GIRARD-PERREGAUX 1966 MINUTE REPEATER

Courtesy of Girard-Perregaux

I have always been fascinated by repeaters.  They are neat to say the least - more than an alarm, and far more elegant than a simple quartz sports watch.  In Carter Beats the Devil a repeater plays a role, as did Breguet repeaters in several famous novels.  But for me, the beauty of a repeater is in the elegant simplicity of the idea - a watch that will chime out the time when you activate the mechanism.

Well, not so simple actually -

Courtesy of Girard-Perregaux

But leave it to Girard-Perregaux to tackle the complexity in such an elegant fashion - clearly one of the highlights of 2012.

For those of you more technically inclined, here are the details -

Technical specifications

Polished pink gold case with anti-reflective sapphire crystal

Bezel: round diamond-polished and shot-blasted interior

Case-back: closed by 4 screws with anti-reflective sapphire crystal, all inscriptions hand-engraved

Case dimensions: 42.00 mm

Water resistance: 30 metres

Crown: pink gold with engraved GP logo

Dial: white enamel, pink gold applied numerals

Hands: Leaf-shaped, blued and diamond-polished piece by piece

Courtesy of Girard-Perregaux

Girard-Perregaux E09-0001 movement

Mechanical with manual winding

Display: hours, minutes, small seconds

Dimensions: 14¼’’’ - 32 mm

Total height: 5.36 mm

Number of components: 317

Jewels: 27

Power reserve: minimum100 hours

Winding: manual

Variable inertia balance wheel

"Rounded" gold balance bridge, half-arrow type

Frequency: 21,600 vibrations / hour (3 Hz)

Mainplate: rhodium-plated and circular-grained

Bridges: Côtes de Genève, polished re-entrant angles

Striking mechanism with two opposing hammers, hours, quarter hours, minutes

Striking-mechanism speed regulation via inertia wheel, countersprings accessible on the bridge side, inverted minutes rack; conventional striking gongs.

Strap in full black matt alligator

Pink gold ardillon buckle

Numbered edition

Reference 99650-52-711-BK6A