Girard-Perregaux reimagines its legendary constant force watch after 10 years

In the world of horology, precision is the holy grail. What quartz watches do effortlessly with a tiny quartz crystal and a bit of electricity, mechanical ones have to achieve with hundreds of tiny gears and springs working off of the energy stored in a mainspring. It’s all very beautiful but it’s a configuration with one major weakness — when the mainspring is fully wound, it exerts excessive force on the escapement, jeopardising accuracy and potentially harming the movement. Conversely, as the mainspring nears depletion, the force weakens, leading again to erratic timekeeping.

The (very, very) few watches out there that have tried to provide consistent torque have traditionally done so with mechanisms like the fusee and chain or remontoir d’egalite. But in 2008, Girard-Perregaux came up with a groundbreaking new way of tackling the problem. The brand unveiled a concept watch that used a flexible silicon blade within its escapement that would buckle back and forth as the mainspring unwinds. This buckling motion occurs with remarkable consistency, resulting in superior chronometric performance. When the concept became a reality in the Constant Escapement L.M. in 2013, it won the coveted Aiguille D’Or at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) that same year.

Cosmetic variations were released in the years that followed, but this year sees the ingenious mechanism revisited in a brand new watch: The Girard-Perregaux Neo Constant Escapement. Its first iteration in rose gold was conceived as a piece unique for the upcoming Only Watch charity auction in November, but a titanium model has just been announced for regular production.

The case size has been reduced from the L.M.’s 48mm to a more wearable 45mm, and the skeletonised dauphine hands are now all centrally mounted, where the L.M., had an off-set dial for hours and minutes. The black track on the flange is punctuated by luminescent hour markers that glow blue in the dark along with the hour and minute hands, while the power reserve indicator remains at 9 o’clock. With a new face comes new technical improvements. The Neo Constant Escapement boasts 13 patents, with 30 per cent of them being brand new. The Calibre GP09200 has been engineered to require fewer components from its 2013 predecessor — 266 parts in total, down from 280, and now proudly bears the COSC certification as a testament to its precision.

Thanks to the watch’s twin barrels, the power reserve is a generous seven days (one day longer than its predecessor), and the barrels are prominently visible at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock. The main highlight of course, steals the show at the lower half of the dial, where you will see the silicon blade — just 14 microns wide and thinner than a human hair — doing its own tick-tock dance.

Presented with a fabric effect rubber strap secured with a titanium triple folding buckle with a micro adjustment system, the Neo Constant Escapement goes on sale this month and will be available worldwide at all authorised Girard-Perregaux retailers.