Girard-Perregaux and Aston Martin start their partnership with an exclusive timepiece

The Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges – Aston Martin Edition.

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Following the announcement of their new partnership earlier this year, Swiss watch brand Girard-Perregaux and British luxury car brand Aston Martin unveiled the first timepiece to emerge from their collaboration.

The Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges – Aston Martin Edition (US $ 146,000) will be limited to just 18 pieces, the same number being worn by Aston Martin’s Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll, son of Canadian mogul Lawrence Stroll, a partner in Aston. is Martin F1 team.

Exclusivity is an essential principle for both brands, so they wanted to keep the number below 20. They chose the iconic three-bridge tourbillon from GP, which has an illustrious history that dates back to the 1860s when the company received awards for the distinctive clockwork architecture in a pocket watch.

Girard-Perregaux

“Our vision of the world, the way we see craftsmanship, creativity, design and extreme mechanics are very similar at Aston Martin and us,” said Patrick Pruniaux, CEO of Girard-Perregaux, during a video presentation of the watch last week .

Given Aston Martin’s capabilities for great design, the team was invited to bring a new perspective on the flagship model.

Since innovation is another shared core value, it was important that the debut piece be a further development of the previous one.

“We went for a very elegant design, inspired by the discussion we had with our friends at Aston Martin and with some of the angles that are reminiscent of the shape of the Aston Martin,” said Pruniaux, noting the watch could also be viewed as the ultimate version of the Neo Bridges, a high-tech model of Three-Bridges introduced in 2017.

Girard-Perregaux

Not only is it an airy, fully skeletonized version with a tourbillon at 6 o’clock, the nickname Flying Bridges also refers to the illusion that the movement appears to float in space between disks of sapphire glass.

To achieve this effect, the motherboard was replaced with an additional trio of coordinated bridges, a total of six, all made of titanium with a black PVD treatment, just like the 44mm blackened titanium case.

A patented gold microrotor engraved with the Aston Martin logo is positioned around the barrel so as not to obstruct the view, and the barrel at 12 o’clock has been broken through to allow a partial view of the mainspring. The Aston Martin logo on the microrotor, as well as the hands and indexes, have been treated with white Super-LumiNova, which glows blue in low light.

“When we got the first prototype, we found that in terms of aesthetics and functionality, it was probably one of the most beautiful timepieces we’ve built in years,” said Pruniaux, adding that the view of the back is just as exciting and as impressive as the front.

Girard-Perregaux

It’s also a feat of engineering. For example, the lyre-shaped tourbillon cage with a diameter of only 10 mm consists of 79 components with a remarkably low weight of 0.25 grams, which reduces energy consumption. The automatic movement has a power reserve of 60 hours.

“When you become familiar with this level of detail and material and understanding, it’s magical for a designer,” said Marek Reichman, executive vice president and chief creative officer of Aston Martin, who has a background in industrial design.

A completely new thing that they have created is the treatment of one of the two straps that come with the watch. In addition to a rubberized alligator leather strap, there is a black calfskin strap with an insert made of rubber and white gold (white gold injected into rubber). The idea was to emulate the racing stripe that runs down the middle of the cars.

“Having this racing stripe, which is usually a line of paint, and turning it into white gold was an exceptional opportunity to work with the GP team,” said Cathal Loughnane, director of Aston Martin Partnerships. “It’s not every day that you work with people who are not only experts in their field because they have been working on it since 1791, but still push the envelope and are innovative.”