Friends,
As mentioned, for the last year I have been working the Girard-Perregaux Olimpico Chronograph theme and I am now finally ready to put the first post dedicated to the 1976 Olimpico online!
This part #1 will be dedicated to the Olimpico Chronographs 9238 FA.
For me the 1976 Summer Olympic Games is a bit special to me since this is the first Game I remember seeing on television!
The big news was of course the only 14 years old gymnast from Rumania Nadia Comăneci.
She returned home with three Gold medals including the prestigious All-Around program gold.
The game was held in Montreal, Canada, the first Olympic Game to be held in Canada.
The big winners of the game were the old Eastern bloc, Soviet Union 125 medals and East Germany 90 medals.
USA got 94 medals but 6 gold medals less than East Germany…
Sylvester Stallone played “Rocky Balboa” for the first time…
And Clint Eastwood directed and played in the Outlaw Josey Wales.
The cover is MichaelC’s avatar here in the forum:
Yup, a lot of childhood memories….
But let’s have a closer look at the watch.
The Girard-Perregaux Olimpico Chronograph reference 9238 FA:
In 1976 GP made 1 000 of these watches.
They are big and bulky with typical 70’s design!
The cushion shaped stainless steel case is 42 mm across and 45.5 mm lug to lug.
Strong bi-directional bezel with 60 minutes scale.
Big doomed crystal and screw down case back.
If I am correct, two versions existed: black dial with metal color bezel and white dial with black bezel (I have not been able to verify the white version).
Mine is the black dial version with the metal bezel.
Classic 12 hours chronograph layout of the dial, running seconds at nine, chronograph minutes at three and hours at six.
Sub-dials are white to give the watch the “Panda” look.
Tachymeter scale 50 – 250 outside the minute track.
Applied luminous indexes and luminous material on the hands as well.
The red mark of the first five minutes on the chrono gives the dial just a splash of color.
The pushers are located well into the case side for protection and support.
Minimizing the risk of breaking them or get stuck in something.
In between is nice proportioned crown, easy to operate due to the size.
Inside we find the GP caliber 27-0 based on the Valjoux 726.
The difference between Valjoux 726 and Valjoux 72, if I understand correctly is that the later beats with 18 000 Vph while the Valjoux 726 holds the speed of 21 600 Vph.
Here is an identification sheet of the Valjoux 72:
Price back in 1976: on strap 450 Swiss Franc on bracelet CHF 470.
And on the wrist…? The sky is the limit!
As many of you may know, I really like the Funky 70’s design and this is no exception.
Even if quite big, the watch sits perfect on your wrist with a very nice presence!
Before I end this post: one common misunderstanding is that Girard-Perregaux only made one Olimpico reference per Olympic Game…
That is NOT the case!
Stay tuned, I will return to the Girard-Perregaux 1976 Olimpico Chronographs with more!
Best
Blomman
Related posts, Girard-Perregaux 1968 Olimpico Chronographs:
8846 N, part #1: www.watchprosite.com
8846 N, part #2: www.watchprosite.com