Is This Swiss Super Watch the Year’s Most Impressive So Far?

It’ll be tough to beat.

Side view of a rose gold watch case with a domed crystal and a black textured strap.

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Published March 12, 2026

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The year is young, but I think anyone is going to have a hard time surpassing the horological wonder that Girard-Perregaux just dropped.

Rolex and Seiko are often mentioned as the only fully vertically integrated brands in the watch industry, meaning they produce all of the parts for their watches in-house. But there are a handful of other brands that come awfully close to reaching that milestone.

One is Girard-Perregaux, which crafted every component for its latest watch in-house, save for the sapphire crystals, the movement’s synthetic rubies, and the strap. That’s especially impressive considering the watch’s in-house movement, Calibre GP9530, is a 475-component skeletonized automatic minute repeater. (Have those three words ever been used together? I’m not sure.)

TL;DR: This thing is nuts.

Rose gold skeleton watch with black fabric strap and visible mechanical gears. — Other watchmakers: Your move.

Triple threat

The new watch belongs to GP’s iconic Three Bridges line, and it may be the most impressive take on the 159-year-old format yet. Dubbed the Minute Repeater Flying Bridges, the watch features the familiar three bridges, but in a brand-new style.

The bridges are made of titanium. The bottom bridge, as usual, holds the tourbillon escapement; a flying tourbillon, in this case. Above that, the middle bridge holds the handset. Par for the course so far, but here’s where things get interesting.

One side of the middle bridge also holds the mainspring barrel, which is usually mounted centrally on the top bridge in Three Bridges watches. The other side of this bridge holds our first big innovation, a new, completely silent, white gold micro-rotor.

The small top bridge holds two hammers that spring into action when the minute repeater is activated via the slide-piece on the side of the case.

Girard-Perregaux

Moving up to the diminutive top bridge, it features an applied GP logo in its center, but its main purpose is to hold the two hammers for the chiming mechanism. These hammers strike the gongs, which are part of a single piece of metal surrounding the dial.

The mainplate is also made of titanium, chosen for its resonance, and it’s fixed to the mainplate to better transfer the vibrations of the minute repeater. There are massive domed sapphire crystals on both sides of the case, helping to further amplify the chimes.

The movement is assembled by a single watchmaker and takes around 440 hours of work to complete. That’s 11 standard American work weeks to you and me. Each movement is initialed by its singular watchmaker, who, over the course of those 440 hours, hand polishes at least 1,340 chamfers, including 295 difficult-to-master interior angles to create the intricate openworked display. This is seriously top-shelf watchmaking we’re talking about here.

Rose gold Girard-Perregaux watch back showing intricate mechanical movement with visible gears and jewels. — Through the caseback, you can see the 60-hour mainspring barrel (left) and white gold, jewel-mounted micro-rotor (right).

The 43.55mm case is in pink gold and features a monobloc midcase that holds a slide activator for the minute repeater. This setup ensures 30m of water resistance, which is a lot for this style of watch. You’re not going to go swimming with this thing, but it’s nice to know you don’t have to stress out when washing your hands.

Availability and pricing

Although not technically a limited edition, the sheer time it takes to make each of these watches means the output is extremely small. Girard-Perregaux is wisely keeping expectations low, limiting production to just 8 pieces per year.

The Minute Repeater Flying Bridges is priced at $590,000, but despite that lofty price tag, I have no doubt the brand will easily sell its allotment of 8 per year … and probably already has for 2026.

Rose gold wristwatch with a skeleton dial showing intricate mechanical gears and a black textured strap.

Girard-Perregaux Minute Repeater Flying Bridges

Specs

Case Size	43.5mm
Movement	Girard-Perregaux Cal. GP9530 automatic minute repeater
Water Resistance	30m

$590,000 at Girard-Perregaux

About the Author:

Johnny Brayson is an editor at Gear Patrol mostly covering watches. He enjoys watches that are packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em details and believes nearly every watch could stand to be a tad smaller.

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