Girard Perregaux

25.000 Posts and counting: Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic Alarm 9443

 

Friends,

 

 

As they say “time flies when you're having fun”.

And the same goes for posts here in the forum!

 

Feels like yesterday my count was at 10.000 and I put up the Girard-Perregaux sign…

 

 

A few years and 15.000 posts down the line I am back to another watch that binds my two favourite brands together…

 

For those of you that don’t remember my 9.999 post: The topic was the JLC Master Quartz.

 

It is a known fact that Girard-Perregaux had a leading role in the quartz movement development and that JLC used the GP 350 series calibres inside many of their Master Quartz watches.

 

My 9.999 post: www.watchprosite.com

 

Now the turn has come to look at a GP watch with a JLC movement inside: The Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic Alarm reference 9443!

 

 

At first glance you realize that we are now in the Funky 1970s.

 

Big bulky cushion- or C-shaped case.

39 mm wide, 43 mm lug to lug and 13.5 mm thick.

 

 

The shape reminds a lot of the more famous GP Quartz watch.

 

 

Not very surprising if you look at the reference number.

 

On the left, the 9443 on the right the 9444.

 

 

The 9443 is the outcome of a collaboration between Girard-Perregaux and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

 

GP was providing Quartz movements and JLC provided Alarm or as JLC use to call it Memovox movements.

 

Not only GP made these bulky cushion cases, in fact most brands did during the 1970s.

Look familiar?

 

 

At this point in time GP was in the lead of Quartz movements and JLC was in the lead of Alarm/Memovox movements.

So a collaboration between the two was a logical step.

Might seem odd for some, but you have to think that the “in-house” frenzy we see today did not exist at this point!

 

Memovox is from the Latin “Memo” memory and “Vox” voice, the memories voice.

Back in those days there were no Outlook or smart apps to reminding us of meetings or daily chores…

 

The dial layout of the 9443 is very different from what we are used to see on JLC Memovoxes.

Zone dial in yellow and gold, date at six o’clock instead of the more traditional three o’clock.

 

But also the alarm function is utilized by a window instead of a rotating alarm disk.

A legacy from older GP Alarm watches.

 

Both the 7742 and the 9091 uses the alarm window (not JLC based movements).

 

On the left, the 9091 on the right the 9443.

 

 

This layout gives, IMO the dial a much more balanced design than with the date a three.

Also it gives you the information in order of priority: first time, second time of the alarm, third date.

 

 

One change from previous GP Alarms is that both the crowns have markings.

The Alarm crown at two o’clock have the traditional “A” but the Time crown at four is signed “GP” which is not the case for the 7742 or the 9091.

 

 

The 9443 was released in 1971, the same year as the 9444.

350 pieces in steel and 350 pieces in gold plated, 700 watches in total.

Retail price at that time, CHF 450.

 

The strange thing is that even if number of steel and gold plated are the same, the steel is very rarely seen.

 

 

On the back you have a screw down case back.

 

 

One the inside you have the alarm pin located in the centre.

 

 

As I said in the beginning of this post, this Girard-Perregaux is fitted with a JLC movement.

The base is a reworked JLC Calibre 916, the first full rotor Memovox movement.

 

Earlier Memovox movements were either manual or bumper automatic movements with the alarm pin located off centre.

With the Cal 916 JLC integrated the alarm pin so that the oscillation weight rotates around the pin.

 

The Girard-Perregaux version of this movement is the Calibre GP 080 which is fitted with a Gyromatic winding and GP fine adjustment/balance.

 

In this shot you see the hole where the alarm pin goes in in the middle of the movement.

The hammer that hits the pin when the alarm goes off is the part with the two “circles” at ten.

 

 

As you know Alarm- or Memovox watches is one of my big passions within watches…

So this was a very lucky find for me!

 

 

And on the wrist? Pure pleasure!

 

 

I will come back and compare this watch with a JLC version in a later post.

 

BIG thank you to all of you for joining us here in the Girard-Perregaux forum and for making this such a fun and interesting place!

 

 

Best

Blomman

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