Last week from the calm air that often precedes the SIHH storm, Greubel Forsey released a single thunderclap that rumbled across the horological community. And even more impressively, what created the loud bang was so minuscule as to be invisible to the naked eye. Welcome to our musings on the Mechanical Nano!
Impressively, the cathedral chimes remained audible as Stephen Forsey closed his palm completely around the Greubel Forsey Grand Sonnerie in a (knowingly) futile attempt to silence the gongs.
But how? And what else does this exceptional timepiece, one that I might call the best in the world, hold in store?
Like many people, my starting point for serious watches was with a well-priced brand long known for its expertise in developing movements, justly viewed as offering good value for money – but not necessarily for the refinement of its movement finishing, at least on its less expensive pieces. What have I learned since then?
André Kusni is only 17 years old, yet the teenager already owns several horological masterpieces and plans on collecting many more. Kusni first came in contact with fine watches when his grandmother gifted him a Rolex Submariner Deepsea Sea-Dweller. Since then, the fortunate teenager lives his passion, now mostly attracted to rather rare watches made by independent boutique brands.
In 2009, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey were considering a number of options for what had become a quest to safeguard traditional watchmaking knowledge and experience. One was to help somebody working internally at Greubel Forsey to create a watch from scratch. Senior movement designer Didier Cretin was given responsibility for the project and developed the traditional Greubel Forsey timepiece that became Signature 1.
Not so very long ago, the Tourbillon 24 Secondes Vision in white gold won the coveted Aiguille d’Or at the 2015 edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. At the 2016 edition of the SIHH, Greubel Forsey presented an absolutely luscious black-dialed red gold version of this watch, but that wasn’t all we saw here. Follow us on a photographic journey to discover the new Greubel Forsey creations from SIHH 2016.
In this final round table discussion, my Quill & Pad colleagues Ian, Joshua, Gary, Amr, and I discuss the amazing evening of October 29, 2015 at the elegant Grand Théâtre in Geneva. The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève ceremony was greatly successful this year with the hosts keeping it from running long with windy speeches and comedy routines in the middle.
Ian Skellern deliberately wrote the headline as “Why We Are In A Golden Age For Appreciating Superlative Hand-Finishing . . . ” because the fact is that if many people do not appreciate superlative hand-finishing, then fewer will pay for superlative hand-finishing, so there is likely to be less superlative hand-finishing on offer. So what does any of this mean for the future of superlatively hand-finished timepieces?
Greubel Forsey’s timepieces usually have much of the movement on display on the dial side, which is all the better to appreciate the beauty of its design and sublime hand-finishing. But the 24 Secondes Vision is altogether more discreet and it does not fully reveal its magic until it is turned over. That’s where the micro-mechanical ballet beneath the transparent dome takes place.
A very significant percentage of the (hand) work − and therefore cost − of a high-end watch goes into the finishing of components.
Today, fine finishing is no longer essential from a practical point of view as watches are assembled in dust- and moisture-free environments, and waterproofing generally does a good job at keeping moisture and dust out of the timepiece during daily use.
But fine finishing isn’t just about mechanical practicality: contrasting finishes visually break up large surfaces, and reflections off mirror-polished steel catches the eye. Finishes can be a signature of sorts: think of Breguet’s guilloche dials or Greubel Forsey’s English-style frosted plates.
Few brands take hand finishing as seriously as Greubel Forsey, where each and every component is individually decorated. Just finishing one bridge can require two days of work. And that’s just one of hundreds of components in the brand’s usually quite complicated movements.
And then the watchmaker has to assemble all of these beautifully decorated parts, without a single scratch.
In this video by The Watches TV, Stephen Forsey explains why finishing is so important to Greubel Forsey and takes a look at the whole process.