The Girard Perregaux manufacture dates back to 1791 and since that time, it has continued to create and innovate in the field of fine watchmaking. As far back as the history of Girard-Perregaux goes back, the brand has always had a manufacturing activity. Jean François Bautte was in fact a pioneer in the field since he was the first to introduce the manufacturing concept by bringing together, under one roof, all the trades specific to watchmaking. It was in Geneva, at the end of the 18th century.
Since then, his illustrious successors have never denied the principle according to which independence requires mastery of know-how. At the dawn of the 21st century, the situation remains unchanged and, more than ever, Girard-Perregaux ratifies this status, increasingly exceptional in the watch industry, of a manufacturing entity.
Two emblematic characters of theSwiss watchmaking are at the origin of this great manufacture.
The first, Jean-François Bautte, was born in 1772 in Geneva, into a family of modest workers. He was apprenticed at the age of twelve and trained in the various watchmaking professions. He signs his first watches in 1791 and, his talents as an artisan coupled with commercial dispositions, soon developed his own manufacturing, bringing together under one roof all the trades of thewatchmaking of the time. He produces there timepieces, jewelry, automatons, music boxes and other objects of virtue.
The second, born in 1825 in the city of the Neuchâtel Mountains, is Constant Girard who founded the house Girard & Cie in 1852. Two years later, he married Marie Perregaux (1831-1912), from a family of important watch merchants from Le Locle. The Girard-Perregaux Manufacture was born from the union of their two names, in 1856 in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Constant Girard-Perregaux stands out in particular for his research in the field ofexhaust systems and in particular that of whirlwind. The quality and beauty of its creations are rewarded with numerous prizes and distinctions in national and international competitions as well as in Universal Exhibitions. In 1867, it presents a Whirlwind awarded at theExposure Universal of Paris. The consecration takes place in 1889, when his famous Whirlwind below three golden bridges, which has become the icon of Girard-Perregaux, won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris.
The watchmaker is a true visionary. In 1880, he developed a concept for wristwatches intended for German naval officers and commissioned by Wilhelm I, the Emperor of Germany. To protect the glass from impacts, it is sheltered behind a grid. Two thousand watches were manufactured, which represented the first significant marketing of wristwatches. But this idea, then revolutionary, was not immediately immediate. In fact, it would be necessary to wait until the beginning of the following century for the wristwatch to achieve the success it has known.
On the death of Constant Girard-Perregaux, in 1903, his son Constant Girard-Gallet (1856-1945) takes over at the helm of the Manufacture. In 1906, he took over the famous Maison Bautte merges with Girard-Perregaux et Cie. This is how two illustrious names in Swiss watchmaking find themselves definitively united.
In 1928, Otto Graef (1862-1948), watchmaker of German origin established in La Chaux-de-Fonds at the age of 20 and owner of the MIMO brand (Manufacture Internationale de Montres Or), takes over the share capital of Girard- Perregaux.
His business is taking on a global dimension. In 1930, sales of wristwatches outnumbered those of pocket watches for the first time, fifty years after Constant Girard-Perregaux had anticipated this way of telling time. In the years1940, the Girard-Perregaux brand continues its development both in Europe and on the American continent, in particular with the waterproof model Sea Hawk, while Brand MIMO is mainly distributed on European markets.
At the end of the 1960s, GIRARD-PERREGAUX was one of the rare manufacturers to have an internal R&D team. This research department will allow the brand to develop several revolutionary movements. In 1966, GIRARD-PERREGAUX introduced the first high-frequency movement (36,000 vibrations/hour) into its Gyromatic family. Watches equipped with this movement naturally obtain excellent walking performance. So much so that in 1967, 70% of the chronometer certificates issued by the Neuchâtel Observatory were attributed to GIRARD-PERREGAUX High Frequency Chronometers.
LE CARRÉ, SINCE THE ROARING Twenties, A STYLE!
Art Deco is an artistic movement born during the 1910s and which came into full bloom during the 1920s before declining from the 1930s. It is the first architecture-decoration movement of a global nature. Art Deco is the abbreviation of “Decorative Arts”, and concerns architecture, strongly interior architecture with its tapestries, stained glass windows, paintings and ornamental sculptures, its cabinetmaking, the use of ceramics, goldsmithing. The design which begins on large series of home and office equipment can be associated with it, as well as the fashion of clothing and the typography of the signs and advertisements displayed and the signs.
Goodbye “Noodle” Art, welcome to the land of the straight line. The “Art Deco” period largely influenced watchmaking creation in the field of case aesthetics. Previously round or curved, the shapes of the period moved towards purity. A tasteful watch had to be in line with the trend of the time, in direct opposition to what was done before. The rectangular, barrel, sometimes square shape is almost becoming the norm.
In fact, all the major watchmaking houses tried their hand at this form which gradually disappeared during the Second World War. Since then, this form has remained marginal in the watchmaking world. With regular returns to the trend, this pleasant shape suits the wrist perfectly. Always refined, these models have their fans, in particular lovers of fine watches.
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