What makes Girard-Perregaux’s Quasar the ‘supercar’ of timepieces?

Originally published by Stephen Pulvirent on Hodinkee.

Girard-Perregaux has been making movements with the Three Golden Bridges (capitalisation theirs, not mine) for well over a century (discussed in more detail here), and the distinctive movement architecture remains an important part of the brand and its visual language today. This latest take on the three-bridged watch, the Quasar, takes that 19th century principle to a new level, rendering the movement in matt black titanium and wrapping it in a solid sapphire case.

The movement itself is based on that of the Neo-Tourbillon With Three Bridges Skeleton released last year, but the sapphire case is something totally new for Girard-Perregaux. In this case, the sapphire takes more than 200 hours to make and machine into shape, and the result is a watch that basically looks like a highly skeletonised movement floating on your wrist.

Initial thoughts

This is one of those watches you have to see up close to appreciate. I only got a few minutes with it, but I’ll admit that it really impresses. This isn’t the first sapphire-cased watch we’ve seen over the last few years – hat tips to Hublot and Greubel Forsey here in particular – but it is one of the more interesting.

Many sapphire-focused watches either opt for maximum transparency, à la that Hublot, or simply wrap an existing calibre and dial in the material, à la that GF, but the Quasar instead goes for contrast. The lightness of the case (both physical and visual) juxtaposes nicely with the matt black titanium bridges of the movement, which you can appreciate on a whole new level now that you can see all the way through them and better understand the way they create the calibre’s fundamental structure.