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Greubel Forsey GMT Centers the Globe

Greubel Forsey moves its titanium globe to the center of its new GMT Balancier Convexe, altering the watchmaker’s long-standing dial-borne universe in the process.

The new Greubel Forsey GMT Balancier Convexe.

The globe, an eye-catching component of the watchmaker’s GMT, GMT Earth, GMT Quadruple Tourbillon and GMT Sport, appears at the heart of the new 46.5mm titanium watch, which debuts this week at Geneva Watch Days. In those earlier GMT models, the globe was positioned along the edge of the case.

The new GMT Balancier Convexe joins six existing models within the independent watchmaker’s relatively new Convexe collection.  

As Greubel Forsey centers the globe on the new watch, the orb becomes a more visible component. The new design “replaces all previous GMT models and features,” according to Greubel Forsey.

Set within what appears to be an amphitheater just under the sapphire crystal, the globe rotates once per day as it plays a key role in the watch’s contemporary depiction of universal time.

GMT Balancier Convexe, showing inclined balance in foreground.

Three rings frame the amphitheater. These denote local time hours and minutes, as well as universal time. Helpfully, Greubel Forsey darkens the background when the time indicates night and brightens it when the time is during the day.

 

Greubel Forsey explains that its finishers have polished the inside of the case “so that it mirrors the escapement platform, the Terrestrial globe, and nearly every element visible on the dial side, thus adding incredible depth to this new construction.”

Inclined Balance

The centrally located globe isn’t the only premiere here. For the first time within a GMT model, the watchmaker’s signature 30-degree inclined balance wheel vibrates nearby, held by a flat black-polished and barrel-polished steel balance wheel bridge on polished steel pillars. Adjacent to this, note the small seconds, displayed with a blue gold hand.

Where the dial-side of the new watch is impressively redesigned, the back of the watch retains Greubel Forsey’s signature disc with 24 time zones indicating the UTC time. The only variation here is a minor one:  the UTC of Paris has been replaced by La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, home for Greubel Forsey.

All this drama is framed by Greubel Forsey’s unusual convex case, with its curved geometry and undulating lines that, along the top, are higher on the sides and lower at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions. The case itself is also asymmetric, with a diameter of 46.5mm around the bezel and 43.5mm around the case band. This means it nicely hugs the curve of the wrist.

Greubel Forsey will make sixty-six GMT Balancier Convexe timepieces at the rate of twenty-two per year between 2022 and 2024. Each is available on either a titanium bracelet or a textured rubber strap. Price: CHF 350,000.

 

Specifications: Greubel Forsey GMT Balancier Convexe

Displays: Hours and minutes, small seconds, 2nd time zone GMT, rotating globe with universal time, day-and-night, 24 time zones universal time, summer time, winter time.

Movement: Manual-wind with 423 parts, including 59 in the escapement. Two coaxial series-coupled fast-rotating barrels (1 turn in 3.2 hours), equipped with a fixed mainspring-bridle. Bridges and main plates in titanium with frosted, polished beveling and countersinks, straight-grained flank. Escapement is inclined at a 30° angle, flat black polished steel, polished beveling and countersinks, straight-grained flanks, polished steel pillars, flat black-polished.

Case: Caseband diameter 43.50mm, bezel diameter: 46.50mm, case height: 13.75 mm, height on sapphire crystals: 17.40 mm. Titanium case with curved sapphire crystal, three-dimensional, variable geometry-shaped bezel, hand-polished, profiled lugs, screwed fixing, transparent back with curved and high domed synthetic sapphire crystal, engraved GMT pusher, titanium security screws, raised engravings. 

Dial: Terrestrial globe in titanium, relief-engraved continents, ocean blue treatment, day-and-night UTC indicator in titanium, engraved and lacquered, GMT indicator in gold, amphitheater hour-ring with engraved and lacquered minute-circle, small seconds indicator in gold.

Hands: Hours and minutes with SuperLumiNova, red triangles, 2nd time zone GMT indicator, blue triangle, small seconds in polished blued steel, flat black-polished head.

Strap: Non-animal material, rubber with text in relief, titanium folding clasp, engraved GF logo. Also upon request: 3-row metal bracelet in titanium, folding clasp with integrated fine adjustment, engraved GF logo.

Price: CHF 350,000.

 

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The Watches

Greubel Forsey’s Convex Twist

Greubel Forsey debuts a new twist to its convex case series with the new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture.

The new Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture.

Unlike existing watches in the ‘Convexe’ series, this new model features a case that, in addition to its convex curve, also widens as it reaches the wrist. Thus, with a diameter around the caseback (47.05mm) that is wider than the bezel (45mm), it fully exhibits the impressive movement inside while also appearing smaller than it actually is.

