{"id":31525,"date":"2026-03-13T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/31525\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:55:14","slug":"this-underrated-swiss-brand-should-be-on-every-watch-guys-radar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/31525\/","title":{"rendered":"This Underrated Swiss Brand Should Be on Every Watch Guy\u2019s Radar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask a smattering of folks strolling down a major Manhattan thoroughfare to name the world\u2019s top watch brands, and the same few marques would inevitably crop up: Rolex<\/a>, Omega<\/a>, TAG Heuer<\/a>, Breitling<\/a>\u2026 perhaps, for those in the know, Patek Philippe<\/a>. But it speaks to the size and history of the watch industry that there are many more names\u2014significant firms with rich histories and important innovations\u2014that would inevitably be left off said list. Companies that, by virtue of restrained marketing, or the size of their annual output, or myriad other considerations, don\u2019t quite get their due, even among watch enthusiasts. Take Girard-Perregaux<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n

With roots dating to the late 18th century, Girard-Perregaux (or GP, to those in the know) is one of the world\u2019s oldest continuously operating watch companies. Famed for its \u201ctourbillon<\/a> with three gold bridges\u201d\u2014which won a gold medal at the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1889\u2014Girard-Perregaux would later bring to market one of the world\u2019s first 5 Hz high-frequency wristwatches, as well as the Laureato<\/a> luxury sports watch. The latter, while frequently compared to its Genta<\/a>-penned cousins, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak<\/a> and Patek Philippe Nautilus<\/a>, was actually well ahead of its time. As its power plant, GP used the in-house Caliber 705, a very of-the-moment chronometer-certified quartz movement<\/a> with an operating frequency of 32,768 Hz, a spec that would become the gold standard for such movements.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Girard-Perregaux<\/p>\n

Both the \u201cThree Gold Bridges\u201d design and the Laureato still feature prominently in Girard-Perregaux\u2019s catalog, but the modern company\u2019s fortunes have ebbed and flowed in recent decades. In 1988, a holding company called the Sowind Group was established to oversee both GP and Ulysse Nardin<\/a>, and by 2011, the Kering Group\u2014owner of brands such as Bottega Veneta<\/a>, Yves Saint Laurent<\/a>, Gucci<\/a>, and Balenciaga<\/a>\u2014held a majority stake in Sowind. Revenues contracted severely under Kering, and in 2022, it sold its stake in the Sowind Group in a management buyout.<\/p>\n

Today, things are looking up. Over the past six months, GP has launched two fresh in-house movements<\/a>: the cal. GP4800, an automatic movement with a variable-inertia balance, a silicon escapement, and a 55-to-60 hour power reserve, and the cal. GP9620, a skeletonized<\/a> automatic movement featuring a micro-rotor and a tourbillon, plus the brand\u2019s famed \u201cThree Gold Bridges\u201d design. Launching these two calibers within a six-month window would\u2019ve been enough cause for celebration, but GP didn\u2019t stop there. This week, it\u2019s introducing the cal. GP9530, an automatic, openworked minute repeater movement with a tourbillon and 475 components. This spectacular new engine is on full view in the 46mm pink gold Minute Repeater Flying Bridges, an ultra-complicated piece that makes ample use of GP\u2019s considerable savoir-faire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask a smattering of folks strolling down a major Manhattan thoroughfare to name the world\u2019s top watch brands,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18980,41,17,18981,1233,11108],"class_list":{"0":"post-31525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-style","9":"tag-swiss","10":"tag-switzerland","11":"tag-textbelowcenterfullbleed","12":"tag-watches","13":"tag-web"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116222448567616358","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}