Three Bridges in the Valley of Dreams

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The pride of Girard-Perregaux
click on the picture for an enlarged view (courtesy of Thomas Prescher)

The Specifications:

A lot of things can (and will) be said about this masterpiece. The pure facts:

• 18k gold case,
• Guinand-type 2 polished steel carriage with one-minute tourbillon, movement with gold train,
• pivoted detent escapement with gold spring, compensation bi-metallic balance, blued steel hairspring with regulator, 
• typical Girard Perregaux triple gold bridges, 
• silver engine-turned dial with roman numerals and subsidiary seconds at 3 o'clock, blued steel hands, 
• gold engine-turned case with silver engine-turned band and crystal display back, 
• the dial signed Tourbillon by Ernest Guinand 33338, movement signed Girard Perregaux, case bow stamped with London hallmarks, with custom-made pink leather box with suede interior

The story behind the story

The history of Girard-Perregaux spans more than 200 years and is full of interesting watches and people.I always enjoy encountering unusual or outstanding examples of this legacy, so you may understand my excitement when German master watchmaker Thomas Prescher told me he had received a very special piece for restoration.
An AHCI member, with vast experience in vintage haute horlogerie pieces, Mr. Prescher has invited ThePuristS.com to participate in the restoration of this wonderful watch.

We both knew this was a highly important watch, not only for Girard-Perregaux, but significant for its place in history as well. Although this particular movement design is one of the most well-known and recognizable examples ever to be produced, the history of these pieces remains obscure.

Therefore, I am thankful for this rare opportunity to shed some light on this outstanding watch, its history and, accompanied by Thomas Prescher, the features which make it so special.

dial view

A bit of technics....

A movement with a tourbillon is a very special movement, often regarded as the most demanding and sought-after complication.

Tourbillon movements do have their origin in precision timekeeping and quite a number of tourbillon watches have been certified by astronomical observatories such as Geneva, Neuchatel and Kew.

The term "tourbillon" refers to a rotating carriage that carries the escapement (balance, hairspring, escape wheel and pallet); the purpose is to minimize the influence of gravity on the rate of mechanical movements in vertical positions. Small rate variations between positions are inevitable, even for watches in excellent condition that have been thoroughly adjusted. The tourbillon constantly rotates the orientation of the balance, hairspring and escapement, thus changing the center of gravity, which averages the positional error.

I´d like to quote Professor Jean-Claude Nicolet´s article as featured in the watch magazine "Europa Star":
"The invention belongs, unquestionably to the most famous watchmaker of all times, Abraham-Louis Breguet, who has rightly been called the "watch-maker of kings and the king of watch-makers". The second reason is because the tourbillon is a mechanism which, even in its most conventional version, is extremely hard to manufacture. At a time when all tools were still somewhat primitive, the production of a tourbillon watch was a certificate of competence far more appreciated than the diplomas awarded by the best watchmaking schools."

original size (at 1024x768 resolution, 31mm)

... and a bit of history

That said, tourbillon movements are utterly rare pieces even with modern technology and production methods.

The vintage tourbillons are even more unusual: The total number of vintage tourbillon movements between 1801 and 1945 is impossible to unravel, but estimates do not exceed 600-850 pieces by all makers. For reference: The 2003 Jaeger-LeCoultre Platinum 2 Tourbillon will be produced in 500 pieces in 2003/2004. The scheduled production of GP´s current ref. 99870, a wonderful tourbillon under 3 golden bridges in a rectangular "Vintage45" case, will be about 10 pieces per year.

The tourbillon movements by Girard-Perregaux are remarkable because of their quality and timekeeping results. And they are particularly rare, especially those featuring the unique layout under three golden bridges. Reportedly, not more than 56 pieces were made after 1865 to 1910, while 66 tourbillon watches (including those with different bridges) were submitted to the chronometer trials in this period.

