Girard-Perregaux Watches

Following the path pioneered by Jean-François Bautte, Constant Girard founded the Girard & Cie Firm in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland in 1852. He later married Marie Perregaux and the Girard-Perregaux Manufacture was born in 1856. In 1867, Constant Girard presented his Tourbillon with three gold Bridges after years of research into the functional use of gold in watch movements. This masterpiece was awarded the gold medal at the Universal exhibitions of Paris in 1867 and 1889, but declared ineligible in 1901 because it could not be equalled. In 1880, Constant Girard developed the concept of wristwatches for German naval officers. Under the orders of Emperor Guillaume I of Germany, Two-thousand watches were produced. This represents the first major commercialization of wristwatches.

Constant Girard-Gallet, who took over for his father in 1906, took over the company founded by Jean-François Bautte and merged it with the then named Girard-Perregaux & Cie. In 1965, Girard-Perregaux designed the first mechanic movement at high frequency, at which the balancer beats at 36,000 vibrations/hour: the Gyromatic HF. In 1967, Girard-Perregaux received the Centenary Award from the Astronomical Observatory de Neuchatel in recognition of the accomplishments of the Manufacture generally, and specifically for the Observatory Chronometer wristwatch that used the Gyromatic HF movement. In 1970, Girard-Perregaux presented its first watch to the world to be equipped with a quartz movement which vibrates at 32,768 hertz, the frequency remaining the universal standard for quartz watches today. In 1992, the company was purchased by Torino-native entrepreneur and current president, Luigi Macaluso. In more recent years, 2008 to be exact, the brand presented a constant force escapement at SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie), an International Show of High-End Watch making, distinguishing itself from all the other known escapements to this day.