Girard Perregaux

Press Release – 9th July 2007

All the watches stolen on 5th of July at the Girard-Perregaux museum in La

Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland) were recovered by the police on 7th of July. This

exceptional collection, heritage of the culture of Swiss Haute Horlogerie will

find again its place at the Villa Marguerite.

The booty was found under a tree, hidden amidst branches, south of Valdahon in

neighbouring France last Saturday 7th of July, during researches in the region. On

5th of july, the French police had already stopped two suspects who had forced a

checkpoint towards Valdahon. Earlier that day, thieves had entered the Girard-

Perregaux museum attacking an employee and stealing around 100 watches.

Immediately after the theft, an international mandate was issued. The close

collaboration between the Neuchatel police and the French police was at the heart of

this success.

The news was greeted with relief and emotion at Girard-Perregaux whose President,

The work of generations of craftsmen has helped build Girard-Perregaux from its

origins in the XVIII century to its most recent innovations. As a true « Manufacture »

the Brand develops and produces both movements and outside components of its

watches. The collection includes wonderful pocket watches created by Jean-Francois

Bautte that – at the end of the XVIII century – realised extra-flat movements into

refined gold cases with hornate enamel decorations.

The burglars had taken different versions of Girard-Perregaux’s most renown watch :

the Tourbillon under three gold bridges, extraordinary association between design

and sophisticated mechanics created in the XIX century and still produced by the

Haute Horlogerie department of the Brand.

The bag found in the woods contained a true encyclopedia of watch-making craft :

complication watches, historical pieces (like one dating back to 1820 with arab

numerals or another one decorated with pearls), innovative pieces (like the first watch

displaying time in digits dating back to the beginning of the XIX century and the first

ever wrist-watch produced in series in 1880).

After careful review and attention, the watches will go back to complete the collection

of the Girard-Perregaux Museum inspiring watch-connoisseurs and building the roots

for Girard-Perregaux contemporary creations.