Earlier this year, Girard-Perregaux joined the ranks of Swiss watchmakers partnering with luxury automobile marques, launching a new collaboration with Britain’s Aston Martin. This week, we discovered the first timepiece to emerge from the partnership, the Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges – Aston Martin Edition, which merges a classical haute horlogerie innovation with avant-garde automotive technologies and materials.

Girard-Perregaux Tourbillon with Three Flying Bridges – Aston Martin Edition

The watch reinterprets the design of the historical Girard-Perregaux Three Bridges pocketwatch, a pioneering tourbillon timepiece from the 19th century, in a distinctly contemporary manner, and takes some cues from the Neo-Bridges model introduced in 2017. Its 44-mm case is made of black DLC-coated grade 5 titanium, a robust yet lightweight alloy used by Aston Martin in its vehicles. (In an interesting side note, titanium ore was discovered in Aston Martin’s home country of Great Britain in 1971 ? the same year Girard-Perregaux marks as its founding.)
Black DLC titanium is used for the case and the movement’s bridges.

Box-shaped sapphire crystals in the front and back of the case provide a view into the movement, highlighting the fact that the watch has no traditional dial, or bezel, or even a mainplate to anchor the movement. Instead, the movement’s components are positioned between panes of sapphire and appear to float in mid-air....