Hi gang Does anyone know of a production table or database for the purpose of dating Girard-Perregaux wristwatches by either model number or serial number? I've searched around and can't see to find such a thing. Thanks in advance. Model Girard Perregaux 6882 Jumbo Serial Number 21xxx. Girard-Perregaux Customer Service strives to ensure that each stage of the client experience is of optimal quality, be it choosing and purchasing a watch, or the manner in which we accompany it throughout its life in terms of maintenance. A serial number is a unique number attached to one specefic watch. A unique serial number makes it possible to trace back the origin of any watch and identify model, calibre and year in which it was produced. Use your serial number to identify the production year of your watch by using a serial number matrix below. Note: - The serial numbers.

Serial, case and movement numbers, if available, can assist in dating your timepiece and the authentication process when purchasing. Selected production date tables and serial number projects (where a site tries to aggregate serial numbers from visitors who submit watch information) are shown below. Please let me know if there are others we should include or there are resources with more accurate information.

Benrus
Have not been able to locate information. Please contact me if you know of one.

Breitling
Current Breitling reference model Numbers explained [The Unofficial Breitling Source]
Breitling Serial Numbers from 1944 [Brittons Watches]
Breitling serial numbers for chronograph and non-chronograph [WatchesToBuy]

Bulova
Determining the Date of a Bulova Watch [watchophilia]
Bulova serial numbers [The Watch Guy]

Girard-Perregaux
Have not been able to locate information. Please contact me if you know of a third-party source of production information.

Gruen
Gruen movement and case serial numbers [Gruen Wristwatches]

Hamilton
Hamilton Pocket Watch serial number table [Pocket Watch Site]
Hamilton both pre and post-1942 serial numbers [Vintage Watch Restoration]

Heuer
Heuer Chronograph Master Reference Table [OnTheDash]

IWC (International Watch Company)
IWC casing and movement numbers [Brittons Watches]
IWC Watch Serial Numbers [Elite Timepieces]
There are also IWC web apps that can help date a particular watch, see IWC Workbook Search and Date Your IWC
IWC serial numbers [Vintage Watch Restoration]

Jaeger-LeCoultre
No public production date table known. Worth a try is sending a request (with the engraved number at the back of the timepiece, a picture of the front and back as well as the reference of the movement) to client.relations.europe@jaeger-lecoultre.com (For Europe) and client.relations.us@jaeger-lecoultre.com (For the US).

You can receive production information by obtaining an extract.

How Much Is A Girard Perregaux Watch Worth

Longines
Longines Serial Numbers, 1870-1968 [WatchesToBuy]
Longines Serials [Vintage Watch Restoration]

Mido
Have not been able to locate information. Mido Watches will reply (usually) to requests for information, though it is rather hit-or-miss in terms of detail provided. Please contact me if you know of a third-party source of production information.

Movado
The only source I have found is this Movado identification site. If you happen to know the source book used for these images, please contact me.

Omega
ilovemyspeedmaster (Moonwatch calibers 321, 861 and 1861 only)
Omega Speedmaster Evolution (Case, Calibre, and Serial Numbers) [Chronomaddox]
Omega Serial Numbers by Year [Chronomaddox]
Omega Vintage Watches [Omega]

Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe [Vintage Watch Restoration]

Rolex
Rolex production dates [Oysterworld via Vintage Rolex Forum]
Rolex Case Numbers and Case Number Project (button at top, via Vintage Rolex Forum). Case numbers by production date are shown at the bottom of the ‘Rolex Serial Number Project’ button. [Vintage Rolex Forum]
Rolex serial numbers with production dates [QualityTyme]

And some bonus reading on bracelets:
The Fascinating (And Totally Geeky) Story Of The Rolex Oyster Bracelet [Hodinkee]
Rolex C&I Bracelets, USA Made Oyster and Jubilee Bracelets [Rolex Vintage Forum]

Tissot
Tissot Serial Numbers

Tudor
Tudor Serial Number Project (button at top, via Vintage Rolex Forum). This only includes the project information, held in Google docs format. [Vintage Rolex Forum]
Tudor serial numbers with production dates [QualityTyme]

Universal Geneve
Universal Genève Information [Dre on omegaforums] through 2.57.
Universal Geneve, as with most other manufactures, does not provide information on serial number dates (we are left to figure this out via known extracts) nor production figures.

