Loading...This is Greubel Forsey’s newest creation: The Quantieme Perpetuel (French for: perpetual calendar) à Équation, available in a Millesimé Edition with a rhodium-coloured gold dial.
I have yet to visit Greubel Forsey in La Chaux-de-Fonds. And I promise I will. The company is part of the Richemont Group. However, it was founded by Stephen Forsey and Robert Greubel in 2004.
I think it is safe to say that the team around the two founders is creating some of the most amazing and creative timepieces you can find anywhere. This is the highest possible end of watchmaking.
- The new timepiece took them seven years of research. The assembly encompasses 624 parts, three patents, and the combination of two inventions as Greubel Forsey is revolutionizing one of the oldest watchmaking complications: the perpetual calendar, by incorporating an equation of time. To create this watchmaking complication it was first necessary to develop a Mechanical Computer: this enabled ergonomics and readability of the various functions to be simplified, and for all corrections – including days – to be made rapidly by turning the bi-directional crown.
The Mechanical Computer
At the heart of the QP à Équation lies Greubel Forsey’s seventh invention, the Mechanical Computer, an entirely integrated 25-part component that brings a totally new interpretation to some of the calendar functions incorporated in age-old astronomical clocks. It is composed of a set of coding wheels superimposed in a coaxial manner, along with removable fingers programmed by this ingenious system.
Depending on their rotation speeds and number of teeth, these wheels provide a variety of information. The Mechanical Computer also directly drives a system of sapphire disks that displays the equation of time, i.e. the difference between the “real” solar time and civil time.
Paramount to this was simplifying the way all the indications can be corrected by turning the bi-directional crown. Despite its multiple functions and displays, added to its combination of three patents and two inventions, Greubel Forsey’s QP à Équation Millésimé remains as easy to set as a simple calendar.
Considering the level of “complication”, it is absolutely amazing to see that it is so simple to use.
Two faces to display 15 indications
The dial of the QP à Équation indicates leap years, the 24 hours of the day and night, the day of the week, the large date, the month, the hours, the minutes and the seconds, as well as the chronometric 72-hour power reserve.
On the movement side, this timepiece displays the equation of time with the months, seasons, solstices and equinoxes, as well as the calendar year.
The ultimate perpetual calendar, Millésimé
The timekeeping of this timepiece relies on Greubel Forsey’s third invention: the Tourbillon 24 Secondes, which uses a fast rotation speed and inclined angle to solve the problem of critical positions of the oscillator in relation to gravity. A 25° angle and the rapid revolution of the tourbillon cage significantly improve the chronometric performance of a system containing only one tourbillon, especially in stable positions.
Key details:
- white gold case
- 43.5mm case
- 16mm height
- Tourbillon 24 Secondes
- Perpetual calendar
- equation of time
- 15 indications
- 72 hours power reserve
- front and back have indications
Further information about Greubel Forsey.