Like the 1982 re-edition of 20 pocket watches with chronometer escapement and tourbillon, each of the vintage movements is a masterpiece. And, following the original purpose of a tourbillon movement, they have been ultimate precision instruments in a history of outstanding precision watches by Girard-Perregaux, like the watch no. 168230 "La Esmeralda" (pictured right).
The brand was awarded with a special prize by the observatory neuchatel in 1872, gold medals in Paris 1865 and 1881 and one movement sucessfully participated in the chronometer trials in 17 following years.

In 1892 the watch number 84409 by Girard-Perregaux was awarded with the first prize for a new record of average 22/100 seconds error (picture above).

In 1901, the tourbillon under three bridges was declared ineligible during the Paris world exhibitions because it could not be equalled. And a total of 13 gold medals during various world exhibitions in europe and "the new world" were awarded to Girard-Perregaux.

the movement after restoration

The relatively new factory had quite a lot of success:
Born in 1825, Constant Girard and his brother Numa founded the brand in 1852. In 1856 after marriage with Marie Perregaux, the brand is named Girard-Perregaux. Their watches were highly regarded throughout the world, having won many prizes and awards. Constant Girard-Perregaux is regarded an incredibly gifted watchmaker: technically minded, devising fine time-measurement instruments for his customers. A perfectionist, he was constantly trying to design increasingly sophisticated, meticulously fashioned movements.

In 1867, a watch with a Guinand tourbillon with independent "lightning seconds", number 1060, was awarded a gold medal in Paris and tested by the observatory in Neuchatel over one month, where it achieved an outstanding result: A maximum gain of 0.15 seconds per day and a temperature failure of incredible 0.00 seconds per grade Celsius.

the picture by Meis comparing movement sizes: Left 20 ligne, right 13 ligne

On march 25th, 1884, the a patent no. 144919 was filed in USA patent office stating: "Be it known that I, Girard Perregaux of Chaux-de-Fonds, Republic of Switzerland, have invented and produced a new and original Design for a watch-movement, of which the following is a full, clear and exact description: ...In a watch movement the design for a bridge, consisting a bridge having a central annular portion, spread-out ends and bar-like portions between the said annular portions and ends, as shown... The design proved to be one of the most successful watch movement designs ever, in use by Girard-Perregaux ever since.

Yet, even with those achievements, the few small tourbillons in existence may be regarded as the pinnacle of the early Girard-Perregaux tourbillon movements. To understand the difficulties in producing these outstanding movements, I would like to go back in history more than 100 years.

Girard-Perregaux and Ernest Guinand

In the Jura valley/Vallee De Joux is famous for a number of skillfull watchmakers, the best in Switzerland if it comes to comes to the invention and manufacture of highly complicated mechanical movements. While Geneva is regarded the center of beautiful and precious watches, the region between Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds is the center of precision and complicated watchmaking.

One of the most outstanding watchmakers of the valley is Ernest Guinand.
Born in 1810 and working in Le Locle, he is a renowned specialist for tourbillon movements. Since 1865, he made between 20 and 25 tourbillons for Girard-Perregaux, each of them a unique and outstanding piece. The characteristic "A-shape" of the tourbillon cages is his sign of style; during his lifetime he created three very typical shapes (pictured below).

the detent spring (original size, 5mm)

Guinand apparently regarded these small tourbillon cages his legacy to the horological world. Although they do not differ in function from than other tourbillons, they do differ in size. And it is the size that makes them so hard to make: They measure only 13 - 14.1 lignes (about 31.9mm) with a tourbillon carriage of 12mm while the predecessors measured 20 lignes (about 58mm).
No one had made such a small tourbillon cage before. And what he would never know is it would take more than 40 years for a smaller tourbillon to be created:
In 1927 James Pellaton made a a 10 1/2 ligne (23.7mm) movement with a carriage making it the smallest ever until 1945, when his former student, Fritz-Robert Charrue made a 8mm carriage in a 8 3/4 ligne (19.7mm) movement.

