Girard-Perregaux, Tourbillon Bi-Axial tantalum, Reference: 99810-81-000-BA6A
Friends,
As you know I had the opportunity to visit the Manufacture a couple of months ago.
When you visit a Manufacture, doesn’t matter which one, there are a couple of “mandatory” stops on the way that you have to do. One of them is the “collection show”.
This is the part where the
brand shows the best they have! And then some… 
I knew this would also be the case at Girard-Perregaux, so I mentally prepared myself. But once you are shown their treasures… There is nothing that can prepare you for that!
After X numbers of watches your mind gets numb and can’t take in more impressions. First a few days later you start to realize what you have seen and which ones are your favorites!
Afterwards there will be a few of the watches you saw that get stuck in your mind. These are the dangerous once! These are the once that you will dwell about, get obsessed about…
There were many fantastic watches I had the chance to see and try, but the one that stuck… The one to eat my brain… It is one of the novelties from last year, the Bi-Axial tantalum Tourbillon!
FYI: This is not a technical review, for technical specifications, please see the Press release from last year:
This is purely an “emotional
review” of my personal thoughts when encounter this watch! Yes,
I know – as some already pointed out, a tad quirky… 
But sometimes
I think we focus a bit too much on the technical specifications rather than on
what a watch makes us feel and since this is the Purists, where passion and
pleasure is a big part, here goes…
For me this is a killer watch!
Literally!
You know Japanese Sports motorcycles; they often have cool and dangerous names like “Samurai”, “Ninja” or “Katana”…
If that would be the case for
Swiss High End horology – this one would be called something like “Assassin”, “Stealth
Worrier” or “Black Knight”!
The first words that comes to mind when I see this watch is; Dangerous, Lethal, Powerful, … Maybe not very positive or friendly words… But all I could think when I laid my eyes on this black creature was – I MUST try this one on my wrist!
Big mistake, I should not have done that.
Already when I lift the watch up, I feel the power! It’s like gravity is double on the watch. Heavy. Super heavy! Not a big fan of black case watches, but the surface of the Tantalum is astounding! Matt polished, dark metal… Matt, but still with a hint of shine, hiding just under the surface. Tantalum is only 5 Atomic numbers from Platinum. Atomic Mass (amu) TA: 180.948 verses PL: 195.078.
The two big Dauphine hands look like shiny sharp blades, just waiting to cut something in pieces…
The three black sapphire bridges (the third is on the Tourbillon cage) looks like hi-tech body armor. This watch could stop a bullet!
The only thing breaking the grey and sliver scales are the Tourbillon in gold. Like an all seeing eye, never resting, constant on the move… Searching for the next target…
The big red jewel on top of the elliptic pattern decorated barrel enhances this feeling. Yes, I get a bit of Lord of the Rings feeling here – the black tower with the beaming eye!
A zoom in on the dial shows the circular pattern and you can also see the ellipses on the barrel. I get almost a radioactive feeling of the watch!
The open case back gives a full view of the Bi-Axis Tourbillon rotating.
Here seen from another angle. Even the movement looks bullet proof!
And on the wrist…
Oh yeah!
Lethal! With this one on my
wrist… Bond, kiss my ***!
Sorry, folks – I know this is maybe not a traditional review of a watch… But what a watch!
A killer in my book!
My name is Blomman, Jason Blomman
This message has been edited by blomman on 2014-06-09 22:36:08
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