Known as a ‘conical frustrum’ in geometry, the unusual case shape, especially with its side-case clear sapphire windows, creates a broad showcase for Greubel Forsey’s exceptional Tourbillon 24 Secondes movement.

On the wrist the titanium watch is comfortable and endlessly fascinating, especially given the ability to admire the movement’s highly polished moving parts directly through the case sides.

Polished titanium bridges immediately stand out from the frosted finish of the mainplate.

From the top the wearer sees the relief-engraved Greubel Forsey text “Architecture, Harmonie, Innovation, Technique, Bienfacture, Passion, Science, Exclusivité, Créativité” just inside the convex bezel. The new, contemporary font seems to announce a new era in case making for the newly independent watchmaker, which spent years perfecting this new design.

Light enters the case from all sides and creates shadows and reflections that only enhance the appearance of depth.

Superb chronometry

But within that bezel, when peering in from all sides, the viewer sees all the Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture components seemingly suspended within what may be the watchmaker’s deepest case, which measures 16.8mm from top to bottom. (The recent convex-cased Balancier S measures 13.75mm deep, in comparison.)

With the new case, light enters the case from all sides and creates shadows and reflections that only enhance the appearance of depth within.

The back view displays a contemporary finish and layout.

The watch’s showpiece Tourbillon 24 Secondes takes center stage at the 6 o’clock location. With its inclined escapement and fast rotational speed, it demonstrates superb chronometric performance.

Visible from multiple sides of the case, the inclined escapement and the other primary components (the power reserve indicator and the decorated coaxial-series barrel) are each attached to highly polished titanium bridges.

The watch’s side-case clear sapphire windows create a broad showcase for the movement.

Greubel Forsey has equipped one of those barrels with a slipping spring to avoid excess tension. The barrel provides ninety hours of power reserve, which is indicated by a moving red triangle over a conical disk at 3 o’clock.

Greubel Forsey will make only eleven Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture watches in 2022, followed by eighteen pieces a year between 2023 and 2025 for a total of sixty-five timepieces overall.

Price: $500,000.

Specifications: Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes Architecture

Movement: Time-only manual-wind with small seconds, 24-seconds tourbillon inclined at a 25° angle, light alloy cage pillars
, titanium cage bridges, gold counterweight, domed jewels in gold chatons, 21,600 vph. Ninety hours of power reserve.

Case: 47.05mm (case band) and 45.00mm (bezel) by 16.80mm titanium and synthetic sapphire crystal, three-dimensional, variable geometry bezel with raised engraved text, raised engraving “Architecture 1” and “Greubel Forsey”, water resistant to fifty meters.

Dial: Three-dimensional, variable geometry hour-ring, indexes with Super-LumiNova, power-reserve indicator, circular-grained, engraved and lacquered, gold small second indicator, circular-grained, polished flank, 24-seconds tourbillon rotation indicator.

Strap: Non-animal material, rubber with text in relief, titanium folding clasp, engraved GF logo.

Price: $500,000.

 

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The Watches

Greubel Forsey Launches New Convex Complication

Greubel Forsey continues to expand its Convexe collection, a relatively new series of watches characterized by a convex bezel and crystal that showcases the multi-level, multi-dimensional nature of its complicated movements.

The new Greubel Forsey Double Balancier Convexe.

The newest addition, the Double Balancier Convexe, finds the watchmaker’s existing Double Balancier movement (in its latest 2016 iteration) presented in a convex titanium case with a dramatic curved layout displaying the caliber’s openworked gears, wheels and bridges.

Within the undulating bezel, which Greubel Forsey first presented in 2019, we see the watch’s gear train in all its multi-level, highly finished splendor just below a semicircular black-treated titanium bridge. The skeletal hour and minute hands are set atop the gilded, stacked gear train, rotating well above the small seconds display. The seconds remain quite visible despite the display’s location deep within the movement.

The small seconds hand (lower right) is polished and blued steel, as is the four-minute hand (set between the two balances) that shows the rotational speed of the spherical differential.

Flanking each corner are the watch’s namesake two balance wheels, each inclined at 30° and separated by a constant spherical differential that ‘calculates’ their average timing rate.

The watch also gets its name from the convex profile of its 43.5 mm titanium case and bezel. The contemporary polished and brushed bezel frames the movement with undulating lines that are higher on the sides and lower at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions.

Greubel Forsey explains that it constructs each hand for this watch (and for many watches in its collection) with individual geometry, finish and color. Thus, the hour hand and the minute hand are curved and filled with SuperLuminova to complement the hour indexes.

The small seconds hand is polished and blued steel, as is the four-minute hand (set between the two balances) that shows the rotational speed of the spherical differential. Finally, the power reserve hand is polished, open-worked and tipped with red.

