Greubel Forsey GMT at SIHH 2018

GB GMT – OH HELL I want one!

Greubel Forsey brought the heat to SIHH 2018 with their GMT watch.  Man o’man I want to try this on. GB is one of those brands that I just want to try one on… once.  Just check out the plaque on the side!

The 360 view of the globe is insane.  Beautiful design.  Beautiful movement finishing.  The crystals on this watch are a miracle of fabrication.  Those location/date wheels on the back reek of quality.   Their documentation states there are 453 parts.  (453 that’s not a typo).  I didn’t even really read the documentation before deciding how awesome this watch is.  I am a self-professed GB fanboy.  To be honest though, they do have a few references I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot-pole, but I digress.   I need to set up a gofundme to fly me to SIHH 2019 to try one on. Yeah, I’ll get right on that.

TOURBILLION?

Oh, did I mention this has a tourbillion.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I’ve said before I’m not a tourbillion guy but here it simply works.  100%.  Great design, materials choice, size, complications.

 

Movement

Movement dimensions

• Diameter : 36.40 mm
• Tickness : 11.55 mm

Number of parts

• Movement : 453 parts
• Tourbillon cage : 86 parts
• Weight of the cage : 0.39 g

Number of jewels

• 60
• Olived-domed jewels in gold chatons

Chronometric Power Reserve

• 72 hours

Barrels

• Two coaxial series-coupled fast rotating barrels (1 turn in 3.2 hours), one of which is equipped with a slipping spring to avoid excess tension

Balance wheel

• Variable-inertia with gold mean-time screws (10 mm diameter)

Frequency

• 21’600 vibrations/hour

Balance spring

• Phillips terminal curve
• Geneva-style stud

Main plates

• Nickel silver, frosted and spotted with polished bevelling and countersinks, straight-grained flanks, nickel-palladium treatment

Bridges

• Flat black polished steel tourbillon bridge, hand-polished bevelling and countersinks
• Nickel silver, frosted with polished bevelling and countersinks, straight-grained flanks, nickel-palladium treatment
• Flat black polished steel screws, blued by heat treatment

Tourbillon

• Inclined at a 25° angle, 24-seconds rotation
• Light alloy cage pillars
• Titanium cage bridges
• Gold counterweight

Gearing

• Involute circle profile
• Tangential inclined gear on fixed wheel and profiled teeth on escape wheel pinion

Displays

• Hours and minutes
• Small seconds

Exterior

Case

• Lateral window with shaped synthetic sapphire crystal
• Three-dimensional, variable geometry-shaped lugs
• Gold security screws
• White gold GMT pusher with raised engraving on a hand-punched background
• Hand-engraved individual number
• In white gold, with 18k gold plates, engraved, hand-finished with text, screwed to the caseband
• Three-dimensional synthetic sapphire crystal caseback, with integrated dome
• Three-dimensional, asymmetrical, synthetic sapphire crystal bezel
• Raised polished engraving “GMT Earth” and “Greubel Forsey” on a hand-punched background

Case dimensions

• Diameter : 45.50 mm
• Height : 16.18 mm

Water resistance of case

• Water-resistant 3 atm – 30 m – 100 ft
  (Standard NIHS 92-20/SN ISO 22810:2010)

Crown

• In white gold, synthetic sapphire insert with GF logo

Hands

• 2nd time zone GMT indicator, red triangle
• Hours, minutes, small seconds and power-reserve in polished steel, black treatment, hand-polished countersinks

Strap and clasp

• White gold folding clasp, hand-engraved with the GF logo
• Black rubber or hand-sewn alligator

Dial side

• Multi-level hour-ring in synthetic sapphire, galvanic growth hour indexes, engraved and lacquered minutes and small seconds
• Power-reserve and GMT indicators in gold, engraved and lacquered, hand matt lapped
• Rotating globe with day-and-night UTC indicator in synthetic sapphire, engraved and lacquered

Movement side

• Synthetic sapphire disc displaying city names surrounded by 2 gold rings (UTC and summer time) engraved and lacquered
• Gold “summer time” plate with individual number, raised engraving
• South Pole of the globe with UTC indicator, engraved and lacquered, hand matt lapped