Hi all,
After being leant his pride and joy by a friend of mine, I would like to say a big thank you and purchase one of these watches but their Ferrari branded model.
Being honest, I know very little about this brand - are there any GP afficionado's on here who can give me some guidance and possibly buying tips and locations?
My thanks (as always) in advance,
Neil
Two GPs that I'd be all over if they were available at market prices.
[attachment=0:2zzofykw]z1.jpg[/attachment:2zzofykw]
[attachment=1:2zzofykw]FAV3.jpg[/attachment:2zzofykw]
I know the movement is the fairly solid but unloved ETA/DD module but the looks are killer.
If ever you see a modern G.P on Ebay at a low starting price and no reserve you can be fairly much guaranteed a bargain.
Buy-it-now prices tend to be far too optimistic.
BTW - The worldtimers are excellent too.
I had a Ferrari G-P - an F1-2000:
I really liked it, it was certainly one of my favourites, and I sold it only as part of a large collection rationalisation exercise. Fortunately to a mate so I might be able to get it back ...
They have used a mixture of in-house and ETA movements. E.g. my watch had an in-house base movement with a DD chrono module; but similar versions were available with an ETA base. Nowadays they seem to moving towards being fully in-house. They have a second brand - Daniel Jean-RIchard - which tend to use ETA movements.
I believe they are one of the oldest watch makers still in existence. Second oldest perhaps?
Price wise they do not hold their value well, and some secondhand (and probably new) bargains are to be had.
FYI the Ferrari tie-in did produce some shockers - best to look out for one without the prancing horse on the dial in my opinion. However, the Ferrari watch-maker is now Panerai.
Thanks gents, I must say the more I read the more they appear to be an overlooked brand (in my case anyway).
Having never seen one in the flesh and reading the sizes, do they wear bigger than their physical size suggests?
GP are probably the most unsung heroes of the watch world ... nevertheless, these days and for the few years, they have been using way too many modules.Originally Posted by welshwatchman
Stay away from the modules and buy second hand. I love their divers.
john
"The whole purpose of mechanical watches is to be impertinent." ~ Lionel a Marca, CEO of Breguet
Cheers,
Ben
..... for I have become the Jedi of flippers
" an extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife "
SeaHawk GPGGYC
One of the best watches, I have have ever had the pleasure of owning.
Simply faaantastic quality.
GP rocks.
They drop in value like dead Dodos though, so buy second hand.
The first rule of the 'Prospective GP Owners Club' is 'Never pay retail'
The second rule is 'NEVER pay retail'.
Good watches ruined by lousy spares availability -Tip: For bracelets, links and straps you can order direct from the boutique in Gstaat who could not be nicer and are cheaper (by far) than the UK- and an arrogant service departmet. In fact as long as you dont want to sell it or your watch develops a fault they are great watches (3 Bridges is stunning watchmaking),
Joe
This is mine. It has a reworked AS movement. It was cased up (thin gold) in Argentina. I only and always wear it with a dinner suit.
Always like them and nearly got one cased in Argie, outbid on the bay tho.....Lovely piece that real class
Where do I start.
Girard Perregaux produced the world's first wristwatch (for the German Navy)
They produced the torbillion with three gold bridges that was so amazingly precise that after some years it was banned from chronometry competitions because nothing else had a hope of beating it.
In the 1957 GP produced their revolutionary 'gyromatic' movement, self winding, accurate automatic which was way ahead of most competition of the time. In 1965 this had been developed into a special 36,000 bph movement which was incredibly accurate and not far off 50 years later remains deeply impressive. All 'high frequency' chronometers were guaranteed accurate to within 1 minute a month.
In 1966-67 GP produced the only observatory chronometer rated wristwatches that were for public sale .
These were a development of the high frequency gyromatic and rated accurate over 45 days to less than 1 second deviation per day. It is the equivalent of offering a F1 car for sale which can be used on the road...the very few others from other manufacturers were not series production and rarely found their way into public hands. About 670 examples were produced. These are simply the most accurate mechanical wristwatches ever made that have been produced in any quantity and sold to the public.
In 1971 GP decided that quartz was the way to go and developed their own standard for quartz movements which was subsequently adopted by the entire industry at 32,768hz.
In the 1990s GP produced the first torbillion with 3 gold bridges in a wristwatch form.
