Review GP 1966: Golden class, my first and one of my best

In 2009 my wife decided to get me a truly good watch. She knew I liked watches and I was new to a job as a senior executive. So, time for a ‘good’ dress watch. We went to a local watch maker who specialized in high end classic watches. Not surprisingly there were mostly Rolex models in his case. I quickly realized those weren’t for me; they felt heavy on the wrist and for me the Rolex brand was much too known. I wanted something less known with an interesting heritage. There was a simple elegant gold watch in the case. I wasn’t looking at first for gold, I had seen several gold bracelet watches that were more shine than I wanted, but the blue slate dial and leather band toned this one down. It felt right and looked good on my wrist. A bit of negotiating and a couple I visits later, the Girard-Perregaux Elegance small seconds became to first classic automatic in my collection. This was the GP 49520, a 2003 model. It remains a favorite to this day.

I didn’t pay much attention to watch dimensions then, but the 8mm thickness of the case, which I now know to be pretty thin, felt right and better on my wrist than the other automatics I had tried on.  The watch had a sculptured 38mm rose gold case, interesting finish; 7mm crown; a deep blue slate dial with large rose gold indices and large Arabic numerals at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock; gold lumed hands; and a recessed small seconds dial at 9 o’clock. The hands were inlaid with SuperLuminova and the minute hand tapered to a fine point that just covered the minute marks on the chapter ring. The applied indices and numerals were sharp. I liked the limited use of lume only on the hands. I am a frequent early riser and often want to read my watch going into work in the twilight, but I do not like too much lume my dress watches. The watch looked larger than the 38mm diameter would suggest due to the long lugs giving it 48mm lug-to-lug length. Overall it had an understated, nearly sculptural look. The case had contrasting brushed and polished surfaces making the watch appear slimmer than it actually was and the slim domed polished bezel merged well with the sapphire domed crystal.

The seller pointed out this watch had an in-house movement, case and buckle. It had a honey-brown alligator strap that looked great but was showing some wear on the inside. I’ve learned over time that this watch was a bit of a re-launch for GP and one of the watches than began the manufacture’s trend back to all in-house work. There was a history to this movement,  a GP calibre 3300, beating at 4Hz with a power reserve of 50h as it was based on the long standing 3000 series for GP. I’ve found the watch to run at +1 to +3 sec per day, excellent for that time. I’ve always wanted my watches to be accurate and check the time with each wear. This watch has the behavior I’ve come to appreciate the most. It’s very accurate, but slightly gains time. This way, every week or so I just have to stop it for a few seconds to line it up with the reference time. More modern watches that act like this are my Omegas (with similar accuracy) and my Grand Seiko’s, (with 10-20x more accuracy). Good company.

The sapphire case back showed a movement with a beautiful finish. Blued screws, gold-inlaid lettering, easily visible balance wheel and fine machining made this the most attractive movement in the watchmaker’s case that day.  Weirdly, to me, it was also one of the better values in his case.

Over time, I’ve found a few nits to pick. The back of the lugs have very sharp edges, these are not felt when wearing but some smoothing there would fit better with the rest of the finish. The strap was a bit worn at the buckle; it takes a sharp bend to latch it. I used this watch as an almost daily wear for three or four years and though it held up to that, this did become a serious wear point.  The front sapphire crystal only has anti-glare coating on the inside and paired with the slate colored dial, reflections can interfere with the view. The strap fits very close to the case with the help of highly curved spring bars which is a good look, but something that keeps it from easy strap changes.

All in all, this watch has become a cornerstone of my collection and has influenced what I look for in a quality watch: genuine in-house production; a well finished and constructed case; a beautifully finished movement and a dial face that appears flawless to the naked eye with sharp hands that invite precise time setting. This watch remains one of the best conceived and executed watches I’ve seen. Everything seems to fit the overall concept. The details all meet the same stringency of construction, quality and execution. This watch has aged very well. The design is classic and remains contemporary. After 11 years, with one routine servicing in my collection, it had a stem failure and the strap had worn to the point of worry.  Repairs proved to be beyond the scope of my local watch shop, who couldn’t find parts for the GP movement, but a return to GP for an overhaul and a new strap cured all and now my GP is happily back in service.