Tag: Greubel Forsey

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Greubel Forsey Replica Hands-on Men Watch Swiss Replica

GREUBEL FORSEY Presents Signature1

Greubel Forsey recently hit the headlines for the rather head-exploding price realised by their first Naissance ‘School Replica Watch’ (photo of the prototype below) at a Christie’s auction : HKD 11,296,000. For details on what is so special about this replica watch, go to this link, but I would hazard a guess that even Messrs Dufour, Greubel, Forsey and Boulanger would not have guessed it would fetch such an astonishing amount.montre replique rolex

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The first model of this new series is the Signature 1. The creation of Didier J.G. Cretin, a long time replica watchmaker at Greubel Forsey, it is a simple manually wound replica watch with three hands, with not a tourbillon in sight.

Not only is it sans tourbillon, but at 41.4mm x 11.7mm it is also considerably smaller than the usual Greubel Forsey replica watch, and will be made in rose gold, white gold, platinum, or stainless steel.

The movement of the Signature 1 has a power reserve of fifty-four hours and is notable for featuring a large new exclusively designed Greubel Forsey 12.6mm balance that beats at 18,000VPH.

The hands of the all-gold offset dial are finished and countersunk by hand, the indices engraved into the gold dial and then enamelled. Bridges are decorated with Geneva stripes (a first for a Greubel Forsey replica watch) or with a frosted black PVD treatment.

For followers of independent brands one thing that becomes evident is not just the collaboration that can happen between them, but also that it is not uncommon for the independents to support their own replica watchmakers in a public way such as this. Other recent examples are Kim Djapri (whom I met in Dresden in March and then at Baselworld 2016) who has been a replica watchmaker for Lang & Heyne and is now at the Tempus Arte boutique, who has had the support of Lang & Heyne and even assistance from their master engraver for his AHCI candidacy replica watch the Bélier (which those of you who follow me on Instagram will have seen already) or new brand Oscillon, whose founders are doing R&D and CAD work at Urwerk during the day.

The Naissance (full name ‘Le Garde Temps – Naissance d’une Montre’) project is one focused around the preservation and continuation of skills, and at SIHH 2016 Greubel Forsey introduced a new series called ‘Signature’, which continues this theme.

In a nutshell, for each of the Signature replica watches one replica watchmaker will be able to give full flight to his or her skills, with the assistance of Greubel Forsey, and the final replica watch will be co-signed by the replica watchmaker and Greubel Forsey.

For those who have wanted a leaner cleaner Greubel Forsey replica watch, this may tickle your fancy. Perhaps it doesn’t have the hallmarks of the brand to which we have become accustomed, but it is more wearable, and it is at a lower price point (although clearly still not inexpensive), and it is an elegant replica watch with a pure and simple aesthetic. As it was a prototype I saw, it will be interesting to see how the end product looks from a finishing point of view, since Greubel Forsey’s replica watches are known for their beautiful high levels of finishing.

 

There will be a total of sixty-six Signature 1s made : eleven each in rose gold, white gold, and platinum, and thirty-three in stainless steel (eleven of which will have a blue dial). Although these are more simple pieces than your usual Greubel Forsey, they are still Greubel Forseys with the commensurate prices, which start at 150,000 CHF for the stainless steel version.

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Swiss Replica

REPLICA GREUBEL FORSEY PHILIPPE DUFOUR : Le Garde Temps, Naissance d’unemontre

A query as to whether anyone wanted me to take photos of anything at particular at SIHH 2015 lead to one very unexpected request from a few people – could we take some photos of “the Naissance” please? At this point I’d not heard a whisper about this replica watch being present, which made the hunt more interesting. There’s fun in trying to try to track down something that everyone wants to see, but there’s a far different thrill in trying to track down something that is special and flying below the radar.

Ask and ye shall receive. We managed to take some ‘quick and dirty’ photos and put them up on Instagram, but here are some rather better photos to share with you. As well as being a special replica watch it is also a very photogenic one, and in looking back at these photos I confess that I rather like it in this prototype form.

The French name of this monumental horological project translates to ‘The Timepiece, Birth of a Replica Watch’. The timepiece in question is a collaboration between giants Greubel Forsey and Philippe Dufour. The project’s name seems simple enough, but the reality isn’t.

