Girard-Perregaux Cat's Eye Celestial
Girard-Perregaux Cat's Eye Celestial
2017 GPHG Ladies High-Mech Category Finalist
As winner of the 2016 Aiguille award for this category, Girard-Perregaux returns again in 2017 with the Cat's Eye Celestial and its magnificent aventurine moon phase display, in a rose gold case with diamonds bezel and mother of pearl dial.
Even if the Cat's Eye Celestial is beautiful, even if it is luxurious and even if it is powered by an in-house manufacture movement, it would be hard to imagine a back-to back victory for Girard-Perregaux (or virtually any brand) at the GPHG awards, and so off the back of their prize winning Cat's Eye Tourbillon with Gold Bridge, the company would be quite thrilled to have made it through to the final six contestants once again.
Technically one could argue that the moon phase is not a particularly High-Mech complication, and for sure there are much more complicated watches in this category, but thanks to its manufacture self winding movement, whose moonphase mechanism only requires a manual correction intervention once in 360 years, with its intricate finishing and decoration techniques as well as the use of materials like mother of pearl and aventurine glass for the night sky depiction, the Cat's Eye Celestial is a worthy inclusion.
its oval case provides the perfect stage for the dial's many charming features to star. An outer ring of guilloché mother of pearl with diamond hour markers surrounds the central panel of pale blue mother of pearl and deep blue star aventurine with its silvery stars and huge moon, which are separated by a lacy ribbon of diamonds.
The Cat's Eye Celestial is dressy and it's fancy, but it's not over the top, and it does have a classy sophistication, but is it a graceful stepping aside for a year, a hat-tip in acknowledgment that it's someone else's time this year?
The Watch Press prediction
A back to back GPHG category double is very unlikely
The pertinents
REFERENCE: 80496D52A751-CK4A
CASE: Pink gold
BRACELET/STRAP: Leather
BUCKLE: Pin buckle
MOVEMENT: Self winding mechanical. Power reserve: 46 h, 28'800 vph
FUNCTIONS: Hours, Minutes, Moonphase
SIZE: ø 35.4 mm
THICKNESS: 11.4 mm
WATERPROOFNESS: 30 m
PRICE EXCL.VAT: CHF 28'520
In the frivolity of the beating wings of a little butterfly amid stained sapphire meadow grass, the Lady Arpels Papillon Automate by elite jewellery maison Van Cleef and Arpels is a colourful, technical and welcome finalist in the 2017 GPHG Ladies High-Mech category.