Swiss watch manufacturer Girard-Perregaux can trace its origins back 231 years, a fact meaningful enough that the watchmaker emblazons “1791” on the minute track of its Neo Bridges model. Other than that mark of history – written quixotically in a serif typeface that wouldn’t seem out of place on a coin or a bell – the timepiece reads as much like a spaceship as a “wristwatch.”
In fact, if you understand what you’re looking at, the elements under the watch’s immaculately domed sapphire crystal are all reasonably conventional. The balance wheel affixed to the lower of the two eponymous “bridges” may seem animated as if by sorcery, but it’s actually just a lovelier version of the simple machine that regulates the timekeeping for millions of mechanical watches the world over. Same for the eye-catchingly blue micro rotor (which winds the mainspring) and barrel (which houses the mainspring): their functions don’t differ much from a workaday watch, but their executions, precision, and finishing are a world apart.
