Girard Perregaux

Manual wind HF Chronometre anyone ?
May 10 2008,18:25 PM

Hello everyone....


I have been looking for vintage HF watches for a while.  I set my sights on manual wind examples for my collection.   As I was searching the net I came across a GP !   To make a long story shorter I am waiting for the watch to arrive.

But i cant wait any longer to post about it on the forum.  So let me take it from the top.  The case , 34 mm steel screwback GP Swiss signed.  The case looks to be in good condition, but I do see a dent by the 2 o;clock position.  The dial is signed  "Girard-Perregaux  High Frequency  Railtimer" .  The dial condition is the not the best, looks like it is flaking / chipping around the edges.  The movement is signed  Girard-Perregaux caliber number is 307715, Chronometre Adjusted 5 positions. and the movement also has a unique serial number stamped on it ( required for chronometre testing).  From what i can tell the movement looks to be in excellent shape. .  I have seen over the years Railroad approved wristwatches from Longines, Universal Geneve and Omega.  They were all Low Freq.  They are in my collection as I have a thing for manual wind chronometres.  But this GP I am really excited about since it covers a few areas I am interested in.  High Freq, manual wind and its is a chronometre is the icing on the cake!  Since i am still wating for the watch to arrive all i have right now are the sellers photos for your viewing pleasure !























Will let you know when it arrives...

Good Hunting

Bill Sohne

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These are nice!
May 13 2008,04:46 AM

Congrats!!

Actually there´s a small variety of models; from what i´ve heard/seen/touched, all units seem to be crafted for Canadian Railroads:

As far as i know, these go back to 1973/74. At the same time, other brands (Universal Geneve) already delivered tuning-fork electronic movements for very likely styled railroad timers. It´s certainly unusual for it´s days, with the shadows of "quartz" threatening the swiss brands in these years.

Here´s a little more on the railroad timers:

gp.watchprosite.com

And you´re right, it´s a fast-beat 36.000 A/h movement.
The balance is significantly smaller than slow beat variants like this:

The GP caliber 30.7 is the first manual-wind fast beat movement used by GP and actually a little older than the watch might be; it was introduced in 1965, with it´s automatic brethren to follow one year later.

Nice find!

Cheers,

Peter

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thanks.
May 13 2008,13:24 PM

Hi
Thanks for the info. But I think my 307715 is hacking. I was going to post photos but due to Chuck Maddox passing yesterday I did not have time.

Good Hunting

Bill Sohne

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Here are some more pics...
May 13 2008,20:22 PM

HI

The watch is hacking and it is a 307715 .











I like the idea of a 36,000 beats ...manual wind movement...

Here are two others I have... Seiko with caliber 5740c

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Nice regulators...
May 14 2008,08:55 AM

Love the regulators on the GP and the Seiko.  Don't think I've ever seen one like the GP with a worm gear before.  Normal regulators really annoy me - a bad solution to a simple problem.

nick

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Actually that´s a GP patented solution
May 15 2008,00:14 AM

G'day,

the fine regulation device is a patented solution by GP; it was made especially for the fast-beat movements.
The US patent presented a slightly different look:

And here´s one integreated in a fast-beat manual wind chronometer, caliber GP 30.7, with blue Isoval hairspring:

The later caliber 43.1; visually almost the same, but the power reserve was extended by almost 50 percent without altering the movement dimensions very much:

The main purpose is to allow for very fine regulation in a very efficient way.
The fast-beat technology intended to establish high precision on a larger scale and in a price range accessible to many more customers who may have choosen an observatory-tested piece otherwise.
In some way, it paved the way to achieve the precision we´re used to today.
Doing so required a device capable for larger scale production (although the total number of GP´s fast-beat movements in all years is only half of Omega´s production of Constellation models in one year). Therefore it keeps in mind efficiency in production and later handling, but also the needs to achieve a very good result.

In fact there are some variations; this represents the ongoing development in mid/late 1960´s, when the results of the field and laboratory tests were implemented into serial production units.
These efforts made GP introduce a new movement variant or new caliber almost every 6 month. It´s been a busy time obviously!

Cheers,

Peter

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Depth of engagement...
May 15 2008,03:31 AM

Thanks Peter.

The patent drawing seems to show a screw to alter the depth of engagement of the worm.  Verging on over-design at it's best   

I've always been surprised at the primitive nature of the classis regulator.  There have been many patents and methods of improving it, but it's almost as though it's an after thought in the design of the movement.

nick

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Folks,Thanks for those beautifull Vintage watches!! [nt]
May 15 2008,09:19 AM

No message body

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nice looking watch Bill.
May 16 2008,14:05 PM

dial is very 1965 Omega railmaster auto and accutron railroad approved style. unusual to see a manual wind chronometer especially a hi-beat.

despite the maintainance issues i'm still drawn to vintage pieces and just picked up a nice japanese vintage. a citizen superjet auto-dater 39 jewel auto(yep, 39 jewels in a time and date only auto from 1962!)

its fullfilled a gap just like yours has. 

somehow you always manage to find the good pieces

Graham

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Thanks Graham.
May 17 2008,04:03 AM

Hi Graham

Thanks for the complement. I actually have a few of the railroad approved manual wind watches from UG , Longines and now GP. All of movements are signed either chronometer or adjusted 5 pos and temp. and all three are hacking. But the GP is the only hi-beat one of the bunch.

The UG





and the Longines



Good Hunting

Bill

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Nice Universal Bill. i know...
May 17 2008,09:21 AM

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