Don’t you just love expensive watches?! I know I do!
These are the Most Expensive Gruebel Forsey Watches
GRANDE SONNERIE
Eleven years of development and research. The assembly of no fewer than 935 parts. The
filing of two patents. The perfecting of an acoustic resonance cage. The installation
of eleven safety features offering maximum comfort...These few details give an idea of
how monumental an undertaking the creation of the first Greubel Forsey Grande Sonnerie
really was.
The Grande Sonnerie has three modes to choose from: Grande Sonnerie (which strikes the hours
and the quarters in passing), Petite Sonnerie (which strikes the full hours in passing)
and Silence (which does not strike in passing). The pure, crystalline chime of the Grande
Sonnerie is enhanced by an acoustic resonance cage made from titanium.
This timepiece represents the quintessence of Greubel Forsey’s expertise and of its
ideal in terms of watchmaking excellence. This Grande Sonnerie has powerful acoustics.
Moreover, this timepiece is water resistant to 3 ATM. Its ergonomics ensure maximum comfort
to the wearer as well as an exceptional striking power reserve.
The movement is wound manually, but the striking mechanism features a self-winding system.
The minute repeater and its supplementary striking mechanism chime exactly to the nearest
minute on demand.
HAND MADE 1.
In this uniquely Greubel Forsey endeavour of handmade craftsmanship, each component
tells a tale. Each part has its own development process and journey that makes it unique,
undergoing long hours of shaping from the raw material as it is guided by the human
hand and eye.
The feat begins with the regulating organ, entirely produced by hand in Greubel Forsey's
workshops, including the balance spring, fashioned from an alloy produced in-house. Only a few
balance springs were cast at a time – whereas in ordinary industrial production, this operation
is used to obtain several hundreds of parts at once.
All the movement's components are hand finished, true to the finest watchmaking tradition,
including the bridges with their polished inner and outer vertical flanks, a unique
“gratté main” mainplate, and the wheels with hand polished bevels top and bottom (40
sharp internal angles for a five-spoke wheel). The partly open dial is distinguished by its
hand-enamelled décor, paired with flame-blued hands in an exclusive shape.
Intended to be produced in only 2 or 3 pieces a year, Greubel Forsey’s Hand Made 1 is
destined to become a new watchmaking landmark that unites both past and future. This new
step towards the ultimate in fine craftsmanship is substantiated on the dial at 6 o'clock,
where the inscription HAND MADE replaces the usual SWISS MADE.
GMT.
This timepiece marks a first, in more than one respect, for both Greubel Forsey and the
history of GMT watches. After exploring the world of the tourbillon throughout the 2000s,
and inventing, developing and increasing innovations at their company, Robert Greubel and Stephen
Forsey have now combined it with a second complication, which they have naturally interpreted
in their own way.
True to their philosophy and their traditional approach, they were not content with the traditional
display of a time zone by the jumping hour in an aperture or by a hand. They thus offer,
as a bonus and as a first, a three-dimensional expression of time zones in the form of a
globe that makes a full rotation in 24 hours, counter-clockwise.
For more visual details and an observation of the southern hemisphere, a lateral window
built into the case offers an equatorial view of the earth in rotation. Spatially, everything
is perfectly balanced, with a striking sense of depth offered by the globe, singularly
clear, and by the Tourbillon 24 Secondes.
The GMT calibre features the 25° inclined Tourbillon 24 Secondes cage, one of Greubel
Forsey’s major patented inventions. In addition to its chronometric virtues and reliability,
it was chosen for its compact size. One of the challenges of the Watchmaking Inventors
was to provide displays that are clear and useful, without overdoing it, and to thereby
simplify use of the timepiece.
BALANCIER CONTEMPORAIN.
Greubel Forsey opened a new chapter in its history by presenting the Balancier Contemporain
with particularly compact dimensions – a diameter of 39.6 mm. This was a real challenge,
since it involved reducing the size of the movement and the dial all while maintaining
well-balanced forms and pleasing proportions, along with clear readability and cutting-edge
performance.
In this compact size, the Balancier Contemporain encapsulates the Greubel Forsey universe and
explores the three dimensions in detail. Featuring a multi-level dial, with a single glance it
takes us on a fascinating architectural journey, where each of the unique elements has been
created with with an extreme attention to detail and consummate art in the finishes.
