Swiss watchmaker company Girard-Perregaux was founded in 1791. The founder of the company is Jean-François Botte. In 1854, the watchmaker Constant Girard-Oaten married Mary Perregaux, her family was engaged in manufacturing of watches. In the long list of registrations that followed, here are some examples of the ingenuity of the Girard-Perregaux researchers: in 1933, they presented a clever system of interchangeable bracelets. In 1942, when calculators as we know them today were still in the land of dreams, a watch with a calculating ruler was created. Four years later, a watch displaying several time zones was patented. In 1949, it was an alarm watch with a sound amplifier in its case. In 1965, it was the turn of the high frequency movement, Gyromatic HF, the famous 36,000 vibrations/hour, still considered by some today as the last useful improvement made to the mechanical watch. The famous Observatory Chronometerwatch was equipped with Gyromatic HF. In 1966, the Neuchâtel State Council decided to recognise the work and developments of Girard-Perregaux by awarding the Brand the Observatory Centenary Prize. In 1969 the Swiss watch industry was shocked with quartz movement. Many well-known companies wary of new invention, but the company Girard-Perregaux is not one of them: the company builds the mass production of Swiss Made quartz model. The oscillation frequency of the pendulum (32 768 Hz) would later be adopted as a standard throughout the world. In 1970, Girard-Perregaux presented the first quartz watch produced industrially in Switzerland. It was also the first watch in the world to be fitted with a quartz movement that vibrated at 32,768 Hertz, the frequency adopted universally by manufacturers today. Closer to home, between 1985 and 1997, it’s a mechanism with a perpetual calendar that was presented and perfected. Not content with automatically correcting the ends of the months with less than 31 days, including during leap years, it displayed time cycles that were less common in a wrist watch, such as the signs of the zodiac, the seasons or the solstices and the equinoxes In 1987, the market appears GP 7000, chronograph, which became a classic of modern production sports watches, his appearance pushes the company Girard-Perregaux in close contact with the world of sport.. In 2001, a column-wheel chronograph mechanism was registered, with dimensions enabling it to be fitted to ladies watches. These last years, Girard-Perregaux has presented a lot of novelties which reveal this innovative spirit. And this long tradition of inventions is not about to come to an end. At the moment, The Research & Development team is working on an important project concerning chronometry. Comments are closed.
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Old Time WatchesI enjoy collecting mechanical (manual wind and automatic) and early electric and quartz timepieces. I take great pleasure in researching and writing about the companies and people that created these beautiful watches. PF
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September 2018
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