Independents

tony p
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The evolution of GF's design aesthetic is amply demonstrated

in the course of Andrew's post, and  in particular by this photo:



I always felt that the original Double Tourbillon 30º was a rather unlovely watch. Its engineering and its finishing were impressive, but the dial layout, mouth-shaped tourbillon window, vaguely arachnoid seconds hands and confused jumble of fonts, indices, colours and clashing angles all over the dial made for a less than beautiful timepiece.

I was also critical of the bulging cases of their next series. It seemed to me that, caught up in the excitement of their ever-more-extraordinary tourbillon inventions, GF forgot to make their new movement small enough to fit into a wristwatch. Modified bonnets are fine on kid-racer muscle cars, but if I'm being asked to pay in excess of $200,000 for a watch I expect as much attention to be paid to elegance of design as to the chronometric wonderment within.

But with the more recent pieces - the Inventions (1 and 3 that is - sadly, this year's no. 2 still employs a bubonic case) and the Tourbillon Technique watch - I see GF finally lining their aesthetics up with their undisputed engineering and finishing chops. These latest watches are still challenging to look at, but there's a consistency there both outside and within. The depth and layering of the Technique piece in particular are fantastic. A big, thick watch is OK by me as long as there's a reason for it, and the Technique abounds with reasons.

All in all, a big "bravo" to GF for turning their weak point (aesthetics) into a plus in such a short time frame.

I took many photos of the two new pieces yesterday and hope to have them online soon.

Cheers
Tony P