The Chime has Come

The new Girard-perregaux Minute Repeater Tri-axial Tourbillon is a technical triumph for the house, says Nicolette Wong

n a time when brands are dusting off heritage collections and creating vintage-inspired watches, Girard-perregaux is, well, no different. The Laureato collection launched in 2016 was, after all, the resurrection of an iconic watch for the house. But the year 2018 sees the brand highlighting a different part of its horological heritage— that of musical complications. Some may remember Girard-perregaux’s series of three grand complication watches, called the “Opera”, produced during the late 1990s to 2010. Opera One was a minute repeater with a Westminster chime on four gongs; Opera Two was based on Opera One, with an added perpetual calendar; while Opera Three featured a perpetual calendar and a movement that allowed the wearer to play Mozart’s A Little Night Music and Tchaikovsky’s No Great Love on demand. All three were limited edition and highly coveted. A logical step might then be to reissue or revamp the Opera watches, but Girard-perregaux has chosen to do otherwise, reaching deeply into its technical hatbox and coming up with a new musical wonder, the Minute Repeater Tri-axial Tourbillon. As the name suggests, the watch features a minute repeater with a tourbillon that rotates on three different axes. The tri-axial tourbillon is rare in other brands and