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A false start!

Despite being a late entrant into the 2009 Chronometry Competition, the Greubel Forsey Quadruple Tourbillon still acquitted itself with honours. Where as some entrants had spent time and resources preparing watches for the competition, the Greubel Forsey watch had simply been pulled out of the finished watches and sent to the competition to be entered. No special work, no consideration of the difference in tests between the EWT and the Chronometry Competition test description, and no testing before the watch was sent. Stephen Forsey admitted that this was perhaps not the best way to have entered, but their entry had been decided on at the last moment, and at least that way Greubel Forsey would have an understanding of how the watch would perform under a different set of tests.



For such a small firm, where the total annual production of watches lies in the eighties, and not thousands; and where the production on any watch line lies in the teens, the decision to pull one or two watches was (and is) a considerable one. The Greubel Forsey Quadruple Tourbillon did not win the 2009 competition; but then the watch did not fail either. It completed the course of tests and although it lost points on the way, time keeping remained excellent. Greubel Forsey learned from the experience: what was required for the watch to be timed to face a different set of tests, and the two watchmakers set about ensuring a more complete preparation for the next competition two years hence.



Back in 2009, when the Quadruple Tourbillon did not win, Robert and Stephen could have complained. They could have pointed out a number of differences between the measures used by the MIH and the Chronometry test organisers and their own EWT tests. But then, that would not be the Greubel Forsey way of going about a problem. If Greubel Forsey were to stand by their claim, that the double tourbillon really did improve the chronometric performance of a watch, then the knowledge that was part of the EWT process should be able to adapt to the different rules for the Chronometry Competition. And so after the results of the 2009 competition, with the task of winning upper most in their minds, Robert and Stephen decided to commit resources to both understand the Observatory tests from the past, as well as the Chronometry Competition today, and learn how to adapt their movement to stand a chance at winning the competition.