Greubel Forsey has made waves over the last year for returning to its roots. High mech is back and sports watches have been demoted to the undercard. From the founders’ reclamation of the controlling shares to the company’s renewed focus on cost-no-object tech, the Greubel Forsey of early 2025 feels much like the Greubel Forsey of 2010.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique

That year, the firm launched its Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique, a machine whose name says it all. With eye-watering finish, pricing, and yes, two tourbillons, it was a polemic against minimalism, compromise, and restraint in watchmaking.

Speaking of restraint, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey cast it to the wind back in 2010. The subject watch of this survey was built 44.5mm in diameter, packed the mass of a small handgun, and cost CHF 460,000 – and that was the rose gold version! In platinum, as featured here, the damage was half a million.

On that basis, the current market price of around $230,000 is a bit of a puzzle. As a foundational piece from a leading independent, the DT30 should be priced comparably to the early work of industry peer F.P. Journe. But Journe aims to please, whereas Greubel and Forsey aim to astound – shocking onlookers for better or worse.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique on the wrist

Then and now, there’s a refreshing take-it-or-leave-it vibe to the Historique. That said, many divisive elements are purposeful rather than capricious. Certainly, the case is huge, but so is the movement. With twin barrels, two concentrically mounted tourbillon carriages, and three days of mainspring energy, the movement defines the dimensions of the watch.

And the watch is best described as a small museum vitrine rather than a large timepiece. When the object on your wrist is first a gallery for machinery and only secondarily a timepiece, sprawling dimensions can be forgiven.

Back of the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique

Decoration is beyond belief. For many years, Greubel Forsey was legendary for producing 0.5-1.0 watch per employee. Finishing like this is the reason. Start with the bridges and plates, which are crafted from maillechort and then frosted with a steel wire brush; rhodium plating follows.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique

Every bridge with an exposed edge gets a rolled and polished bevel that defines what “anglage a main” means in the strictest sense. Steel parts are either fired blue, as in the case of certain screws, or buffed to a mirrored shine.

Polished steel in a standard haute horlogerie watch generally amounts to the screws and maybe a fancy regulator. Here, it graces both sides of the towering tourbillon bridge assembly. It’s challenging enough to “black” polish a flat surface to a mirror finish but doing so on rounded structures is a Greubel Forsey house specialty.

Tourbillon bridge of the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique

The wings of both tourbillon bridges are smooth, flawless, and specular all the way around; not one ripple spoils the experience.

At the center and extremities of the bridges, irregularly shaped joints melt into perfectly creased bevel junctions. There are “interior angles” that check the box, and then there are these things; even virtuosity has a grading curve.

Internally, the tourbillon components are smaller but not cruder than their bridges. When Greubel Forsey production was more like 50-100 pieces per annum, execution of this type of assembly was to blame. There’s simply no way to automate the decorative and regulation stages of this delicate carriage.

Tiny GF initials engraved onto a gold plate on the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique

That there are razor-sharp interior angle creases on the gnat-sized escapement bridge beggars belief. Even the tiny “GF” logo plate is rose gold, hand-filled with lacquer, and meticulously profiled in polish and satin.

And it all works, too. In 2011, Greubel Forsey won outright at the Concours International de Chronométrie 2011, and it was a Double Tourbillon 30° that took 915 points out of 1,000. While many haute horlogerie brands wish to avoid making any promises about the timekeeping of tourbillon regulators, Greubel Forsey obsesses on idea.

Consider that 2016’s $449,000 Credor Fugaku Tourbillon was billed by Seiko as accurate to -10/+15 seconds per day, and you get a sense of where Greubel and Forsey placed their comparably priced priorities.

Technical details of the tourbillon caliber GF-02e are impressive, but its operation requires a video supplement to fully appreciate. The inner tourbillon is a conventional one in the modern sense; it turns once per minute and carries the escapement. But it sits at a 30-degree angle to assure that the oscillator experiences a balanced exposure to gravity through its full 360 degrees of travel.

