Girard-Perregaux Watches With Blue Dials

In case you haven’t noticed, blue is the hot color in the watch world, recently appearing all across the horological spectrum on dials, bezels, straps, et cetera. Recently, Girard-Perregaux reminded us that its founder, Jean-Francois Bautte, was one of the first watchmakers to incorporate the color into his timepieces.

Fittingly, the brand has honored Bautte’s contributions to today’s watch-design trend by adding two new watches with blue dials and straps to its two vintage-inspired flagship collections, the 1966 and 1945 XXL.

The new Girard-Perregaux 1966 watch features a slightly dome-shaped dial in a deep blue hue and enhanced by a subtle sunburst pattern. Echoing the style of the year for which the watch is named, its dial has gilted, baton-shaped hour markers at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, a double marker at 12 o’clock, and a small date window at 3 o’clock. The leaf-shaped hour and minute hands and straight central seconds hand are also gilted to match the color of the 38-mm-diameter rose gold case.

The case, which is only 8.62 mm thick, has a beveled, diamond-effect bezel, has sapphire crystals in the front and back, and is water-resistant to 30 meters. Inside the case is Girard-Perregaux’s automatic GP03300-0030 movement, which has 27 jewels, a frequency of 28,800 vph, and a power reserve of at least 46 hours. The blue-dialed Girard-Perregaux 1966 comes on a blue alligator leather strap with a rose-gold pin buckle.

The other new timepiece is a blue dial/blue strap version of the Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 XXL Petite Seconde, which features a curved rectangular case inspired by the Art Deco designs of the 1940s. The blue dial, whose curved profile echoes that of the case, is enhanced with a vertical brushed effect that creates iridescent reflections and contrasts with the satin finish of the small seconds subdial at 6 o’cl0ck. The numeral “60″ on this subdial’s scale is the only red element on the dial. The outer edge of the dial has a railtrack minute circle and polished Breguet-style Arabic numerals. The dauphine-style hands are faceted and subtly curved to follow the contours of the dial.

The polished steel case measures 36.2 mm x 35.25 mm, with two vertical gadroons at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock, and a sapphire crystal in the front and back. The caseback is secured by four screws and the case is water-resistant to 30 meters. Powering the Vintage 1945 XXL Petite Seconde is the automatic GP03300-0051 movement, with 32 jewels, a frequency of 28,800 vph, and a minimum power reserve of 46 hours. This new Girard-Perregaux watch comes in two versions, one on a navy blue alligator strap with steel folding buckle, and another on a steel bracelet with safety-folding triple-blade clasp.