And just like that, it’s Super Watch Season. Every year we see a handful of watches that come to market that exist for the purpose of displaying the absolute pinnacle of what a brand can accomplish. Think of ultra complicated watches from Vacheron Constantin released in recent years, or pieces from Greubel Forsey focused on extravagant hand finishing and machining. The new release from Girard-Perregaux feels like a member of this rare category.
The new Minute Repeater Flying Bridges combines a tourbillon and a minute repeater with GP’s famous “Three Bridges” movement architecture. The highlight here, beyond the rarity of a repeater, is that the new Calibre GP9530 is a self-winding movement (via a micro-rotor), which is exceedingly rare among chiming watches and, to a lesser extent, tourbillons.
Girard-Perregaux has a long history in chiming watches that dates back to the 1820s, and the Minute Repeater Flying Bridges is fashioned as a tribute to those earliest repeaters, while being unapologetically contemporary in its design. Certainly part of that tribute is in the craftsmanship itself, and in the use of the most modern technology available to create the best chiming mechanism possible. To that end, the movement has been radically skeletonized not only for aesthetic reasons but to prioritize resonance. According to the brand, every technical choice made in the development of the new watch was made in the name of optimizing the sound of the chime. For a repeater, this largely comes down to controlling vibrations in the case when the chime is activated, so titanium is the material of choice for the plates and bridges due to its lightness and rigid qualities. Further, the gongs and gong stud are made from a single piece of metal and the strikework regulator is affixed to the back of the movement, which is a design choice made to reduce noise and interference that can upset sound quality.
The biggest benefit to overall sound quality though is likely the open working of the movement itself. According to Girard-Perregaux, the airy structure of the caliber allows sound to reverberate naturally and unimpeded inside the case. This makes a certain amount of logical sense – a denser movement would likely dampen the sound quality, which is certainly not what you want in a repeater.
The monobloc case is crafted from pink gold and measures 46mm in diameter and 17.9mm tall. It’s a large watch, to be sure, but this is a statement piece through and through. The slider for the minute repeater can be found on the 9:00 side of the case, and has been integrated in such a way to allow for 30 meters of water resistance, which is also uncommon in watches of this type. While I certainly wouldn’t advise swimming (or even showering) with a watch like this on the wrist, there’s a certain charm in knowing that GP has engineered in such a way that you probably would not destroy the timepiece if you did happen to forget to take it off while doing the dishes.
The retail price of the Minute Repeater Flying Bridges is set at $590,000. It’s not clear at press time if easyt monthly payments with Affirm are available, but more information can be found at Girard-Perregaux’s website here.
Zach Kazan
2026-03-12 13:00:00