 

Based on the photos I would say it's at least overpriced by a factor of 2X.

 

Someone say GP

First vintage watch I bought

Bought not that long ago from @X350 XJR

 

This looks like a nice honest watch at a very reasonable price. I've done business with Bruce for many years.

https://brucesvintagewatches.com/watches/view/507

 

That looks sweet, if it was a few mm's bigger I'd be all over it

 

That is a magnificent watch, just the perfect size for me too.
It's a pitty he's from the US. As I'm from Belgium there's some pretty hefty import taxes to consider.
Which easily makes a 240 USD watch, a 400 USD watch.

 

i have to say. i love me sum of those vintage deep divers

 

I agree, the Gyromatic is a severely undervalued watch, Is it just because they tend to be slightly small?

I dont remember GP being a company that over-counted jewels when it was fashionable to do so? The model does seem to compare favourably with the Seamaster, - if GP isnt somewhat better than its Omega counterpart. They are certainly rarer. Perhaps slightly higher quality to anyone who is familiar with the Triple Bridge, and GP are one of the companies that say they first marketed the wrist watch two decades prior to the apocryphal 1904 Cartier story. (yes, I once found a Patek Philippe wrist watch from Chile in a flea market in Sao Paolo that dated to 1903)

I got this watch in a consignment a few years ago and think it is actually quite beautiful, - possibly more attrative and stylish than its counterpart by Omega. But I have offered it at more than a dozen shows in 3-4 countries and it hasn't elicited any interest at all!

 

Any thoughts on the following G-P? Just came across it and though it runs well, I plan to have a proper service done soon and a light cleaning, though definitely not a polishing or refurbishing unless mechanical necessity demands. Sorry, only have the one pic the shopkeep allowed right now.

 

I have this chronometer high frequency 1967 GP cal32A and very happy with it. sweep hand runs smoothly like a quartz movement.



https://www.fratellowatches.com/ins...rregaux-gyromatic-chronometer-hf-calibre-32a/

 

I always get a kick of these 1950's high-count jewel movmeents. There was a jewels arms race going on at the time, as the buying public believe the more jewels, the higher end the watch was.

In the case of the 39 jewel movement, 14 of the jewels were basically used to replace roller bearings in the auto winding mechanism gears. It's debatable if these served any tangible purpose beyond increasing the jewel count.

Here's an ad illustrating how they were placed on the winding mechanism gear assemblies:





Stolen from an old OF post:

It got stupid enough at the time that companies like Waltham and Orient started advertising 100 jewel watches where jewels were used as potential rubbing strips in case the rotor ever wore to the point where it might contact a movement plate - debatable if that could ever happen without the watch stopping altogether for lack of service.

 

So what’s your side of the debate, I would like to hear it as Girard Perregaux has their side above.

 

1) I think the Gyromatic is a nice watch, so please understand I'm not advocating otherwise.

2) After the Swiss defined a functional Jewel for advertising fairness reasons, G-P stopped advertising these watches as 39 Jewel.

3) Their later re-makes of the Gyromatic were advertised as 25 jewel (sometimes less) to comply with Swiss laws.

You can read into that what you will, but my personal interpretation is that the Gyromatic system was over-hyped for the same reason Waltham made a 100 jewel movement and that the added jewels did not improve the watch's performance in a legally defensible way.

A random example from a 1970 model (after the 1965 law):

 

Big difference between the Gyromatic and the Waltham 100 jewel watch. Very big difference