Lot 685

Girard-Perregaux, Chaux de Fonds, Case No. 111543, 58 mm, 215 g, circa 1885
An important, heavy "Three Bridge Tourbillon" with finely made gold chain (89 g)
Case: 18k gold/rose gold, monogram "CGP", presumably "Constant Girard-Perregaux", lavishly engine-turned and florally engraved, engraved and engine-turned gold dome: "Chronomètre Tourbillon. Bulletin d' Observatoire de 1re classe, Girard-Perregaux, Chaux de Fonds", lavishly engine-turned, numbered and signed on both inner lids. Dial: enamel, radial Roman numerals, auxiliary seconds, signed "Gabriel Labarrière" (presumably a former owner of this watch), gold Breguet hands. Movm.: three-bridge movement, rhodium-plated, decorated, signed "Deposé", mirror polished pink gold train, mirror polished pink gold bridges, screwed gold chatons, gold screw compensation balance with gold and platinum regulation screws, pivoted detent chronometer escapement, "anti-galop" feature, finest mirror polished tourbillon steel cage, fine adjusting device.
Constant Girard Perregaux clearly developed this three bridge movement from a preliminary version to create a new form of cage that was only ever used in the Girard Perregaux tourbillons. The first generation of his final version of the three bridge tourbillon consisted of only 24 examples, with the majority of them probably sold on the Latin American market; this is indicated by the fact that two of them - with movements more or less identical to the watch at hand - were discovered in Argentina and Mexico. The movement we have here is signed with number "01"; it is probably the first of the series of 24 and its cage was very likely produced by Constant Girard himself.

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