What do real timepiece collectors look for? Watch bridges – and Swiss luxury brands Girard-Perregaux, Corum and MB&F elevate this vital mechanism to an art form

Quite simply, bridges are essential – and overlooked. “Without bridges you have no movement,” says Clémence Dubois, Girard-Perregaux’s chief marketing officer, hailing the watch movement’s key supporting actors, without which the mechanical story would simply fall apart.

Girard-Perregaux created the Three Bridges, one of the industry’s most coveted designs, 154 years ago. Since then, the symmetrical concept has undergone several stages of evolution – the most radical coming in 1991, when the whole movement was turned upside down in order to showcase the bridges from the front.