Greubel Forsey has long been admired for its incredibly unique timepieces and complication layouts. The brand has produced some of the most striking and innovative watches in the 21st century. Making only a few hundred watches a year, Greubel Forsey is the epitome of niche watchmaking, and the GMT Balancier Convexe is an excellent representation of the brand’s design and mechanical approach to watchmaking.
History
Started in 1999, Greubel Forsey was founded with one stated goal: to pioneer an “extreme, uncompromising approach to fine watchmaking that would reimagine… each of the technical and aesthetic fundamentals established over the last 200 years”. This has certainly been the case. In 2004, the brand presented its first watch, a double tourbillon with the cage mounted at 30 degrees. This watch not only set the stage for Greubel’s coming contributions to watchmaking, but also was mechanically brilliant. This tourbillon was essentially the first to provide an actual mechanical advantage for a wristwatch.
Since 2004, Greubel Forsey has made a series of extremely limited run watches with unique movements and striking case shapes. In 2022, the brand announced the release of the GMT Balancier Convexe, limited to 66 pieces, 22 delivered each year between 2022 and 2024. This watch would combine the aesthetic design language of GF with a set of unique complications that were rather uncommon from the brand. Let’s check it out.
Design Details
The design of the Greubel Forsey GMT Balancier Convexe was intended to exhibit two of Greubel Forsey’s most defining characteristics. First, at 7 o’clock, the brand mounted the escapement at 30 degrees, with a massive black polished bridge, all finished by hand. The 30 degree escapement is a nod to not only the brand’s heritage with the 30 degree tourbillon, its first model, but also its later creations, which also featured a tilted escapement for optimized chronometric precision. This is the fourth watch Greubel has made with this balance configuration.
The other classic attribute is the titanium globe set on the top right of the dial. A feature that has been used a number of times in the past, using the precision laser engraved globe and the 24 hour ring surrounding it, you can locate the city on the globe and note the hour that corresponds to it. In this way, you can effectively identify the time anywhere on the globe. It’s one of the most unique world time layouts and it’s a signature for Greubel Forsey as a brand.
The goal with the GMT Balancier Convexe was to take these two design details and incorporate them into a single watch— but one that was supremely wearable and comfortable. Therefore, the Balancier Convexe GMT measures 46.5mm, but has no lugs, meaning that the watch wears according to its case diameter (there’s not a larger lug to lug dimension). The thickness of the watch is 13.75mm. While these dimensions would typically indicate a massive wearing experience, the lugless strap integration lets the piece wear far more comfortably than the size would suggest, and more compactly than most Greubel Forsey watches.
Beyond the wearing experience, the dial of the GMT Balancier Convexe is completed with a subsidiary seconds between 4 and 5 o’clock and a GMT at 9. The GMT complication is controlled and adjusted by a pusher on the case flank at 10. This is a complicated piece, and it has quite a bit going on on the dial, between the time and world timer, the GMT, the seconds, and the balance. However, the monochrome textured backdrop of the dial allows the complications to take center stage and also permits the watch to present in a less cluttered way.
Everywhere you look, you are met with astounding finishing. Out of Greubel Forsey’s roughly 150 craftsmen workforce, about a third are solely dedicated to hand finishing, and this truly shows through to the final result.
Flipping the watch over, you see a more traditional universal time display on the caseback. This 24 hour wheel has one intriguing detail— the replacement of Paris on the city wheel with La Chaux-de-Fonds, where Greubel Forsey watches are made.
The last defining detail on this brilliant watch is the “convexe” of the case and crystal. The whole case seems as though it’s been warped and bent towards its center, and the crystal conforms to match the distorted layout. This adds a degree of three-dimensionality to the design, and also complements the non-conformist style of the rest of the movement and dial layout. Very nice!
Inner Workings
The Greubel Forsey GMT Balancier Convexe’s exceptional movement is largely shrouded by the double-sided complication, but simply looking at the slate of the complications, you can guess how sophisticated it is! The movement itself is made from over 400 components, and the escapement is comprised of nearly 60 parts on its own. In spite of the array of high drain complications, the watch still packs an impressive 72 hour power reserve at full wind. It is powered by two coaxial mainspring barrels. To keep weight down, lots of the movement componentry is made from titanium. It’s an impressive movement fueling an impressive watch.
Versus the Competition
Greubel Forsey is a difficult brand to substitute. Greubel has such a unique design and movement architecture, that if this is what you’re looking for, you’ll be hard pressed to find it elsewhere. Therefore, the best alternatives are brands that have a similar philosophy towards watchmaking— brands that believe in modernized complications for a new audience.
The first brand I’d consider would be MB&F. Watches such as the Legacy Machine Perpetual perpetuate a similar tradition to that of the Greubel Forsey— featuring a traditional complication in an atypical layout. This would be a great place to turn instead of the Greubel.
Alternatively, you may consider Vianney Halter’s Perpetual Calendar. Vianney Halter is a brand I have a tremendous amount of respect for. The maison has pioneered a completely new look, heavily influenced by the steampunk aesthetic, and I think it works absolutely brilliantly. Once again, the brand had to work the watch around the design rather than the other way around.
Finally, I’d look within Greubel Forsey’s own catalog, at the double tourbillon we’ve covered previously here. This watch, as Greubel Forsey’s first official model, provides a great place from which to examine the Greubel Forsey aesthetic and philosophy.
Personality
The collector that opts for Greubel Forsey is a serious personality indeed. This is not a watch for the faint of heart. First, you must appreciate the mechanical complexity of this piece; you must appreciate the sheer rarity of a Greubel Forsey creation; you must have the physical stature to support a watch of this size, and finally, you must have the means to acquire. That makes this piece a niche selection. That said, with Greubel Forsey’s small production and high standards, this piece was never intended as a mass market offering at all. In fact, this gets to the very root of what independent watchmaking is all about, and why it’s become so popular recently. Collectors are thirsting for something new, different, exciting. And Greubel Forsey is all of those things.
Final Thoughts
Is this watch a Royal Oak? A Nautilus? A Submariner? Absolutely not. It’s not that this watch is better than any of those pieces. But if you appreciate watchmaking and want something that stands out for being unique, this has to be a great choice. To me, the GMT Balancier Convexe encapsulates everything that is Greubel Forsey in a single watch. It is the wearable extension of the brand’s design DNA, and it deserves a spot on your wrist. Check it out for yourself at European Watch Company.
See more of the Greubel Forsey GMT Balancier Convexe
