Girard Perregaux

I'm in a store looking a JR watches...
May 08 2008,11:37 AM

Hi everyone, i'm new to this forum and would love to hear as many peoples' opinions as possible. Here's the scenario....

I'm in a store looking at JeanRichard watches and i'm wondering what exactly i'm looking at and what they could reasonably be compared to. Irrespective of a company's history and perhaps even price, what other brand's watches would those from JeanRichard be on a par with?

Let's say we're talking about the 'in house' models just to be awkward.

I happen to think that JR's design are fantastic and i've heard great things about the JR1000 movement, what does everyone else think?

Furthermore, as a byproduct of this discussion, I suppose we could also discuss how much weight should be attributed to a company's history?

I'd love to hear what everyone thinks

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Great point for discussion!
May 08 2008,15:00 PM

Hey,

I think the answer to the first part of your question is; exactly what you'd expect from a Haute Horology brand! I think it's also fair to say that your uncertainty stems only from your lack of knowledge of the brand, once you familiarise yourself with JR watches, their quality speaks for themselves. I'd say that regarding quality of build and on individual merit alone, they comfortably match the likes of JLC and IWC. Of course, one may then consider a brand's context within the industry, which leads onto your second point, that of a brand's history.

The way I see it, a brand's history offers an excellent insight into its caliber (excuse the pun) as a watch manufacturer and its always nice buying a watch from a brand with a distiguished past. HOWEVER, I also believe that change is good and new brands are making more and more contributions to the industry. Accompany this with the vibrant energy that brands like Jeanrichard exude and the results are often irresistable!

It should be noted that not all new brands can be credited with such achievements, but there are a handful of shining examples, JR being one of them, that are and will continue to do great things.

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Do take them for what they are...
May 08 2008,21:13 PM

G'day,

simply put, don´t look at names.
Brands of course make for a strong buying factor, but watches are "objects" at least in the same degree.
To me, even more. And to take them for what they are, with a closer look at the "whole package" of case/dial/hands/features/r&d work incorporated, may tell a lot more.
In this, JEANRICHARD is pretty unusual; a small brand doing about 5000-7000 pieces only, with little more than 2 dozen staff members, but their own manufacture-made movements, in-house complication modules and in-house cases. That´s a combination fairly seldom seen and usually it takes a lot larger production to offer such a complete package. Sure Rolex would be comparable in this regard, but then the absolute production total is about 100 times larger (hence a JEANRICHARD will be not seen everywhere and be worn by everyone).

The company evolved from basically a forgotten name into a fully equipped manufacture within only a couple of years, which represents very serious efforts, commitments and investments. The portfolio is quite unusual, with a very special design language and finely made watches.
I think one could rightly regard all this an equally important factor as an uninterrupted brand history of X years. In the end, it´s the watch that makes you smile

Cheers,

Peter

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