Girard-Perregaux Alarm Ref. 9091 FG

Blomman Mr Blue shares his enthusiasm for alarm watches by introducing his first Girard-Perregaux alarm, the reference 9091 FG. This post offers a personal perspective on acquiring a vintage piece, detailing its design characteristics and historical context within his collection.

Friends,

You all know my fascination of alarm watches and the Memovox in particular. So naturally I must have a vintage GP alarm in my collection!

Here you have my first Girard-Perregaux alarm, the reference 9091 FG. I write “my first” since I suspect this will not be my last…

Typical, late sixties – early seventies C-shape case design. 36 mm wide, 41 mm from lug to lug and 18 mm between the lugs.

Nice rounded and beveled lugs. A wide bezel which makes the watch look bigger than it is.

The 9091 was produced between 1969 and 1976. Three series of 500 units each were made in yellow gold plated cases. Unfortunately I have no records of how many were made in steel.

One interesting thing with this watch is that the crown at two o’clock is marked with an “A”, which is natural since the crown operates the alarm, while the crown at four o’clock is unsigned.

I don’t know why GP didn’t sign the crown, will have to ask the Manufacture.

Like on many watches from the end of the 60’s and beginning of the 70’s, a mixture of black surfaces together with tritium lume on both the hands and the dial.

The dial a silver surface with a vertical pattern. Very nice, gives the watch different character depending on angle and light.

Compared with the Memovox which have centrum alarm disk with an arrow going round indicating when the alarm will sound, this GP has an Alarm window at six o’clock, displaying which time the alarm will go off. Two different ways to display the same function.

Pros and Cons with both systems, but I must confess that I prefer the alarm disk before this window. But it could also be because I am more used to the disk…

Two parted screw down case back. The outer lock ring is because in these early alarm movements the alarm pin, the one the hammer hits when the alarm goes off is on centered in the middle of the movement.

Since the pin has to be in a fixed position, the locking part has to be separated from the pin part to be able to screw down and lock the case back.

Here you see the alarm pin at seven o’clock.

Later alarm movements solved this issue by having the alarm pin located in the center of the case back. To locate the pin in the center, you actually solved two issues, a) possible to have screw down case back without the outer lock ring, b) made it possible to use full rotor automatic movement. (Early automatic alarm calibers used the bumper rotors).

Inside is the manual caliber GP 11 (based on the caliber AS 1930). 17 Jewels, beating at a rate of 21 600 vph.

The retail price at that time was: CHF 290 for the Gold plated and a bit less for the steel version.

Mandatory stone shots.

On the wrist it actually wears bigger than 36 mm.

And when playing with the light, the dial comes to life!

Best

Blomman