Introducing The Greubel Forsey QP Balancier, A Pure Perpetual Calendar

For very good reasons, Greubel Forsey is best known for its tourbillon innovations, which over the course of the company’s history, have represented a number of experiments in adapting Breguet’s invention, which was designed when wristwatches did not exist and pocket watches were the only game in town, to the wrist. This has included mult-axis, as well as high speed inclined tourbillons, and the rationale in all cases was to ensure that no matter the position of the watch, the balance and spring would be in the extreme flat or vertical positions for as little time as possible.

Greubel Forsey did not produce its first perpetual calendar until 2015. This was the Quantième Perpétuel à Équation, which introduced the “Mechanical Brain” perpetual calendar mechanism, which was GF’s seventh Fundamental Invention. The Mechanical Brain is a set of stacked gears which encode the four year rule of the Gregorian perpetual calendar, and it differs considerably from the usual perpetual calendar mechanism, which uses a 12 or 48 step program wheel, and a single multi-armed lever to switch the calendar indications. This mechanism is reset using a set of pushers in the case band. The use of the stacked gear system in the Mechanical Brain allows all of the calendar indications to be set from the crown, either forwards or backwards. In the Quantième Perpétuel à Équation, this was combined with a display of the Equation of Time on the back of the watch, as well as a fast rotating, 24 second tourbillon inclined at an angle of 25º; in the new QP Balancier, the perpetual calendar mechanism stands alone, flanked by an inclined balance.

Although Greubel Forsey has been introducing smaller case sizes recently – the Nano Foudroyante is just 37.mm x 10.49mm – the QP Balancier’s size is more in line, at 44.70mm x 10.55mm, with the Quantième Perpétuel à Équation, which had a 43.5mm x 16mm case. The QP Balancier’s case is white gold, and water resistant to 30 meters, with a very elaborately constructed multi level dial in anthracite colored gold. Reading the perpetual calendar is straightforward, with the day, date and month in line, flanked at the lower left by the Leap Year indicator. Running seconds are shown on a disk, above which is a 24 hour indicator, with a period just before and after midnight marked in red. This is a safety feature – during that period, the setting mechanism for the perpetual calendar is disengaged, in order to prevent accidental damage. Setting the watch is done entirely from the crown. There is a function indicator next to the power reserve indicator, which shows HM for heures en minutes, for setting the time, or QP, for quantième perpétuel, for setting the perpetual calendar indications; the crown has a co-axial pusher for switching functions.

Although the dial construction is complex, the largely monotone palette allows you to see the dial and case architecture more clearly; the display has a strong sense of compositional structure, in which there are few visual distractions. The only color accents are in red, in the Leap Year, 24 hour, and power reserve displays, and of course, in the bronze color of the freesprung, adjustable mass balance.

The balance sits on a platform which is inclined 30º from the plane of the dial. Inclined balances are rare in the history of watchmaking (the American watchmaker A. H. Potter experimented with them, in the mid-19th century). The rationale for the inclined balance is basically the same as for the tourbillon – to avoid having the balance and spring in any of the most extreme vertical or flat positions. Technically, the balance and spring are quite traditional; the 12.60mm balance is brought to time with 6 gold moveable timing screws and the balance spring has a mathematically correct Phillips outer terminal curve, fixed in a beautifully finished Geneva-style stud carrier.

The high level of finishing for which Greubel Forsey is famous, is really on display here; the balance bridge, its lower support (which also carries the lower pivots for the lever and escape wheel) and all screws are all black polished. The beveling on the screw heads and slots is easily visible, along with perfectly polished countersinks (for all screws) and the inner and outer corners of the balance bridge arms have been filed and polished by hand. Even the escape wheel and lever, which are usually ignored in even the most expensive watches, have polished bevels.

Typically, the movement finishing in Greubel Forsey watches is a combination of styles, which reflects the backgrounds of the founders. The movement bridges and mainplate are in German silver, or maillechort, as it’s called in the French speaking watchmaking world – the alloy doesn’t actually contain any silver; instead, it’s a mixture of nickel and zinc (nickel alloy based movement plates and bridges were much more commonly used in watchmaking prior to the introduction of rhodium plated brass, which is the usual material today). The movement bridges here get a frosted finish, which was the customary approach in high quality hand-made English pocket watches.

The movement is pocket watch sized as well, at 40.80mm x 10.40mm. There are two stacked mainspring barrels, running in series (that is, one is discharged, and then the other, to maintain stable torque over the length of the power reserve) and deliver a power reserve of 72 hours. The mainspring barrels also wind in series; the second barrel to wind up has an automatic movement style slipping bridle, to prevent excess torque and intercoil friction at the beginning of the power reserve.

The very large jewel for the mainspring barrels is located to the left, in which you can see the large diameter pivot for the mainspring barrels; as power moves through the gear train, the pivots and the jewels grow smaller as the speed of rotation of the gears increases and side load decreases. The overall design and finish are almost entirely English, with very sharp internal corners and polished flanks, with minimal anglage, but highly polished flanks (in contrast to the wide, sometimes laboriously rounded anglage found in high quality watch movements finished in the French style). The plates and bridges are nickel-palladium frosted, and spotted (grained) – again, an approach drawn from classic high end English pocket watches.

The back of the movement also has a four digit display for the year. On the left, you can see the lowest gear in the actual Mechanical Brain itself, which controls the switching of all the perpetual calendar displays.

The one caveat to the design, is that there are no quickset correctors for the date indications. Every engineering solution has its advantages and drawbacks, of course, and here the only potential gotcha is that if the watch is unworn and unwound for any great length of time, updating the calendar can mean quite a few turns of the crown. This is true of any synchronized perpetual calendar, of course (an early example is the Kurt Klaus synchronized perpetual calendar used by IWC) but the fact that the QP Balancier can be set both forwards and backwards, means at the least that overshoot isn’t a problem.

Although not a smaller watch in Greubel Forsey’s collections per se, the design and close palette of blacks, silvers, and shades of grey, which is carried through from the dial to the movement side of the watch, gives it a very crisp, clean appearance and tames what might with even a little too many flourishes, start to seem baroquely overdone. And of course, there is that marvelous Greubel Forsey finishing. The combination of sophisticated technical watchmaking, zealously perfect finishing which draws from both French and English watchmaking, and architectonic design, is unique to Greubel Forsey, and uniquely fascinating.

The Greubel Forsey QP Balancier: case, white gold, synthetic sapphire crystals front and back, high domed on both sides; 44.7mm x 10.55mm/with domed crystals, 14.75mm; water resistance, 30 meters. Movement, 40.80mm x 10.40mm, 612 components, 12.60mm balance running at 21,600 vph in 78 jewels; variable inertia type, with six gold meantime screws and Phillips terminal curve. Balance platform inclined 30º. Two coaxial fast rotating series couple mainspring barrels; slipping bridle to prevent excess torque; 72 hour power reserve; all plates and bridges in frosted and spotted German silver, with nickel-palladium and anthracite treatment. Mechanical Brain perpetual calendar with safety block, can be set forwards and backwards, with function selector in the crown; day, date, month, and Leap Year indications, with four digit year display on the back.

Limited edition, 22 pieces worldwide.

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