Girard Perregaux

My first, or should I say second GP ...

 

Since I saw Andrew post about his GP1999 Chronograph, Ref. 4946 I started looking for a similar watch.
The discrete elegance of Andrew's GP in association with his great review was a strong trigger.

GP does not have a strong presence here where I live and this made my hunt a little more easy, because there is no demand for GP watches among the local collectors.

The first one that I was able to locate was a black dialed "Retour en Vol" (Fly back) and it was a fantastic watch, on the external side, but it was "butchered" by who know what "watchmaker".

In any case, when my watchmaker opened the case and, after removing the winding rotor, we could see that it was not a regular watch with many points that exhibit a great care by Girard-Perregaux.

It was with a broken heart that I returned the "Retour en Vol" and continued my quest.

I knew of another GP chronograph, not a fly back" and it was a watch released as a tribute to Phil Hill championship of 1961. For the non-F1 aficionados, Phil Hill was the only USA driver that ever won the F1 world championship.

Initially I passed this other GP for two reasons. First, the price was a little high and I knew that the seller does not like any kind of haggling (and I do haggling as a main sport) and second it that I'm not so keen to tribute watches.

Time passes and I could not locate any other GP chronograph. Based on that, I decided to try haggling with this seller (that is a dear friend) and I got him on good mood and ... the Girard-Perregaux 156 F1, XX/200, 4945 is mine.

This watch, according to meager information that I could retrieve from the Internet was made around the year 2000 and I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) by the GP caliber GP3370 (Base caliber GP 3300 plus a chronograph module Dubois-Depraz cam/lever DD2021).

Since my watchmaker didn't checked this watch, this movement configuration is just an assumption. As soon I have time, he will do that and I plan to take pictures of the movement.

Enough said, let's see some quick pics:

1) I love the gold hands and hour markers. Perfect symmetry. I like the date, Zenith style at 4:30

2) Looks good in B&W

3) Or in color (The bluish is our winter sky)

4) Fits perfectly on my wrist

As final observations, the watch as set 48 hours ago and it insists in matching the time of my atomic reference. Nice.

As I got more familiarity with this watch and got better pictures, in special of the movement inside, I will do a more detailed post.

Cheers,

Nilo

Note: The great Andrew post that "pushed" into the GP is here: gp.watchprosite.com
This message has been edited by nilomis on 2012-07-23 14:41:05

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