The Convexe collection is meant to be this high-end maker’s contemporary ‘daily wear’ collection. You’ll see none of the Greubel Forsey foundational phrases engraved on the dial or bezel within this collection. And, with 100 meters of water resistance and fully integrated lugs, the watch fits snugly on the wrist for wearing comfort rain or shine.

Greubel Forsey offers the new Double Balancier Convexe on either a textured rubber strap or titanium bracelet. The manufacturer will make twenty-two per year between 2022 and 2024 for a total of sixty-six pieces overall.

Prices: $340,000 (strap) and $385,000 (bracelet).

 

Specifications: Greubel Forsey Double Balancier Convexe


Movement: Hand-wound movement with two patents and high-end, hand-applied finishes throughout. These include frosted, polished beveling and countersinks, 
black treatment, multi-level, open-worked center bridge, black 
treatment, polished beveling and countersinks. Also, flat black polished steel differential bridge, gold plate with engraved limitation number, 
circular-grained, polished beveling and countersinks, straight-grained flanks, escapement platform inclined at a 30° angle, open-worked steel balance wheel bridges. Displays: hours and minutes, small seconds, 4-minutes spherical constant differential rotation, power-reserve (of 72 hours). Frequency: 21,600 vibrations/hour.

Case: 43.5mm by 13.75mm titanium with curved synthetic sapphire crystal, Three-dimensional, variable geometry-shaped bezel, hand-polished with hand-finished straight graining
, raised engraving “Double Balancier” and “Greubel Forsey.” Water resistant to 100 meters.

Dial: Three-dimensional, variable geometry hour ring with engraved and lacquered minute circle, black treatment, power-reserve indicator, engraved and lacquered.

Strap: Non-animal material, rubber with texture in relief, titanium folding clasp, engraved GF logo. On demand:
 3-row metal bracelet in titanium, folding clasp with integrated fine adjustment, engraved GF logo.

 

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The Watches

Greubel Forsey Blackens Final GMT Earth

Greubel Forsey today unveils a new GMT Earth sporting a contemporary blackened titanium case, a black dial and black bridges.

The dark titanium Greubel Forsey GMT Earth.

A limited edition of eleven pieces, the newly darkened GMT Earth is Greubel Forsey’s third and final interpretation of the groundbreaking watch. When it first appeared in 2011 it featured a partial view of its dial-set titanium globe, which displays time around the world. Seven years later, in 2018, Greubel Forsey set the orb within a clear sapphire frame, which allowed unobstructed views of the laser-engraved globe.

The GMT collection has expanded in the years since that debut and now also includes the GMT Sport, the GMT Quadruple Tourbillon and the GMT.

This latest and final GMT Earth, with its titanium case, is the lightest of the trio (at 117 grams) when compared to the earlier white gold and platinum-cased editions. Titanium also brings with it full non-magnetic and hypoallergenic properties.

Darkest yet

The dial here is the darkest we’ve seen in the GMT collection. Underscoring its black theme, Greubel Forsey uses a black treatment to darken the globe, all the frosted bridges, the mainplate and the sectorial subdials. Even the natural rubber strap is black.

As a reminder, the GMT Earth features four primary displays on its dial side. These include the off-center hours, minutes and seconds display, the red-handed GMT indicator, the power reserve indicator (near the crown) and of course the globe.

 

Situated between 7 o’clock and 9 o’clock, the Earth, which rotates once every 24 hours, features an engraved sapphire ring around the equator that acts as a day/night indication. This means you can quickly determine which hemisphere is in the daytime and which is at night.

 

A peek through the side of the case reveals the globe’s equator. And of course a wearer can enjoy the whirling Tourbillon 24 Secondes, positioned just below the power reserve display, which contributes to the watch’s high level of precision. Price: CHF 590,000.

Specifications: Greubel Forsey GMT Earth


(Limited edition of 11 pieces)

Movement: Greubel Forsey GMT with Tourbillon inclined at a 25 angle 1 rotation in 24 seconds. 72-hour power reserve, 21,600-vph frequency

Case: 45.50mm
 by 16.18mm titanium with titanium plates, engraved, hand-finished with text, screwed to the caseband, three-dimensional, asymmetrical, synthetic sapphire crystal bezel, water resistant to 30 meters.

Dial: 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, circular-grained with black treatment.  Rotating globe with day-and-night UTC indicator in synthetic sapphire, engraved and lacquered. Indications: GMT, 2nd time zone, rotating globe with universal time and day-and-night, complete and global view from northern to southern hemisphere, universal time on 24 time zones, summer and winter time, cities observing summer time, hours and minutes, small seconds, power-reserve.