This isn’t a niche project for those who follow independent brands, it is a project that touches on issues that should be of interest to all who like replica watches.

This isn’t about a big multimedia production and lots of colour and movement and publicity, this is about pure horology.

Meet Number 0/11 of a replica watch whose genesis lay in the desire of Greubel Forsey and Philippe Dufour to teach and pass down their skills and knowledge in a very practical and focused way.

A project that commenced some four odd years ago was able to finally show off this first prototype, and those who knew to look for it and managed to pin it down were granted a very special audience indeed, not just with the replica watch, but also with its maker Michel Boulanger, who was gracious enough to allow us to look at it for as long as we liked after a brief wait when he had to take it out for Messrs Forsey and Dufour.

To be honest, seeing him bolt out of the room with the replica watch as he promised that he would be back with it as soon as possible and then replica watching him and Mr Dufour in an animated discussion was in itself something special to be able to bear witness to.

Unfortunately, a lack of passable French on our part meant that communication wasn’t as effusive as it could have been, but we were very much caught up in the frisson of excitement at being able to have what amounted to almost unlimited (in the sense of time) of access to it.

Master replica watchmaker and teacher Michel Boulanger was chosen by Greubel Forsey and Philippe Dufour to make this piece, with the intention that in turn, he will pass on the knowledge and skills that he has learned. There are people who are making replica watches in a traditional way, but when we narrow it down to those who aren’t using any CNC and the like, we’re really narrowing it down, possibly to a number able to be counted on a single hand. Even Roger Smith uses CNC.

The styles of Philippe Dufour and Greubel Forsey are very different, and it’s a rather intriguing combination of people involved in this project.

For this replica watch, which doesn’t remotely resemble anything that either Greubel Forsey or Dufour produce, they chose to make a manual-wind piece with the time, seconds, and a tourbillon. There are two separate dials for hours and minutes at 2 o’clock and a seconds dial at 8:30, both simple, with blued steel hands.

Everything you see is handmade, from the plates, bridges, dials and balance, to the tourbillon, which is made on a manual mill and lathe. There are many elements to this replica watch, including a bi-directional winding click mechanism sitting atop the mainspring at 12 o’clock.

The tourbillon is under a single-sided bridge containing a screwed gold chaton. There is a full mainplate with a cutout under the mainspring, itself supported by a jewelled bridge. If you look carefully, you will notice that it mirrors the design of the tourbillon bridge.

This is about the transmission of knowledge and experience as it is about the preservation of traditional replica watchmaking techniques, but in many ways it is about many other things, including the many wonderful partnerships that occur between independent replica watchmakers and what is created from these.

So who is Michel Boulanger? His name may not be on the dial, but in a way he is the key to the Naissance. A second-generation replica watchmaker, he has been through WOSTEP, restored vintage clocks and replica watches, and been at Renaud & Papi. A replica watchmaking teacher at the Paris Replica Watchmaking School, he is taking on this new pupil role with an enthusiasm that he is keen to share, based on our time with him.

Robert Greubel met Michel Boulanger at the Anet replica watchmaking school near Paris when the latter was learning basic replica watchmaking, and he met Stephen Forsey at Renaud & Papi. Antoine Simonin, the former director of WOSTEP, introduced Boulanger to Philippe Dufour.

If you know something of the histories of Philippe Dufour and Stephen Forsey, you may recall that they also have histories in restoration. Perhaps this is one of the links between all of them which give the ‘Le Garde Temps’ replica watch added meaning.

This stunning layered piece is a very modern looking replica watch. It may not be anywhere near complete in terms of its polishing and finishing, two things for which both Greubel Forsey and Philippe Dufour are known, but I find great appeal in what it looks like now. There’s a raw nature to it that will disappear, to a certain regret on my part.

There will be eleven of these made, but there is no way this is even going to remotely be about generating some sort of monetary return given the time and labour involved. Would I want one? Hell yes, even without the names on the dial.

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Swiss Replica

GREUBEL FORSEY : Tourbillon 24 SecondesVision

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Commemorating its 10th anniversary this year, Greubel Forsey presented a few new replica watches at SIHH 2015 of which two stood out – the Tourbillon 24 Secondes Vision that is the subject of this post, and the Philippe Dufour collaboration (by way of Michel Boulanger) called ‘Naissance d’une Montre’ that wasn’t, strangely, heavily promoted and about which I shall discuss in a subsequent post.

