Girard-Perregaux’s Latest Watch Has a 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Dial
At the start of January, we predicted 2024 would be a big year for dials. It’s only February, and brands are already delivering. This latest release from Girard-Perregaux fully embodies the trend with the addition of a stunning meteorite dial in its famous Bridges collection.
Early in the history of GP, the brand became synonymous with its Bridges collection. In 1889, La Esmeralda, a chronometer featuring three gold bridges, a tourbillon, and an elaborately engraved case, won a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition. Since then, the bridges have evolved, encompassing different shapes, finishes, and materials as we see with the all-new Free Bridge Meteorite.
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Like the prize-winning pocket watch, the Free Bridge Meteorite features an inverted movement with bridges located in the front, the balance wheel at six o’clock, and the spring barrel positioned directly above. Skeletonization is at the core of its design—from the dauphine-style hour and minute hands that sit atop a bridge to the openworked spring barrel located below twelve o’clock that offers a view of the mainspring in various states of tension. This serves to create interest through depth, dimension, and texture throughout the dial’s design.
However, the bridges are not the only focal point of the dial. As the name suggests, with the Free Bridge Meteorite, you also have the addition of stunning fragments of the Gibeon meteorite. This particular meteorite was discovered in Namibia and is composed of an iron-nickel alloy, as well as small amounts of cobalt and phosphorous, together creating naturally occurring lines called the Widmanstätten pattern. As a result, each dial of the Free Bridge Meteorite is entirely unique.
Powering the model is the next evolution of GP’s caliber GP01800. With the new caliber GP01800-2085, GP employs silicium technology in the escape wheel, pallet lever, and arms of the elaborately shaped balance wheel. The innovative material is not only lightweight and resistant to corrosion, temperature changes, and magnetic fields but also reduces friction altogether improving the durability of the movement.
GP’s Free Bridge Meteorite is priced at $25,700 and officially debuts on Tuesday, but will be available for purchase in March at authorized retailers.
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