In Guinand's era it was unheard of to attempt, let alone succeed in making, such a small tourbillon carriage.
Every part has to be done expertly, with the carriage being even and well balanced in order to achieve perfect function. Unlike today, his tourbillon was realized without the use of Computer-Aided-design, CNC multi-axes machines, spark or wire erosion. Guinand made all parts, most measuring only a few millimeters or less and weighing one gram in total, by hand with piercing saws, files, burnishers and work without end. The difficulty of such a task can only be truly appreciated by those who have made tourbillons, but for those of us on the outside looking in, know that it wasn't until this gifted watchmaker had gained years of experience making larger tourbillons that he could finally finish such a small piece.

tourbillon cage base
the base plate measures about 12mm, the escape wheel about 5mm

The carriage is made by hand and requires meticulous work: More precision, tighter tolerances and superior craftsmanship is needed when working to this scale, as all fabrication errors have a greater effect on the smaller carriage than on larger examples.
One example of the quasi microscopic parts: The 1982 pocket watch tourbillon features a locking stone in the detent (pictured below) with a stone set of only 0.04 mm and steel lining of only 0.07mm. The rectangular section of the detent measures, at its thinner end, only 0.2mm in heigth and 0.1mm in width. The hairspring safety pin (or anti-tripping pin, pictured later) measures only 0.07mm in diameter. While making the limited edition of 20 pieces, the watchmakers of Girard-Perregaux had to hand-finish these parts with files and burnishers as no machinery was capable of working on these small parts with tolerances of one hundreth of a mm. Yet, the calibre T3P of the 1982 watches measures 45mm in diameter which is 50% larger than the small Guinand tourbillon.

It's not only skill and craftsmanship these tiny plates, screws and springs represent; it is the art of watchmaking.

But it´s not only a small working movement, it is made to be an extremely accurate movement as well.
As we have already seen, the majority of Girard-Perregaux´s tourbillons are chronometer rated movements and many of them have been extraordinary successful in the chronometer trials.

the detent spring (left: 1982, rigth: Guinand, before restoration)
click on the pictures to enlarge

the complete tourbillon cage, side view
click on the pictures to enlarge

The tourbillon cages by Ernest Guinand are unsigned, but can be recognized by their characteristic shape:
Left, the characteristic "A" shape of the Guinand movement and right, the "Perregaux-shape" which has been used since 1880 and was re-introduced in 1982. An example of the Guinand-1 style carriage is pictured later on this page.

the complete tourbillon cages, left: Guinand, right: 1982
click on the pictures to enlarge

This movement features not only a marvellous tourbillon, but is special and high grade in some other aspects like the mainspring barrel with "Maltese Cross", a stopwork to ensure an even power-supply from the mainspring barrel by controlling the tension to which the mainspring is subjected when winding and to limit the turns which are used for daily running:

main barrel and maltese cross (which is only 5mm)

the bi-metallic split compensation balance with 17 gold screws and amplitude safety pin on the hairspring (which will be discussed later).

(top and bottom view before restoration)

no. 38165 (tourbillon style "Guinand-2") - 80545 - 80458 (tourbillon style "Guinand-1")
click on the picture to enlarge

The finely finished base plate, with anglage and perlage

(both after restoration)

the "cotes circulaires" and hand engraved mainspring barrel with the inscription "Girard-Perregaux Patented March 27 th 1884"

(the damascened barrel)

the polished and beveled gold third wheel of the power train with its finely finished plate.

(during restoration)
click on the picture to enlarge

This watch is, in every way, a haute horlogerie piece that represents the state-of-the-art for its time and is also one of the world's great horological masterpieces.
It´s a manufacture watch, hand-crafted in every sense of the word. And the man who created it is a true Master Watchmaker.