Vacheron Constantin
The below table is one commonly found on the internet. However, I am unable to match the dates in this table against known production dates (from Vacheron) against a set of watches from the 1940s. I have not reviewed this table more widely against other references across time.
Vacheron Serial Numbers [WatchesToBuy]
There is an alternative Vacheron serial number table that some use. I have however, found the top table from publised at WatchesToBuy to be more accurate. If you find otherwise, please give me a shout.

Zenith
No public production date table known. Please let us know if there is one we should include. You can receive production information by obtaining an extract.

We always try to have a good selection of vintage Girard-Perregaux watches for sale on this site. These were very expensive when new and remain costly as collector’s items today, but their build and finish quality is exceptionally high and they make excellent alternatives for anyone wanting a vintage watch that is a little less obvious than those by Rolex, Omega and Jaeger LeCoultre.

Founded in 1791, Girard-Perregaux is one of the oldest of the major Swiss houses and one of the few that was established in the Georgian rather than Victorian era.

From the outset, it was primarily a producer of extremely high grade watches for a wealthy niche client base and over two centuries on, its position in the marketplace hasn’t really changed. Girard-Perregaux has never pursued the mass market and while it is held in very high regard by serious vintage watch aficionados, it remains largely unknown to the man in the street.

Queen Victoria was a Girard-Perregaux customer and by the mid-19th century, the brand was famous among the royal houses of Europe. Around 1880, a watch was supplied to King Victor Emmanuel of Italy. At this stage, production was limited to pocket watches, the wristwatch having not yet been invented.

Remarkably, Girard-Perregaux can lay credible claim to being the first ever serial producer of wristwatches. In 1879, Kaiser Wilhelm I placed an order with Girard-Perregaux for two thousand watches that could be worn on the wrists of officers in the German navy after discussing the possibilities of creating these items at the Berlin Exhibition of the same year, where Girard-Perregaux had a trade stand. These were duly delivered and, so the tale goes, the wristwatch for male use was born. This seems fairly easy to swallow. In nearly thirty years of daily involvement with vintage watches, in our business we’ve never encountered a man’s wristwatch that pre-dated this Girard-Perregaux batch and believe that we can pretty much accept at face value that this was the genesis of what we would regard today as the luxury wristwatch.

The majority of the vintage Girard-Perregaux watches for sale here were manufactured in the period running from the early 1920s through to the late 1960s. This was very much the golden age for Girard-Perregaux and indeed the high end Swiss mechanical watch industry in general. A well preserved, all original vintage watch from this period by any of the top tier makers will be outstanding and of a quality that has never been equalled since.

Interestingly, Girard-Perregaux wasn’t an entirely autonomous movement manufacturer, but instead took the route of purchasing ebauches ( this is the Swiss term for a movement in its most basic, completely raw, form, without components or finishing) from a small number of highly respected sources and then using them as building blocks for its own creations. The extent to which these were re-worked is quite remarkable, to the degree that in the past, we have sometimes had the devil of a job here trying to identify the ebauche calibre that had been used when describing some of these watches prior to putting them up for sale. Vintage Girard-Perregaux movements are the perfect argument that can be used in favour of ebauche use. Girard-Perregaux realised that as a relatively small concern, its resources were better spent in refining and perfecting movements by other makers rather than trying to create these from scratch. The results are spectacular and we would defy anyone to examine one of these vintage Girard-Perregaux mechanisms and find any aspect of it that is inferior to that of an in-house built Rolex, Omega or Zenith movement from the same period.

From the point of view of the collector looking for an epitomical model of Girard-Perregaux’s most innovative work, a good choice would be a Gyromatic from the late 1950s or early ‘60s. Launching its first automatic watch in 1956, Girard-Perregaux was a late adopter of self-winding, but came up with a brilliantly ingenious switching system that enabled motion of the rotor in both directions to be converted into mainspring tension. This switching was achieved by two so-called “Gyrotrones” and from a technical perspective, these movements are so different, and so beautifully executed, that they are an essential inclusion in any collection that aims to chart the progress of the automatic watch during its glorious post-war heyday.