All GP's now use movements which are designed and manufactured entirely in house. GP are one of the few true manufactures left.
Alas, the sales/service office in the uk has just been binned...in a few days your GP will have to be shipped to Italy for attention. Go figure...I think they are potty for doing this when sales of high end luxury watches are booming, but they decide to pull out of the UK. When other brands with far less going for them are expanding with boutiques and heavy advertising they pull out. I think the death of Gino Macaluso can't have helped the situation which would appear to be politically driven. That is a story for another time. Girard Perregaux has been making fine watches since 1791 and I am sure they will continue to do so for another 220 years.
Most of my collection are vintage but any modern GP is a fantastic quality watch...and to see one on another wrist (never seen one outside of a watch event yet) I think marks the owner out as a cultured individual who has great taste and is not interested in advertising the fact, though maybe very discreetly.
^^^^ Great post and a very nice read :wink: :thumbright:
The GP Constant Escapement
http://revo-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4685
Walks all over the co-ax. :P
Probably the best mechanical movement ever.
john
"The whole purpose of mechanical watches is to be impertinent." ~ Lionel a Marca, CEO of Breguet
John, is it in production yet?
The GP Constant Escapement
http://revo-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4685
Walks all over the co-ax. :P
Probably the best mechanical movement ever.
john
Best wishes,
Bob
My word that does look a tastey piece :P
The GP Constant Escapement
http://revo-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4685
Walks all over the co-ax. :P
Probably the best mechanical movement ever.
john
Many thanks all - the search is on but proving a little fruitless.
Does anyone know of a pre-owned specialist who would be able to source / offer from stock this brand?
I have seen the one posted above at WoD and it's a little too 'bright' for me to offer to my friend.
I did find this thread:
http://www.watchsea24.com/en/girard-per ... _price-asc
But with most of these in mainland EU and with no real in the flesh idea of how these'll look, I'd really like to see a couple before choosing.
Lastly, for those who have owned - do these wear larger on the wrist than the case size suggests?
As always, my thanks in advance,
Neil
My GP wore great
In London I have seen G-P in both Harrods and Selfridges so that may provide the possibility to try them on. With thanks in advance to Mark (Sharky) for using his picture; here's mine.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
I'm pretty sure I've seen them in Boucheron as they're part of the same group now.
Malc
Wow..
I had been to the London Office a few times in the last couple of years.. they were always very helpful.. though the guy doing the servicing was a bit hit and miss.. maybe that has caused the move back to italy..
Though I would be very wary of owning such expensive (retail) watches when there is no UK based backup..
Cheers
Matt
+ 1 I once owned a sea hawk 2 but sold it on and regretted it ever since :cry:GP are probably the most unsung heroes of the watch world ... nevertheless, these days and for the few years, they have been using way too many modules.
Stay away from the modules and buy second hand. I love their divers.
john
There was a Sales Post here about 12-18 months ago for a WG 1966. It was a great watch for the money.
Pity there are not more of them around.
Yep, and I was asking only £2,800 for it. The retail now is about £12,000. I hope my brother is enjoying it =)
Sadly GP doesn't do a 'normal' watch in steel. That forces you to go for one of their sporty Laureato or Seahawk models (large, and expensive at retail considering they are steel) or for one of their in-house chronos (also very expensive and not very common). The only dress watch they produce in steel is the 1945, which is an art-deco square design, which may not appeal to all tastes, and the WWTC, which is a complicated watch and very expensive at retail.
Nonetheless, there are a lot of good second hand deals, particularly from the now-defunct Ferrari lines (with in-house 3300s and DD modules) and the discontinued Classic line, some of which have 3300s. I've seen some of the steel Classic 3300 models go for a mere $2000 in the US.
From a technical standpoint, the GP3300 is very well executed, and was the first large production calibre to use ceramic bearings in the winding system (preceding JLC by a little bit). It's formed the base for watches ranging from Vacheron Constantin (in the original Overseas) and Van Cleefs, all the way to MB&F's ridiculous No.3 as the base calibre and one of the new dress watches from Harry Winston (the other using an F.Piguet). I'd rank it up there with the Piguet 1150 and the Lemania 8810, though it's probably an easier movement to service. Note that service costs in the UK are £500 for automatics and £600 for chronos.
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