Girard Perregaux Steel Watches

Small seconds are in this year for Girard-Perregaux. New for 2011 will be this “Petite Seconde” model in the brand’s 1966 watch collection. Though I must admit the dial, with its classic feel and Breguet style numbers looks like something from well before 1966. The case on the other hand still feels about right with the purported era. As a formal watch does with a simple dial and Arabic numerals, this watch is hard to beat. Love the blued steel hands and the very tiny touch of red for the number “60″ in the subsidiary seconds dial. You used to see watches like this from a long time ago with a red colored “12.” People used to guess why it was red, but I am thinking that it was just for style. As such, the dial has white, black, blue, and red making for a good sophisticated look. Oh, and the dial is gonna look extra good because it is done in enamel. Fancy! But really not “1966.”The case is still 40mm wide in 18k white or rose gold, and has a sapphire crystal over the front and back. Inside the relatively thin case is an in-house made Girard-Perregaux GP03300-50 automatic movement. The movement is finely decorated and has a gold rotor. Look for this timepiece sometime next year.

Here is a cool video of a foudroyante in action. A foudroyante uses a small dial that is marked 0-8. The hand on the dial completes a sweep every second which is an elapsed time of 1/8th of second for each number.