Girard Perregaux Watches Serial Numbers Pictures

Another must-have purchase for the purist collector would be any of the models that contain the Girard-Perregaux calibre 32A movement. Launched in 1965, it was the first commercially available fast beat movement and stands today as being of great historical importance. The technical teams at all the major Swiss houses had realised that, all else being equal, the faster the oscillation rate of its balance wheel, the more accurate a movement would be. Accordingly, in mid 1960s, there was a race to bring to market ever faster movements, these culminating in those units that ran at a lighting quick 36000 half beats per minute. The engineering skill required to design a reliable movement that could perform at this breakneck speed is staggering, and to this day, even more than forty years on, these are still some of the most remarkable watches that the Swiss factories have ever built. Fast beat watches are lovely things to own ( and to hold to one’s ear…), but they can be a minefield and it is very easy to purchase a worn example that will be troublesome and require constant attention. We always have a small selection of these models for sale in the best possible state of mechanical preservation, including the ground breaking vintage Girard-Perregaux version.

Girard Perregaux Watches Serial Numbers List

It is rather ironic that Girard-Perregaux, one of the most prestigious of the traditional luxury houses, should have been responsible, along with Jaeger LeCoultre, for the first commercially available Swiss battery powered quartz wristwatches. Launched in 1970, the calibre 352 movement, created as a collaborative project between these two grand old brands, started the quartz revolution of the 1970s that almost terminated the mechanical watch making industry. Today, these first generation Girard-Perregaux quartz watches are of great historical significance and while they can still be sourced in excellent order for as little as £500 or £600 pounds, it seems inevitable that they will rapidly appreciate in value in the near future. Again, we try to hold some stock of these but increasingly, replacing items sold without compromising our very high standards in relation to condition and authenticity is proving difficult.

Girard Perregaux Watches Serial Numbers Number

Possibly because of the high cost of its watches and their sharp aesthetics, Girard-Perregaux has a very glamorous image. On the first page of the James Bond Novel “From Russia With Love”, author Ian Fleming wrote that a gold Girard-Perregaux on a brown crocodile strap was one of the “typical membership badges of the rich man’s club”. In more recent times, in 1996, Girard-Perregaux worked closely with Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari to release a range of watches that bore the signatures of both brands.

Girard Perregaux Watches Serial Numbers

As investments, it seems almost certain that vintage Girard-Perregaux watches have a bright future. At no point since the company’s foundation has Girard-Perregaux’s superb quality ever lapsed and as a result, there are no weak eras of production that could have otherwise tarnished the firm’s reputation. Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams always include a selection of vintage Girard-Perregaux watches for sale in their specialist fine horological auctions and while these sell for substantial sums, they fail to attract the same level of interest as their Rolex equivalents, not because of any intrinsic inferiority but simply on account of the former concern being less widely known.

Girard Perregaux Watches Serial Numbers Search

Importantly, Girard-Perregaux today appreciates how much can be gained by publicising its past glories. Both the firm’s website and its printed advertising material constantly references the excellence of its vintage watches and indeed, it uses these as a basis for a series of current re-issues, the most notable of which is the rectangular Girard-Perregaux Vintage 45, so named because of its stylistic similarity to a watch first offered by Girard-Perregaux at the end of World War II. Since 1999, a Girard-Perregaux factory museum has been open to the public in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland with an extensive collection of the company’s vintage pocket and wristwatches. A superb book “Girard-Perregaux” by Francois Chaille has recently appeared on the market specifically about the history of this important house, with the full co-operation of the management there. Following this policy is excellent news for the collector who owns, or is intending to purchase, a classic Girard-Perregaux. While the objective with this advertising is obviously to give a sense of history and credibility to brand new watches, it has the side effect of promoting the company’s vintage pieces at the same time. There is a clear correlation between the attitude of modern day watch brand owners and the values of that brand’s vintage watches. Girard-Perregaux today uses its past glories in a very positive way and as awareness of this remarkable institution grows and more buyers appreciate both the new and old watches of this venerable company, it seems almost inevitable that the worth of its vintage output will rise sharply over the next decade.