Greubel Forsey Announces The Balancier QM ‘Qualité Musée’ GF09CM

This has so far been a tumultuous year at Greubel Forsey. Earlier this year, co-founder Stephen Forsey left the company he’d started with Robert Greubel and which launched its first watch, the Double Tourbillon 30º, at Baselworld in 2004. Forsey, who reportedly departed as a result of unreconcilable differences with Greubel Forsey’s board over the future direction of the company, left in February, subsequent to the departure of former CEO Antonio Calce in 2025, and in March of this year, Greubel Forsey, which is now under the direction of the current CEO, Michel Nydegger (who began working at the company as Communications Manager ten years ago, in 2016) announced a major shift in direction. Along with the announcement of the last edition of the Balancier Convexe, the company stated:

“The year 2026 also marks the beginning of a gradual transition toward an almost entirely new collection. As Greubel Forsey closes the chapter on calibres [sic] that have shaped the past years of technical and creative development, each will be retired deliberately – not silently – with a final expression that celebrates its contribution to the Atelier’s continuous evolution.”

The latest new release from Greubel Forsey is one of the first watches designed and made as part of the transition to a new strategy and while the company has not disclosed specifics about what the transition entails except in general terms, the rolling retirement of calibers representing all of Greubel Forsey’s technical innovations over more than two decades is obviously momentous on several levels. For one thing, it sets a very high bar for whatever follows Greubel Forsey’s history of creating highly experimental and generally large watches designed to probe the limits of chronometry, as well as challenging the company to explore a new direction which is also a radical departure from its history, without creating a problematic disruption of the company’s identity.

Break With The Past, Statement For The Future: The Balancier QM

With that as context, the new Balancier QM Qualité Musée is both thought provoking, as well as being a temptation to mind-read the company’s intentions for the future.

Here are some of the more relevant facts. First, this is for Greubel Forsey a relatively small watch, at just 39.60mm x 9.45mm. The last watch from Greubel Forsey which was made under the founding philosophy was the 2023 Tourbillon Cardan, which is a double axis high speed tourbillon with a sixteen second inner cage and 48 second outer cage, inclined to each other so that the axis of the tourbillon precesses as the cages turn. It’s also a very large watch: 45.50mm (at the caseband) x 13.81mm; with the domed sapphire crystal the height increases to 18.15mm.

The new Balancier QM, on the other hand, is essentially built along the lines of a conventional wristwatch, at 39.60mm x 9.45mm. This isn’t new for Greubel Forsey, which has probed smaller dimensions in complicated watchmaking as well, with the 2024 Nano Foudroyante EWT, which is 37.90mm x 10.49mm – and calling it “complicated” is an understatement; it’s a monopusher flyback chronograph tourbillon with a foudroyante (lightning) seconds, miniaturizes so they could mount it directly on the top of the flying tourbillon carriage.

One other useful bit of context for the Balancier QM is that the idea of making a Greubel Forsey watch with the high level of finish characteristic of all Greubel Forsey watches, but which is a simple time-only watch, isn’t a new one; the first was the Signature 1.

The Greubel Forsey Signature 1, 2016

The Signature 1 is 41.4mm x 11.7mm, and it was developed at Greubel Forsey by watchmaker Didier Cretin, who worked with Philippe Dufour from 2004 to 2006, and who was with Greubel Forsey for almost fifteen years – his last position with the company before leaving in 2021, was Head of Project Creation. So while there are some distinguishing aspects to the Balancier QM the basic concept – making a time-only, smaller Greubel Forsey watch which still features recognizable aspects of Greubel Forsey movement architecture, as well as recognizable and established technical solutions (double fast rotating mainspring barrels; the large in-house freesprung balance) is an idea which is well established in actual watches for over a decade, and which seems to be a proven formula for folks who want the distinctive look Greubel Forsey offers, in a more wearable watch that prioritizes visual clarity over intricate complexity. Which you prefer is a matter of taste and there’s no reason you couldn’t want both, although for me Greubel Forsey has always meant highly obsessive chronometric experimentation as well as excellence in finishing.

The ‘Qualité Musée’ Standard And What It Means

One of the key statements Greubel Forsey has made about this watch has to do with the Qualité Musée designation, and for what that means, let’s look at how Greubel Forsey defines its meaning and its importance to the brand:

“Greubel Forsey introduces the Balancier QM – the first timepiece to carry the Qualité Musée standard, the formal name we have given to the level of hand finishing to which we hold our work. Implicit in everything the Atelier has made since 2004, it is now driven forward by a dedicated research wing within our EWT (Experimental Watch Technology) Laboratory.

“There are not two standards of hand finishing at the Atelier: a three-hand timepiece gets the same attention as the Grande Sonnerie. Qualité Musée adds one demand on top – and it is a demanding one: each component, on its own, must hold up as a work of art.”

Greubel Forsey points out a couple of components as examples of what this means in terms of actual treatment of actual parts. One component called out is the balance cock, which Greubel Forsey says has seven different finishing techniques applied to it.

This is undeniably a beautiful piece of work and along with the balance, it’s really the centerpiece of the dial side of the watch. The rounded upper surface isn’t something exclusive to Greubel Forsey but it’s still relatively rare and of course, black polishing a rounded surface is harder than black polishing a flat one. The other components called out are the lever and escape wheel.

Greubel Forsey says of the escape wheel and lever:

“The bi-level escape wheel is bevelled and polished on both sides – the hidden face as carefully as the one on view. The pallet-jewels are convex rather than flat, so light travels along the ruby instead of flashing off a single edge.”