But first things first – a initial glance at the Toubillon 24 Secondes will indicate that this isn’t like almost all of Greubel Forsey’s other pieces. They had a specific goal – to make this stylish replica watch as slender as possible within the constraints of including an inclined tourbillon cage. For those who have handled Greubel Forsey replica watches you will know that they have considerable thickness and heft, in no small part due to the tourbillons.

The tourbillon cage consists of 86 parts and with a cage weight of 0.38 grams, is inclined at a 25 degree angle, and performs a full rotation every 24 seconds (hence the name). The movement iis the Calibre GF01r which consists of 288 parts and has a 72-hour power reserve.

How have they reduced the bulk of this piece? By incorporating a dome into the sapphire crystal on the back, creating enough extra volume to allow the tourbillon cage to overlap the reference surface of the rear bridges. In terms of wearing it, the protrusion isn’t too obtrusive but may require getting accustomed to.

The full measurements of the 18k white gold case are – 43.50mm diametre and 16.025mm thick including the protruding sapphire crystal dome. The dial appears to be simple but is in fact 18k gold that has been plated with palladium to give it this colour. The hands are blued-steeland indices that are first engraved into the dial and then oven-fired-enamelled. Coming on a hand-sewn black alligator strap with 18k white gold pin buckle, the 24 Secondes is in a limited edition of 22 pieces with a price of 290,000 EUR.

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Swiss Replica

HANDS-ON : Greubel Forsey’s GMT in rosegold replica watch

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To have handled one Greubel Forsey GMT is special enough, but following on from having seen the white gold model earlier this year in London, I recently had the opportunity to see the new-for-2013 red gold model to ‘complete the set’, as it were.

The red gold one featured in this post is, in fact, here in Sydney. There are Greubel Forsey owners and connoisseurs in Australia, so for those who do not know, there is in fact an authorised dealer here – J.Farren-Price, at which I’d previously met Stephen Forsey, and who have this replica watch exclusively in Australia.

Having the chance to see the same luxury replica watch in both metals, albeit with a number of months in-between, has meant the opportunity for comparison.

With this one, as in the case of the white gold, the replica watch is very much more striking ‘in the metal’ than it is in photos. The official photos that came out on its release are representative of the reality of the GMT, but they do not convey the depth of the rotating globe and how much the eye is drawn to it. The globe’s protrusion, the replica watch’s most distinctive feature, is one of those things that may divide people depending on whether their preferences are for ‘flatter’ dials or whether they like a piece such as this with a variety of levels.

Both GMTs have an asymmetrical convex synthetic sapphire crystal and case back of the same through which you can see the hand-wound Greubel Forsey Calibre GF05 with 72 hour power reserve and patented tourbillon. The movement is 9.80mm thick and has 443 parts. The tourbillon has 87 parts inclined at a 25 degree angle, and 24-second rotation. The tourbillon cage for both red gold and white gold models have titanium cage bridges and a gold counterweight.

Functionally, the GMT has a second time zone indicator at 10 o’clock and a 24 time zone world time display. The rotating globe is titanium with a Universal Time display. There is also a summer time indicator and day/ night indicator. The dominant hour and minute dial is in frosted gold with anthracite treatment. The hour-ring is also white gold, the hour and minute hands in polished gold with Super-Luminova. Similarly, the smaller sub dials are in gold, as is the GMT indicator, but the small seconds and power-reserve hands are in blued-steel. The second time zone indicator is a red triangle, to the top left of the dial.

The movement remains unchanged from the white gold model, as does the rotating globe in royal blue oxidised titanium at 7 o’clock, tourbillon 24 Seconds at 5 o’clock, second time zone indicator at 11 o’clock, small seconds at 2 o’clock, power reserve at 3 o’clock and world time disc on the case back.

In terms of differences, the white gold model has main plates of nickel silver, frosted and spotted with polished bevelling and countersinks, straight-grained flanks, nickel-palladium treatment. The red gold version has anthracite treatment instead of nickel-palladium. This difference also extends to the bridges.

Although of a decent thickness (16.14mm) for obvious reasons (movement, globe), the case is what nowadays constitutes almost middle-of-the-range, at 43.50mm. Nonetheless, because of its thickness, it does sit fairly prominently on the wrist.

