Greubel Forsey Quantième Perpétuel à Équation
2017 GPHG Calendar Category Finalist
Perennial purveyors of horologic tours de force, Greubel Forsey return to GPHG with an extraordinary and fully loaded calendar watch, the Quantième Perpétuel à Équation, which is so complex that it could have been entered in at least three categories.
Greubel Forsey's contender in the 2017 GPHG Calendar category is more akin to a compendium of complications, so much so that the company refer to it as The Mechanical Computer, in reference to the modular system which governs and enables the simplified, centralised setting of its fifteen indications, front and rear, via the bi-directional crown.
On its dial side, as well as the time, the most prominent feature is the day-date-month arrangement on the elevated roundel which dominates the lower half of the dial area. Also on view are the round leap year pointer, the small seconds subdial and red/blue 24-hour display window. Beside the power reserve indicator, a pair of tiny windows shows if the crown is set to adjust the calendar (QP) or the time settings (H/M), but its that stunning inclined tourbillon, offset by 25° and rotating every 24 seconds which animates the front of the watch. On the rear, a rotating disc solves the Equation of Time throughout the seasons and the year.
It's encased in a round 43.5mm case of grey gold, and of course in true House style every little detail is finished to the most infinitesimal degree, to create a new and modern masterpiece, which I think will be hard if not impossible to pass over for the Calendar category Aiguille. Of course the superb A. Lange & Söhne and the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar are just two of the exceptional watches here, and will make the jury's decision even more difficult.
The Watch Press prediction
Greubel Forsey won the Aiguille d'Or for outright watch of the year at the GPHG in 2015, as well as the Complications award in 2012, and I think that the astonishing Quantième Perpétuel à Équation will do it again, and maybe even go all the way. Again.
The pertinents
- REFERENCE: P556
- CASE: Grey gold
- BRACELET/STRAP: Leather
- BUCKLE: Folding clasp
- MOVEMENT: Manual winding mechanical. Power reserve: 72 h, 21'600 vph
- FUNCTIONS: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date, Day, Month, Year, Power reserve, Tourbillon, Perpetual calendar, Equation of time
- SIZE: ø 43.5 mm
- THICKNESS: 16.1 mm
- WATERPROOFNESS: 30 m
- PRICE EXCL.VAT: 670'000 CHF