The escape wheel is not a component that generally gets anything more than purely functional finish, even in most high end luxury watches. It’s necessary for the geometry of the teeth to be as close to perfect as possible for the escapement to function, and better mass produced movements usually have cleanly mechanically finished edges, but actually beveling the escape wheel teeth is very rare – I can’t think of another modern example off the top of my head – and while rounded pallet stones are a little bit less unusual, using them still shows a higher than usual level of attention to detail.

Both of these components are anywhere from difficult to nearly impossible to see in most watch movements. I’ve seen rounded pallet jewels in some vintage watches, like this Patek observatory chronometer, which also has a remarkably beautiful lever (as does the Dufour Simplicity) but in general escape wheels and levers, thanks to their small size, don’t generally produce an increase in obviously beautiful finishing commensurate to the effort. The effort taken on the  escapement components is a distinguishing feature in the Balancier QM.

As is usually the case with Greubel Forsey watches the back is less detailed, since many of the most active components are on the dial side, but you certainly don’t have any less attention to detail. The mainspring barrel clicks and click springs are as beautiful as any I’ve ever seen, and the wheel countersinks are so highly polished that the equally highly polished crown and ratchet wheel teeth are actually reflected in them. The visible train wheels have beveled spokes as well and while I could wish for slightly deeper and more visible bevels, that detail is already so exclusive to higher end, hand-finished watches that it feels like an inconsequential quibble.

The Meaning Of ‘Art’ In The Craft Of Watchmaking

It’s tempting to take a long deep dive into what exactly Greubel Forsey means when they say, ” … must hold up as a work of art.” I don’t think however there is much if anything to get out of interrogating the term, and getting into the whole largely abstract and generally inconclusive subject of whether mechanical watchmaking rises to the level of art.

Certainly at a high craft level, it’s right up there with any craft object that requires skill and practice in order to produce a beautiful and tasteful object; I think “art” is pushing it in most cases but I don’t think Greubel Forsey actually means: “Every component in our watches moving forward will aspire to have the cultural status and impact of the Mona Lisa or the Goldberg Variations,” I think they just mean the Qualité Musée standard – and it’s not really a standard as it doesn’t specify any objective goals; it’s really more a statement of intent than anything else – means that Greubel Forsey is going to do its utmost to make sure that every component is as painstaking an expression of traditional craftsmanship as possible.

The gotcha here is that, framed that way, Greubel Forsey has always operated from a Qualité Musée position – the brand is as famous for its obsessive hand finishing as it is for its almost Rube Goldberg-esque technical inventions – it’s now just articulating that approach as a specific goal.

What actual difference this makes in visible changes to the finishing of specific components is extremely difficult to interrogate. Evaluating whether or not the escape wheel finishing in the Balancier QM really sets a new standard internally, or is a new challenge to the competition, would be a major challenge unless you either have nearly unlimited funds and patience as well as an excellent macro camera setup and comprehensive knowledge of fine finishing techniques, or the patience to go through archives of macro photographs which may vary widely in quality and which seldom clearly show the finishing of escapement components specifically to begin with.

And you’d still need a knowledge of the historical context and technical history of movement finishing, by hand or by machine or by both, which very few people have even in the industry and which vanishingly few have outside of it, and which very few enthusiasts want to even try to acquire as that level of granular evaluation is generally less relevant to getting a sense of the value of the watch, than other considerations (FP Journe, for instance, is well known for not pursuing fine hand finishing per se as a goal, which has had as far as I can tell, no effect whatsoever on the market for his watches).

One other way to read the Qualité Musée standard is as not just a statement of intent for the future, but also as an acknowledgement of the well known pursuit of excellence that has characterized Greubel Forsey’s watchmaking in the past, as well as a promise to honor both the letter and the spirit of that pursuit moving forward. Closing the books on every movement Greubel Forsey has created since 2004 is a move which leaves the future open to a great deal of speculation and uncertainty.

Finally, there is a pragmatic interpretation. It has clearly not escaped Greubel Forsey’s notice that for several years now the market has overwhelmingly valued fine hand finishing as an indicator of objective quality. At the 41.5mm x 14.8mm size of the Balancier Convexe S2 Final Edition, and with its neo-futurist design, that watch is no matter how exemplary the finishing, not really competing with the Simon Brettes or Rexhep Rexhepis of the world; at 39.6mm x 9.45mm in a round case, the Balancier QM clearly hopes to.

That space however is now a crowded one and there are enough brands competing in it (albeit at varying levels of engagement with fine hand finishing) that there is a risk of the inevitable family similarities of such pieces, muting the distinctive design language (and the technical inventiveness) which has since 2004 been Greubel Forsey’s stock in trade. Where the brand goes in the next 18 months may be critical in showing the degree to which the new approach can preserve the qualities that made Greubel Forsey so interesting when the Double Tourbillon 30º launched more than twenty years ago.

The Greubel Forsey Balancier QM: case, white gold with domed sapphire crystals front and back, 39.60mm x 9.45mm; height with domed sapphire crystals 12.25mm. Water resistance 30 meters. Dial, multi-level in gold, rhodium plated with lacquered minute circle; small seconds and power reserve in gold; hour, minute, small seconds and power reserve hands in blue-tempered steel.

Movement, caliber GF09CM, 33mm x 9.40mm running in 34 jewels at 21,600vph; in-house balance spring with Phillips terminal curve. Nickel silver (maillechort) plates and bridges, beveled and with polished flanks; barrel-polished steel balance cock; 3/4 plate design. 72 hour power reserve. 

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