The 48 mm-diameter pink gold case fake Girard-Perregaux watches makes a really large watch; arguably to house the complication and the axial space necessary for the tourbillon. The thick case measures 18.66 mm and 21.52 mm when including the domes. Seeing its thick dimensions, the watch is fit with a bevelled bezel that has a steep incline and looks disproportionately wide.
For those unfamiliar with replica Girard Perregaux’s triple axis tourbillon timepiece, but are better acquainted with Greubel Forsey or Zenith’s Christophe Colomb, the watch may ring bells of uncanny similarity. The dome crystal atop the main glass reminds us of the Zenith Academy Christophe Colomb Hurricane, the Globe; the GF GMT, and the side window, the GF Art Piece 1. And lest we forget to mention, Girard Perregaux’s predilection for bulbous objects which come in pairs is downright intriguing. Nonetheless, Girard Perregaux’s interpretation of case design for this piece is an interesting addition to the complicated watch genre.
When itemized, each piece of the complex puzzle looks extraordinary. The Girard-Perregaux tri-axial tourbillon was first developed and subsequently release in 2014. As its name implies, this high-speed tourbillon is equipped with a regulator operating on three rotation axes instead of just one. This featherweight 1.24-gram,140-part movement comprises an inner lyre-shaped carriage – a signature of the Maison since 1880 – performing one rotation per minute. It is fitted inside a structure spinning on a second axis in 30-second cycles. Both are in turn incorporated within a third structure revolving once ever two minutes on yet another axis. This fixture on its own adds live to the dial and is fascinating to watch.
Two astronomical complications join the dance. The globe with its 24-hour rotation provides an instant reading of the time around the world. Set to 12 o’clock (noon), the arrow indicator positioned at the base of the 13 mm-diameter aluminium sphere serves to show where it is daytime on the dial side, and where it is night-time, on the back.
Hand-crafted using the miniature painting technique, its cartography depicts the world as it was in 1791, the year the brand was created. The equally micro-painted lunar disc picks up the 17th century selenography at the time the telescope was invented, beautifully matching the blue shades of the rotating globe and reproducing the moon as we see it.
Equipped with a precision mechanism, the astronomical moon-phase indicator requires adjustment only once every 122 years, by means of a dedicated corrector at 2 o’clock.