Girard Perregaux

GP 2598 —- “Military” Black dial

Nov 03, 2023,07:10 AM

Good morning friends ☀️

Today we continue talking about NEO-vintage Cushion case designs from GP from 1999-2005

We have seen pics of my other cushion cases Ref 2498 and 2499 with the gullioche dials.

Here we see the reference 2598. About 850 pieces made from circa 1999 to 2001 in a limited production. 38 mm case diameter. There are two dial colors. Black military dial (which we see here) and the Ivory dial which we will see on another day.

The 2598 is a modified ETA calibre 2892-2. When I say say modified, it was disassembled and massively modified and refinished by GP. So don’t get stuck on the in-house vs not marketing hype. Reliable, accurate, ready access to parts, well finished by the brand is more important IMHO.

We see a 6 hander (can you see the 6 hands on the dial) chronograph. The chronograph are the two central extra hands next to the hours and minutes.

Central chronographs are not that common to see. The 2598 won the prestigious watch of the year award in Japan 1999. The D & D module chronograph works flawlessly and has a nice feel when pressing the rectangular pushers.

The case shape (not square and not round … cushion shape or a squircle) is beautifully executed and see to fit both smaller as well as medium-large wrists becusse of the curved lugs.

The bi-compax dial has no date and we see the small second on the right and the 24 hour am/pm indicator on the right sub-register.

Lovely lume and hence the “Military” attribution.

The 2498 was made by GP as a nod of respect to the past models that had a cushion case design.

In addition, here is a good video review.

https://youtu.be/8ONSSMEJRdc?si=kPeE3Ng_ciilBOmJ

There are two variants of the polished vs the brushed satin finish on the lugs. The one I have is the polished lug variant.

Another interesting note is that the case back is engraved with 1970 in mine. It was first named the Vintage 1960 and the initial casebacks have Vintage 1960 on the caseback. The heritage Dept at GP then decided that this was more of an homage to watches from the 1970s and changed it to say Vintage 1970. Both are cool to have. I was born in 1970 so this one is an extra bonus for me. 😊

For those of you considering a lovely and collectable piece from GP that is neo-vintage, this is a good one to look for. They are not as expensive as some of the others as they are yet to be discovered. They were only in the GP catalogs from 1999 to 2001 so I suspect that many today do not know about them to search on chrono24 and such.

They are lovely little gems to have.

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