Designed by the watchmakers of the Girard-Perregaux Manufacture as an ode to fine mechanics, the 1966 Skeleton offers a glimpse deep into the heart of its magnificent automatic caliber thanks to its impressive openworked components, all decorated by hand in an original and contemporary manner.
Catching the watchmaking connoisseur’s educated eye is a difficult task as it involves finding the right balance. To reveal the magic of a watch’s mechanics today, it is no longer enough to simply skeletonize a movement to let in the light. One needs – as the Girard-Perregaux artisans have done – to establish a clear vision of the stylistic identity of the manufacture and its interpretation of the art of watchmaking.
This identity is a continuation of that implemented by Jean-François Bautte, the watchmaker whose company, launched in 1791, and would give rise to the Girard-Perregaux Manufacture. From this point of view, the time becomes a pretext for revealing the potential of the mechanical watch as a work of art. Delicate and complex, the openworked structure of the large 1966 watch movement with automatic winding, measuring 13 ¼ lignes (30.00 mm), invites contemplation of its bridges and plates. In this exposed millimetric design, gears, levers, bolts and other usually invisible components can be glimpsed within the openings – chamfered, polished, satin-brushed and hand-finished by the watch artisans. Their expertise has enabled them to push back the structural limits of the material and infuse it with a sublime character by skeletonizing the mechanics, the leaf-shaped hands of which are, along with the balance wheel judiciously placed at 12 o’clock, the defining graphic feature.
Case | : | Pink gold |
Diameter | : | 38.00 mm |
Thickness | : | 9.27 mm |
Crystal | : | Anti-reflective sapphire |
Dial | : | Non-existent, outer ring with suspended hour markers |
Hands | : | “Leaf” shaped |
Case back | : | Antireflective sapphire crystal |
Water-resistance | : | 30 meters (3 atm) |
Movement | : | Girard-Perregaux GP01800-0006 Mechanical with automatic winding |
Diameter | : | 30.60 mm (13 ¼’’’) |
Height | : | 4.16 mm |
Frequency | : | 28’800 vph - (4 hz) |
Power reserve | : | Min. 54 hours |
Jewels | : | 25 |
Functions | : | Hours, minutes, small seconds |
Strap | : | Hand-stitched alligator |
Buckle | : | Pink gold pin |
Reference | : | 49549-52-001-BB60 |