DOUBLE BALANCIER CONVEXE
This new composition showcases its movement spectacularly. The gear train emerges from
below the surface of the seemingly semicircular black-treated titanium bridge and extends
into the hour and minute hands which tower above it.
Every single component is hand finished to Greubel Forsey criteria and thus stands out
on its own, and at the same time it contributes to the striking overall æsthetic of this
timepiece.
The integrated and profiled lugs reinforce the compact and ergonomic character of this
timepiece. They extend onto either a textured rubber strap or titanium bracelet. Only 22
Double Balancier Convexe timepieces will be made per year between 2022 and 2024 for a
total of 66 pieces overall.
BALANCIER CONVEXE S2
The Balancier Convexe S² isolates the most powerful elements of the original Balancier
S and accentuates and modernises them. Instead of soft curves and a discreet aesthetic, the
Balancier Convexe S² is all about contrast and power. It shares the movement of its predecessor
but introduces a new case, new finishing and a new design.
Greubel Forsey chose to accentuate the contrast - and therefore the legibility - of its dial,
with an intense background that cuts through the balance bridge between 5 and 9 o’clock.
The edges are sharp and the matt-effect handgrained finish allows the bridge and indices to stand
out much more clearly. The latter have been reduced to their simplest expression, with
12 towering indices for 12 hours.
Ergonomic and contemporary, the new titanium bracelet is in perfect continuity with the
titanium case. The Balancier Convexe S² affirms its place in the fine watchmaking of today
and tomorrow as a timepiece that sacrifices nothing to the excellence of artisanal Swiss
watchmaking. Yet it is a timepiece designed for everyday use, not one to be stored away
in a safe.
The Balancier Convexe S² also features a slightly larger diameter that helps assert
its new personality. Increased to 46.5mm, it is now topped by a striking brushed titanium
bezel with polished flanks, instead of the key Greubel Forsey values.
While regular Greubel Forsey timepieces are already esoteric in their own right, the Art
Pieces lineup takes the aesthetical designs yet a step further.
The flagship of the brand’s SIHH 2019 line-up, the Art Piece Edition Historique is avant-garde
in style, emphasising two signature elements of the brand – the double, inclined 30°
tourbillon and relief micro-engraving of the Greubel Forsey philosophy.
The Greubel Forsey Art Piece Edition Historique is limited to 33 pieces, with the first 11
pieces in platinum and subsequent models in other materials.
There is no question that any Greubel Forsey is already a piece of horological art. It
is a brand that has taken the term finish to new heights and utilizes them on some of
the most sophisticated watches ever made. For the Art Piece Edition Historique, they
took it a step further and decided not to display the time prominently, but instead
put the focus on their double, inclined 30° tourbillon and exceptional relief micro-engraving.
These micro-engravings cover most of the raised part of the dial, and can even be found on
their sides. They tell the brand’s values, which were penned down by Robert Greubel and
Stephen Forsey when they started the brand. They not only guide the creations of each
and every watch that the brand develops and make, but also add to the unique appeal of
the Art Piece Edition Historique. What is also exceptional is that there is on the dial,
a small red triangle which indicates the hours, but no minute hand. The minutes are indicated
by a disc, which is hidden behind part of the dial. By simply pressing on the button
in the crown, a piece of the dial will slide away, and the minutes can be read. Because
of this feature, the focus of the watch is on its finish and its complication.
This complication is a tourbillon inclined at 30° for optimum precision. It features
two carriages, of which the outer one makes a full revolution once every four minutes,
and the inner one does the same in 60-seconds. Everything is designed to increase the precision
of this movement to an optimum because a Greubel Forsey is not only made to resemble perfection;
it is also created to tell the time as precise as possible. The inclined double tourbillon
is placed against a backdrop made up out by the frosted, blue-coated titanium main plate.
While regular Greubel Forsey timepieces are already esoteric in their own right, the Art
Pieces lineup takes the aesthetical designs yet a step further.
The flagship of the brand’s SIHH 2019 line-up, the Art Piece Edition Historique is avant-garde
in style, emphasising two signature elements of the brand – the double, inclined 30°
tourbillon and relief micro-engraving of the Greubel Forsey philosophy.
The Greubel Forsey Art Piece Edition Historique is limited to 33 pieces, with the first 11
pieces in platinum and subsequent models in other materials.