A mystery

The number of small tourbillons made reflects the historical and horological significance, as well as, the technical and practical challenges of making this watch. The total number is still a mystery; while some sources mention only two of them in existence, at least 4 pieces are now known:

1) Watch number 133336

GP no. 133336
picture by Antiquorum
click on the picture to enlarge

The Girard-Perregaux no. 133336 bears a carriage by Ernest Guinand. According to Girard-Perregaux´s archives, this watch was sold first in February 1884.
In comparing the information about it to other examples, like the tourbillon movements no. 111543 (certified by the observatory Neuchatel 1885) and 162238 (Neuchatel 1886), it seems to have been made before the death of Ernest Guinand.
Unlike the example pictured in this article, number 133336 does have an 18K gold "hunting style" (or savonette) case, which is used with movements that have the crown at a right angle to the fourth wheel, the original case type intended for these movements.
The keyless "gold three bridge" movement sports a one-minute tourbillon with pivoted detent escapement. Like "our" example, the movement measures 31.9 mm.
The base is nickel with patented three parallel gold bridges, pillar plate and mainspring barrel being finely finished on both sides, 18 jewels with bridge side gold settings, gold train including the escape wheel, 21,600 beats per hour, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with amplitude safety device.

2) Watch, number unknown

picture by Antiquorum
click on the picture to enlarge

This Girard-Perregaux bears a very similar tourbillon by Ernest Guinand and was probably done as an exhibition piece. Created circa 1876-77, the watch was encased cased circa 1920.
This keyless pocket chronometer with one-minute tourbillons sports an off-white enamel dial by Porret, with subsidiary seconds at 3 o'clock and the inscription "Tourbillon by Ernest Guinand". Another "hunter" movement that is cased as an "open" faced watch.
The movement measures 31.9 mm, nickel with gold bridges, pillar plate and main barrel finely finished, golden wheels, 19 jewels with the bridge side jewels in gold settings, "Guinand-2" type tourbillon cage with pivoted detent escapement, 21,600 frequency, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with amplitude safety device.

3) Watch number 294362

GP no. 294362
picture by Dr. Crott auctions
click on the picture to enlarge

The Girard-Perregaux no. 294362 is probably the latest of the small tourbillon watches. It has a one-minute Tourbillon with pivoted detent escapement, interestingly having the first "Guinand-1" style tourbillon cage. This watch was completed ca. 1910 and can be traced by the chronometre records: Timed by Charles Huguenin, it was awarded a Bulletin de Marche by the Observatoire de Neuchatel 1905. Initially sold to Carl Leuchs/Frankfurt, Germany, the hunting cased is in high relief ornamented with "view of Frankfurt". The movement is again 31.9 mm, pillar plate, nickel plated and damascened with engravings: "GP logo, Déposé, number 294362, patented March 27 th 1884". Unlike the other small tourbillons, this example bears pink gold bridges and mirror polished bevels while the barrel is decorated much like the other examples.

4) This example

A first conclusion: Every one of these small tourbillon movements appears to be completed shortly before or after the death of Ernest Guinand in 1879, which becomes obvious by sales data for the watch number 133336. This movement no. 33338 is in line with Guinand´s numbering system which allows some conclusions about the date of production:
Guinand´s movements 333333, 33334 and 33335 are pivoted detent lever escapements with one-minute tourbillon as well; all of them have been submitted to the observatory of Neuchatel in 1879, the first two regulated by F. Borgstedt/Le Locle. The Girard-Perregaux watch no. 333877 with chronometer escapement and tourbillon was submitted around 1880.

That said, at least the tourbillon carriage of "our" movement no. 33338 appears to be made shortly before the death of Ernest Guinand in 1879. Some aspects, especially the lack of finish on certain parts (which will be mentioned later) point at a production during the lifetime of Guinand and a later addition of at least the mainspring barrel bearing the date of 1884.

Apparently, these movements first and foremost have been showpieces. This may explain both the date on the mainspring barrel and the unusual layout. Both known examples with enamel dials to bear the signature "Ernest Guinand" feature an unusual location of the sub-seconds at 3 o'clock which was not common taste during this period.

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where we will learn more about the restoration process and why it needs another Master Watchmaker to work on such a masterpiece.

PeterCDE

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