Girard Perregaux

Girard-Perregaux’s modern Richeville line

 

Friends,

 

I have always been a huge fan of the modern Richeville line, in fact, the Richeville is the watch that infected me with the GP bug, hence it is such an important piece for me. Back in 1997 when I was really not very knowledgeable and only owned one watch, I made an impulse purchase in Hong Kong of a Richeville 2750 with blue dial. I was immediately taken by the Tonneau case with its stepped bezel and those triangular pushers.

 

Many years later, when I started to seriously get into watches, Girard-Perregaux was close to my mind because of that Richeville, the rest is history

 

 

So time to have a more closer look at the modern Richeville collection and I’d like to share some of my favourites and Richevilles from my collection. I admit that I have consolidated by now to only one Richeville of the major lines which did help to grow my collection in other areas.

 

The beginnings:

 

So let’s start with the modern Richeville from the first half of the 90ies. The “Richeville” model originated in the 1960s and featured a Tower and the model name “Richeville” on the dials. Here are some links in the forum as I don’t want to go deep into the vintage origins.

www.watchprosite.com  

www.watchprosite.com

 

However, the first two modern Richeville’s were a rectangular automatic watch with date and GP Caliber 220, an ETA-based movement, Ref 2510 and the manual wind Chronograph in the characteristic Tonneau case with Lemania based movement, Ref 2710.

 

I have never owned a 2510, was hunting one for a while but now passed on it. Ref 2710 I did have in my collection and still have fond memories of it.

Ref 2510

Ref 2710

I have consolidated to the 2750 due to nostalgic reasons but the 2710 is a watch that today is easily to find in many dial variants and a great entry Chronograph with an interesting unusual look. I have seen also Ladies wearing a 2710 and they look also great on a Ladies wrist.

 

In the mid 90ies, the Richeville line was updated and expanded. The 2710 stayed in production, while GP introduced the automatic Chronograph 2750.

 

The case is almost the same but not identical and the main visual difference is the change from round to triangular Chronograph pushers. The 2750 houses an ETA-based automatic movement with Chronograph module.

 

The 2510 on the other hand was replaced with the 2520 and that was a major evolution. The 2510 and the 2710 were the last that had “Richeville” printed on the dial, from now on, the Richeville went to the back of the case or later with see-through case-backs completely disappeared on the watch.

 

The 2520 was the first Richeville that came with the back then new GP 3000 in-house automatic movement. It also picked up the stepped bezel from the 2750 and dropped the date. Overall the dimension is a bit smaller than the 2510. Still today, I deeply love my 2520 for its simplicity and timeless design. It is less eye-catching than the Vintage 45 at first sight, but reveals its charm over time when wearing it.

The black dial is for me the most desirable, but others are also very nice, like the Roman numeral white dial which I used to have in my collection.

 

Also available was a Tonneau case time and pointer date model, 2730 (Sorry, but I’m just not a great fan of pointer dates) and Single and Three bridge Tourbillons.

However, the most rare Richeville and the most complicated is the mid 90ies Perpetual Calendar Minute Repeater, Ref 99600, probably one you will never see in real, but here is a catalogue scan.

 

The Richeville 2750 stayed in production and was probably the most successful of the modern Richeville’s till that time, which likely triggered GP to modernize the Tonneau case and the Chronograph. By now, the Tonneau shape was associated with the Richeville collection.

 

So consequently in 2001, GP introduced a major overhaul to the Richeville line, by replacing the 2750 with the 27650. The Case did grow in size, but is now also curved with a curved crystal and has now a see-through case back. All models now only have the inhouse GP caliber.

Purists may sniff at the date coming back especially placed at 4:30h and the change to 3 registers. Another feature that was dropped with the new model was the stepped bezel and the triangular pushers.

 

On the other the hand, the new larger case was more with the times and allowed GP to grow the collection with more complications. The most complicated being a perpetual calendar Chronograph released in the Pour Ferrari collection

 

The model that has won my heart by storm however, was the Richeville Day/Night. A kind of regulator watch with only a minute hand and a rotating 24h disc displaying the hour as well as day/night with different coloured ring segments, similar as can be seen on World Timers.

 

My Richeville Day/Night in Pink Gold was for many years the pinnacle of my collection.

 

But recently I have replaced it with the Steel version, which is more versatile and easier to wear.

 

The Richeville was taken out of production in approx. 2012 after being a good 20 years in the (modern) collection.

 

A few more interesting models of the Richeville line that are very desirable and often very rare, are the Richeville with Large Date and Moon Phase or the Perpetual Calendar 27220, which was also available in a Steel case, as far as I know the only PC from GP in Steel.

And the super-gorgeous Tourbillon under golden bridge.

Here the combination of the Tonneau case and the large single golden bridge with pronounced arrows works exceptionally well. Very much a dream watch.

 

Lastly, there has also been a vast collection of Richeville Ladies models, time only, time and date, Chronograph, mostly in Tonneau shaped cases.

My lucky daughters watch.

 

Let’s conclude with a little wristshot collage.

 

If the future will bring us back the Richeville is yet to be seen. I strongly believe a new Richeville release only makes sense in a Tonneau case shape and that may not be the most popular right now, but who knows. I would certainly welcome it very much but I can also understand the need for a consolidated collection.

 

Best,

 

CC

 

 

This message has been edited by KMII on 2017-08-04 07:51:53