Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic 7373 Vintage Find

crown comfort shares the unique pleasure of discovering and restoring neglected vintage watches, likening the process to a 'Cinderella transformation.' This post introduces his first acquisition of the year, a Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic 7373, celebrating the joy of uncovering hidden horological gems.

Friends,

There is something that really gives me deep pleasure in this hobby of ours. Surprisingly, it is not so much fulfilling big dreams of grail and expensive watches. Yes, that can also be exciting.

However, what really gives me something special, is to uncover hidden gems, that others have neglected, that often cost not more than a bag of crisps, but when cleaned up, they have that Cinderella transformation.

My first catch of the year is exactly in that category. Yes, it is my first catch but it had a bit of a longer journey and required some TLC before I could show it.

And it has thrown me off my chair once again. So what we have here?

A simple time-only Gyromatic of the early series from the late 50s, perhaps from 1960. Simple, yet very refined.

Wonderful sunburst dial with prominent dauphine hands.

A lot thought has gone into the design of the indexes. At 3,6,9,12 you have a embossed trapeze shape index while the other numbers simply come with double-bar straight indexes.

The only number on the dial is a “39”, which is applied and stands for the jewel count. This is a Gyromatic caliber 21.19 with 39 Jewels. It may not have elaborate decoration as we can see it in modern GPs, but it is well-designed, very reliable and accurate and I think it is also quite beautiful, but judge for yourself.

Now, I do have a number of silver sunburst dial vintage GPs and they all have their charm, but one thing that is indeed special with the Ref 7373 is that case.

First of all, the one I found is not NOS, clearly has been worn and has a few marks, but the case is absolutely razor-sharp and appears to have never been polished.

The lugs are angled providing fantastic elegance. This is an element, I particularly like about this Reference.

The other one are the wonderfully shaped dauphine hands. They have just the right thickness and length.

Another thing I needed to get was the right strap. The lugs are an unusual (at least for vintage GP) 19mm apart and I wanted the strap to be 14mm at the buckle. I opted for a oceanblue alligator strap, just to not always have the brown strap.

I think it works very well and of course, I completed it with a buckle.

It is very hard to put my excitement into words as it is a real jewel on the wrist.

Let’s have another look at the Reference in general. Here is a catalogue scan from 1960 (thanks to Blomman).

You can see the case shape and the indexes as on mine. However, the one in the catalogue has lume dots and lumed hands.

If we look at my pair of 7373, more variations are visible. While the case and the hands are identical, the dial on the other is without sunburst, the 39 is only printed and the minute track has little printed chevrons compared to applied dots.

So playing in the light a bit on the wrist, here are some shots.

I hope you enjoyed that little excursion back to the good old days when watches were simple and affordable.

Best,

CC