Turning over the GMT reveals the a ‘worldtime’ disc bearing the names of 24 cities. Aligning the relevant city with the local hour on the outer chapter ring – or inner ring for cities with summer time – sets the dial-side globe in the correct position.

Whether you prefer the white or red gold models is, in the end, a purely personal preference. The finishing on both is as high as one expects from a Greubel Forsey, and to see and appreciate this properly you really need a loupe.

A replica watch that is every bit as striking ‘in the metal’ as it is in photos, Greubel Forsey’s GMT is a piece with a big presence that also comes in a suitably impressive box with beautifully skilled and detailed inlay work.

The top layer onto which the replica watch is placed is in face a removable tray, below which are a travel case, a loupe, and more than ample room for anything else you wish to put there.

If you are in Australia (and especially for those in Sydney) and have never seen a Greubel Forsey ‘in the metal’, or are interested in this scarce replica watch then you now know where to go. The finishing on this brand really has to be seen up close to be appreciated, and of all the models in Greubel Forsey’s current collection, this is my standout favourite.

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Swiss Replica

HANDS-ON Greubel Forsey’sGMT Replica Watch

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Earlier this year when I was in London I visited Marcus Replica Watches, a replica watchnerd ‘destination’ London boutique on Bond St that carries many brands but in particular, is known for being the supporter of a number of ‘independents’. In the decade of its existence it has grown into a powerhouse and destination for many visiting replica watch enthusiasts.

I had visited them on my last trip to London a couple of years ago but this time I had Liam as my host. He not only took me on a tour of the boutique but very graciously showed me more replica watches than I could absorb in one sitting, including some rare pieces. This post is about the first replica watch I saw, the Greubel Forsey GMT in white gold.

This was only the second time that I’d handled Greubel Forsey pieces and as ever, the finishing on them is one of the things that really stands out for me. The GMT, which I’d seen in photos, is actually even more striking ‘in the metal’. The rotating globe is hard to properly capture in a photo not for any dimensional reason but because it is difficult to capture a proper ‘sense’ of it. Its colour and its sheer physicality are bold but it still manages to maintain a feeling of delicacy.

You can get a more complete view of the globe through a window at the side of the case. It makes a complete (anti-clockwise) rotation every twenty-four hours.

Although of a decent thickness (16.14mm) for obvious reasons, the case itself is only 43.50mm. Nonetheless, because of its thickness, it does sit with a marked presence on the wrist, as is the case with all Greubel Forsey pieces.

The GMT in this post is white gold (it also comes in 5N red gold). It has an asymmetrical convex synthetic sapphire crystal, along with a transparent case back of the same through which you can see the hand-wound Greubel Forsey Calibre GF05 with 72 hour power reserve and patented tourbillon. The movement is 9.80mm thick and has 443 parts. The mainplates are nickel silver, as are the bridges. The tourbillon has 87 parts, inclined at a 25 degree angle and 24-second rotation. The tourbillon cage has titanium cage bridges and a gold counterweight.

Functionally, the GMT has a second time zone indicator at 10 o’clock and a 24 time zone world time display. The rotating glove is titanium with a Universal Time display. There is also a Summer time indicator and day/ night indicator. The dominant hour and minute dial is in frosted gold with anthracite treatment. The hour-ring is also white gold, the hour and minute hands in polished gold with Super-Luminova. Similarly, the smaller sub dials are also in gold, as is the GMT indicator, but the small seconds and power-reserve hands are in blued-steel. The second time zone indicator is a red triangle, to the top left of the dial.

Turning over the GMT reveals the a ‘worldtime’ disc bearing the names of 24 cities. Aligning the relevant city with the local hour on the outer chapter ring – or inner ring for cities with summer time – sets the dial-side globe in the correct position. I didn’t get a good photo of the case back, so here’s a stock photo of it in lieu.

This is a replica watch that is every bit as beautiful ‘in the metal’ as it is in photos, but as I mentioned above, it is also one that is difficult to capture the ‘spirit’ of in photos. Greubel Forsey’s GMT is not for the faint of wrist (or for that matter, of wallet), but should the opportunity arise to be able look at it, as it did with me during my visit to Marcus, take it.