This is challenging to ensure on a randomly moving wrist, but the angled tourbillon carriage makes the most of its static time on a dresser or nightstand when sitting unused. There, the tourbillon balances out the ebb and flow of timing influenced by gravity.

However, there’s a second tourbillon – a slow one. The four-minute device encloses the one-minute carriage, and the larger regulator turns in the same flat plane as the dial. Theoretically, the combination of two carriages, two speeds, two different tourbillon orientations, and an overcoil hairspring grant the Double Tourbillon 30° more on-the-wrist gravity cancellation than a single flat tourbillon with a flat hairspring.

Due to the pokey rate of the outer tourbillon, a four-spoked sapphire star with 60-second quarters sits above the carriage to illustrate and highlight its subtle motion.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique movement side

Notable odds and ends are many. Lovely jewel-set golden chaton cups carry the barrel arbors and the drivetrain pivots down to the tourbillon. Wheels are internally beveled in a fashion that only patience and a blank check can sustain. Barrel covers are beautifully solarized, and the power reserve indicator scale is made of white gold.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique

For that matter, the entire dial is crafted from a blank of solid gold and coated grey. Both mirrored and fired blue screws contribute to the GF02e’s surprisingly colorful aesthetic.

In short, the generous size of this watch is a reasonable one in relation to the grandeur that it encompasses.

Text on the dial of the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique

This isn’t to say that every controversial element was driven by engineering or art – far from it. The most perplexing and frequently cited idiosyncrasy of Greubel’s house style is the pervasive use of text within and without the watches. Rather than get stuck in the weeds, just know that the text on this watch describes the company’s philosophy of watchmaking and the fact that this model marks the end of the Double Tourbillon 30° Contemporain series.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique small seconds dial

Dial-side text sits on sapphire panels embellished by galvanically growing the letters onto the discs. The result is capricious and excessive, but it’s also easy to miss when viewing the time from an arm’s length.

Many vendors, writers, and pundits incorrectly identify this model as part of a 186-piece edition. Reality is that 11 were built in each of platinum and rose gold.

The 186/186 series numbering indicates that this watch was the last example of the 186-piece Double Tourbillon 30° Contemporain series, a multi-year buildout that included many distinct models under the “Contemporain” banner. Platinum examples of the “Historique” edition have dials numbered from 176-186.

Greubel Forsey is back under the sole aegis of Greubel and Forsey. Judging by the recent eye-popping Nano Foudroyante EWT and Tourbillon Cardan, the old ethos of overkill is alive and well in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique on the wrist

The 2010 Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique is the spiritual forerunner of this breed. As ever in watchmaking, past is prologue.

For more information, please visit https://greubelforsey.com/en/history-timepieces/double-tourbillon-30

Quick Facts: Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique
Edition: Launched in 2010 in 11 pieces platinum and 11 pieces rose gold
Case: Platinum 950; 44.5mm diameter; 16.3mm thick; 52.5mm lug-to-lug; 22mm between lug horns; flared lugs; 30 meters of water resistance; push down crown; French language text describing 1) the philosophy and values of Greubel Forsey and 2) the conclusion of the Double Tourbillon 30° “Contemporain” series of 186 pieces over all variants
Strap: Black alligator leather with calf lining as built; depicted on Greubel Forsey plant-based suede strap introduced in 2021
Clasp: Platinum double-folding deployant clasp
Dial: Solid gold with three sapphire discs featuring galvanic additive metalized letters
Movement: GF02e; manual winding; 72-hour power reserve; full balance bridge; free-sprung Gyromax-style balance; 39 jewels; 3hz; twin mainspring barrels with fast rotation of 3.2 turns per hour; bridle-style mainspring in one barrel to prevent excessive winding; free sprung balance; overcoil hairspring; bridges and plates in maillechort
Functions: Hours; minutes; seconds; power reserve indicator; double tourbillon
2025 Preowned Price: $225,000-$240,000

* Tim Mosso is the media director and watch specialist at The 1916 Company. You can check out their very comprehensive YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@the1916company.

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