Strap: Rubber or hand-sewn alligator and titanium folding clasp, engraved with the GF logo.

Price: CHF 590,000.

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The Watches

Greubel Forsey Updates GMT Sport, Adds Bracelet

Greubel Forsey debuts its first metal bracelet today as it adds contemporary updates to its titanium GMT Sport. The all-new, fully integrated titanium bracelet echoes the new look of the unusual elliptical bezel, complete with the high level of hand finishing you’d expect from Greubel Forsey.

The new Greubel Forsey GMT Sport, with the brand’s first-ever metal bracelet, here made in titanium.

You might recall that when this high-end watchmaker first showed the world the GMT Sport in 2019, the watch’s distinctive ovoid bezel attracted just as much attention as the watch’s new movement featuring such Greubel Forsey specialties as a Tourbillon 24 Seconds and eye-catching three-dimensional GMT globe.  

Likewise, the new bracelet here might garner outsized attention given its premiere status for this brand. Greubel Forsey has devised a three-link bracelet finished with many of the same styles we see on the 45mm-by-15.7mm case and bezel, notably straight graining, frosting and top-tier hand-polished beveling.

Greubel Forsey notes that it opted to frost-finish the lugs to better emphasize how the case and bracelet link directly along an uninterrupted row. The somewhat darker frosting continues along both edges of the bracelet as well, underscoring the visual unity of the two components.

Functionally, the bracelet features a fine adjustment system that allows the wearer to quickly loosen or tighten the bracelet’s fit. The watch will also arrive with a blue rubber strap with text in relief and a titanium folding clasp with engraved logo.

The watch will also arrive with a blue rubber strap with text in relief and a titanium folding clasp with engraved logo.

Clean bezel

While adding a bracelet to the GMT Sport, Greubel Forsey has also removed something: The GMT Sport’s wide, undulating bezel is now free of the raised engraved text espousing the brand’s values. Instead, the elliptical bezel, which curves gently at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock, is cleaner, sporting expert hand-finished horizontal straight graining on top and a hand-polished frame.

Thus, instead of reading words like ‘perfection’ and ‘harmonie’, the wearer can focus on the GMT Sport’s intricate, multi-dimensional dial components and displays amid the bright new blue and titanium color scheme.

Indeed, the new color scheme of this GMT Sport highlights a matte blue finish on the mainplate, bridges, globe, second time zone dial and 24-second indicator ring of the Tourbillon 24 Seconds. The color nicely contrasts with the polished components of the steel and titanium movement components.

In addition, to draw attention to new blue color scheme, Greubel Forsey has decided to skeletonize the highly visible central suspended arched bridge and the tourbillon bridge.

The blue color splashes across the multi-level dial plates, replacing the dark grey hue of the previous GMT Sport. Between the blue plates wearers can check the time via a central hours and minutes display while eyeing a second time zone at 10 o’clock, a power reserve indicator at 3 o’clock and the GMT rotating terrestrial globe at 8 o’clock.

On the GMT Sport caseback is a sapphire disc displaying city names surrounded by two rings.

The GMT globe, first seen in 2011 and used within the GMT Black in 2015, displays the second time zone (as seen on the auxiliary dial just above at 10 o’clock). When the wearer combines this with the globe’s universal time display, he or she can read the current time anywhere in the world. And of course a wearer can enjoy the whirling Tourbillon 24 Secondes, positioned between 12 o’clock and 2 o’clock, which contributes to the watch’s high level of precision.

Greubel Forsey will make the new GMT Sport with the new titanium bracelet in a limited edition of thirty-three units. The price has not yet been announced, though the previous GMT Sport was priced at $500,000.

 

Specifications: Greubel Forsey GMT Sport

Features: 
In titanium, blue movement, limited edition hand-wound movement with three patents, GMT, 2nd time zone indication, rotating globe with universal time and day-and-night, universal time on 24 time zones, summer and wintertime indication, cities observing summer time, 24-second tourbillon, hours and minutes, small seconds, power-reserve indictor.

Movement: Greubel Forsey manual-wind caliber with 63 domed jewels in gold chatons, Tourbillon inclined at a 25° angle 1 rotation in 24 seconds, 72-hour power reserve, 21,600 bph,

Case: 45mm (with bezel) by 17.8mm (with crystals) titanium with curved synthetic sapphire crystal, three-dimensional, variable geometry-shaped bezel, hand-polished with hand-finished straight graining, 100-meter water resistance. O back is a sapphire disc displaying city names surrounded by 2 rings

Bracelet: New three-row metal bracelet in titanium, folding clasp with integrated fine adjustment, engraved GF logo. Also: rubber with text in relief, titanium folding clasp, engraved GF logo. 

 

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