opera three

Girard-Perregaux Opera One Watch, Again

Instead of releasing a new member of the Opera watch collection, Girard-Perregaux opted to release a new Opera One. This time with a different dial (made from sapphire crystal with the black sunburst pattern applied to it. The watch contains a tourbillon and a minute repeater with a Westminster chime. I am not sure if it is the full chime, as that goal was recently accomplished by the Jaeger-LeCoultre Hybris Mechanica Grande Sonnerie. Tourbillon minute repeater watches are more common these days. You had Corum start the year off with the Corum Admiral's Cup Tourbillon Minute Repeater.

Inside the new Opera One is a manually wound Girard Perregaux GP9899 movement with 75 hours of power reserve. The case is in 18k white gold and 40mm wide. The dense metal is probably not best for the sound of the minute repeater to travel, but you need a luxury metal in such a luxury watch. Mechanical minute repeater watches aren't known for being particularly loud. At least Girard-Perregaux indicates that the new Opera One watch will have a very clear sounding chime.

While on the topic, I wanted to include images of the Girard-Perregaux Opera Three. This wasn't a minute repeater but rather a music box watch. It had a music wheel built into it. You can see styling is similar though to the Opera One, at least in theme. The Opera Three is an extremely rare watch, so see images of the face and back in the gallery below.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Girard Perregaux Opera Three watch