Girard-Perregaux's Early Plastic Watches

Blomman Mr Blue challenges common perceptions about plastic watches, revealing Girard-Perregaux's pioneering role in using plastic as early as the 1950s. This post uncovers a fascinating piece of horological history, showcasing GP's innovative use of materials long before brands like Swatch popularized plastic timepieces. The discussion highlights a unique Girard-Perregaux pocket watch with blued steel hands, demonstrating the brand's early experimentation with transparent materials.

Friends,

If you thought SWATCH was the first Swiss watch brand making plastic watches, think again!

The “modern plastic” came during the 1930’s and 1940’s. I do not know who or which brand that was the very first to make plastic watches, but Girard-Perregaux did some as early as the beginning of the 1950’s.

Plastic was cheap, easy to form and see through. Three good properties for a watchmaker…

Here is an example. Have you ever before seen a plastic watch with blued steel hands?

We all saw the Sapphire dial this year… Makes you think, eh? From where did they get the inspiration…?!

I must say that I find this Pocket Watch quite beautiful. Look at the gear train. Look at the big balance wheel!

Even the bridges are made of plastic.

Another area where plastic came in handy was in educational purposes. Since it is translucent, you can build models that show all parts including those that in normal cases would be obscured or hidden.

Here is a larger scale model showing how the Gyromatic winding system works.

By moving the rotor the green and orange wheels will start winding…

Plastic could also be used to make prototypes or whole watches to be used when training new watchmakers.

Here is a Pocket Watch made for the purpose of training.

As you can see, the dial only has hand written numerals.

A great way for the watchmaker to see where all the parts should go and how they should work together.

But Girard-Perregaux didn’t only use plastic in prototypes and educational purposes, some of their creations actually became real watches from sale.

Here is one example from 1954.

A pocket watch, 41.5 mm in diameter. The outer frame is chromed metal and the numerals looks to be some kind of gilt metal.

The dial looks like a wrist watch dial from that time.

Notice the Incabloc on the dial, referring to the shock protection system on the movement. Normally we are familiar to often see Gyromatic on the dial…

But, this is not an automatic movement. Inside is the manual movement caliber 45 BE, based on the ETA movement caliber 1080. The Incabloc system is the clamp holding the balance wheel ruby in place, seen above at six o’clock.

Yes, this Pocket Watch is not entirely made out of plastic, but both the front and the back is, giving us the opportunity to see all the details up close.

Well, there is so much to learn and discover about the GP brand!

Each day you may see something new. One of the many reasons I love this brand and my role here in the GP forum!

Plastic fantastic!

Best

Blomman