Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic 'Silver Plaid'

This is the Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic. Girard-Perregaux first applied the name “Gyromatic” to self-winding movements in 1957. These movements beat at the standard 18,000 bph (beats per hour). But as with anything, there was room for improvement, so in launching the Gyromatic line, that’s exactly what Girard-Perregaux set out to do.  While Girard-Perregaux’s first automatic watches used base movements made by A. Schild (and, later, Peseux), Girard-Perregaux was dissatisfied with their performance. The Gyromatic employed two “Gyrotron” wheels, which made the watch wind much more smoothly; additionally, each wheel had seven rubies on it to protect the movement from unnecessary wear.  These Gyromatic movements constitute some of the coolest and earliest in automatic-winding movement technology. This particular 34mm example is powered by the Calibre 47 39J with bi-directional winding.  Produced from 1957-1968, this particular iteration comes with an incredible hash-pattern silver dial, and case details that are reminiscent of the Polerouter. A truly incredible piece of automatic movement history, this is the perfect piece to have!