Prep time...

Sep 05, 2011,12:10 PM
 

I think you've hit one of the major nails on the head with the phrase "prep time".

There's been an interesting little discussion about the chronometrié results, with one of the observations being that the results indicate the ability of the company entering the watch to "prepare" it - adjust and regulate it - rather than the intrinsic chronometric qualities of the movement or design.  Interestingly, this was one of the observations of the original competitions, as these rarified heights of adjusting are extremely time consuming and expensive.  The person doing the adjusting was the key factor in the success, and their success was to a certain extent determined by the companies willingness and ability to pay their high salary and allow themself the luxuy of their highest paid employee spending the vast majority of their time tweaking one or two movements to scrape milliseconds of performance.  The original competitions noted the name of the regulator, and if you look at results year to year, you often see that the same person scores extremely well even though they've changed company and are submitting different movements. 

G&F have a huge interest in winning these competitions, as an extremely complicated, supposedy uber-precision watch costing many hundreds of thousands but that is merely an extremely good timekeeper is difficult to justify even by the extremes of watch collecting madness.  So I'm willing to bet that G&F are putting an enormous effort behind adjusting so as to win, which does raise the question of whether they have an intrinsicaly uber-precise watch, or a watch that has the potential to go that little bit further with extreme levels of adjustment.

The real test of the design and their manufacturing quality is when their "production" watches are consistently in the uber-precision stratosphere, but as they won't publish data we'll never know.

nick

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The Sultans of Spin: Greubel Forsey’s Invention Piece 2 with quadruple tourbillon

 
 By: 219 : August 28th, 2011-08:57
Take it from me: this is the watch of the year! I saw it first at SIHH in January; and then again, just the other week when I was introduced to the rose gold/charcoal ruthenium version. In my (perhaps) jaded and tired view of most of the watch industry, t...  

Thank you

 
 By: andrewluff : August 28th, 2011-09:29
Thank you for this report Andrew, I love GF's and was lucky enough to see IP 2 and 3 together a few weeks back to try on. The finishing really is amazing and can (sort of) understand the price. Cheers Andrew

Thanks Andrew - it is an amazing watch. Probably

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:28
never in my price range, but do love to see them. Andrew H

The inspiration?? :)

 
 By: nickd : August 28th, 2011-11:38
Sorry, couldn't resist Thanks for the report, it's fascinating reading. nick embedded video into post -AT This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2011-08-28 19:34:26...  

Not far off - the initial model of the 30 degree was a mechano set

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:30
mock up. However, the testing was definitely on watch parts! Thanks Andrew H

Very impressive

 
 By: Davo : August 28th, 2011-13:48
G&F do it again. These pieces just leave me speechless. Thank for you posting, Andrew.

A splendid report! And, I agree with you...

 
 By: Gary G : August 28th, 2011-23:24
...having handled this watch at SIHH, that it is the watch of the year! By far my favorite G-F piece, and really stunning in the metal. Thanks to you for this great reporting! Best, Gary G

Thanks Gary - appreciate the kind words. The watch is more

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:33
impressive in the metal than the photos portray. Andrew H

Very nice report

 
 By: RobCH : August 29th, 2011-04:57
...great photos, and awesome awesome watches. Thanks Andrew!

This is a superb post Andrew!

 
 By: foversta : August 29th, 2011-12:10
I was totally seduced by this watch... especially because the two pairs of Tourbillon have been taken away. Fx...  

It looks awesome on the wrist.

 
 By: VMM : August 30th, 2011-02:03
Thanks, FX. Vte

Great photo! Thanks! Looks good on the wrist! What

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:36
your photo shows is the two tourbillons as opposites. The sight of the two tourbillons is mesmerizing. Thanks for posting. Andrew H

Thanks.

 
 By: VMM : August 30th, 2011-02:42
Interesting pics and info. Watches look fantastic. Cheers, Vte

I can only say the IP is a stunning watch

 
 By: SJX : August 30th, 2011-10:03
and your article does it justice! - SJX

Fantastic article...

 
 By: KIH : August 30th, 2011-14:02
.. Thank you for the report. I have been always impressed with their creations. Wonderful Inventions! Ken

great post

 
 By: donizetti : August 30th, 2011-14:02
I often find GF watches "too much" for me too understand and appreciate so this explanation, especially of the history, was especially helpful. Thanks!! Andreas

They are complicated watches on many levels. Thanks for the

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:40
kind words Andreas. Andrew H

A great read...

 
 By: dxboon : August 30th, 2011-22:54
...and the pictures of the uncased movements were really educational for me. I loved seeing the progression of work. It was like being inside the minds of the watchmakers. I have to say, the GF pieces challenge me aesthetically. The finishing is superb an... 

Appreciate the thought Daos. My personal favourites from

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:42
the GF line are the 24 second Incline and the 30 degree Secret. Both are on the simpler end of the GF watch spectrum, but very impressive watches nonetheless. Thanks Andrew H

Neat to see the progression of the prototypes...

 
 By: DonCorson : August 31st, 2011-02:08
Thanks for this great post Andrew Don

I have to say that I do love to see the prototypes of the finished

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:43
inventions. There is an understanding when you can see all of them lined up together. Cheers Andrew H

So.....does it work?

 
 By: MTF : September 1st, 2011-00:46
Andrew, Thanks for the report. It took a while (and I'm not a technical guy) to re-read the whole piece before I found there was no mention of performance except for a comment that it had the best potential for chronometry. So, how did it do in the indepe... 

Sure it works! However, for the last competition, the prep time

 
 By: 219 : September 1st, 2011-11:48
for the watch was not as long as GF would have wanted. GF have entered a second time around and it will be interesting to see the results this time. Andrew H

Prep time...

 
 By: nickd : September 5th, 2011-12:10
I think you've hit one of the major nails on the head with the phrase "prep time". There's been an interesting little discussion about the chronometrié results, with one of the observations being that the results indicate the ability of the company enteri... 

That is the point of the EWT...

 
 By: 219 : September 7th, 2011-05:52
The point of GF's EWT process is to produce an improvement in the mechanism such that the results are repeatable. In other words, the time keeping properties of the movement are not dependent on one specialist fine tuning the watch; the improvements are t... 

Well...

 
 By: nickd : September 7th, 2011-06:22
Hi Andrew, I guess we'll end up disagreeing on this one. I really don't understand how publishing chronometric results involves intellectual property. If they win, their numbers will be published. The 2009 results were published, but only the category win... 

In 2009, the GF entry was a last moment decision. With

 
 By: 219 : September 7th, 2011-13:56
little time to get the watch prepared, GF entered the competition. Hence, the watch was not as prepared as other entries. The idea of the EWT is to ensure that results are replicable. So does the Double Tourbillon 30 degree perform better than a regular t...