Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 watches

The Girard-Perregaux Vintage 1945 is the brand's rectangular watch, designed as a tribute to Art Deco in which straight lines turn into curves and back. Its XXL Large Date and Moon Phases models share one case and movement and differ in metal and dial. Girard-Perregaux first conceived the design in the 1940s, with references 5418 and 5420, and the applied Arabic numerals, small seconds counter and railway minute track take their cue from the first Vintage 1945.

The XXL case measures 36.10 by 35.25 mm and 11.74 mm thick, with a lug-to-lug length of about 50 mm. Case and crystal are curved from top to bottom and from side to side, with short angular lugs and a domed crystal that merges with the sloping bezel. Inside is the self-winding GP03300, a round 4 Hz movement fitted into the rectangular case and visible through a sapphire caseback. Its patented large date uses two very thin discs and changes instantly. A moon phase and a small seconds counter complete the dial, under dauphine hands that are curved by hand to follow it.

The steel and pink gold models come with a silver, blue or grey dial. The grey dial is cut from tinted sapphire and is transparent, so the movement and the large-date mechanism show through it; a steel version with a blue sapphire dial works the same way. The 25882-21-223-BF6A puts the grey sapphire dial in a DLC-coated titanium case. The Vintage 1945 Earth to Sky Edition (25882-21-423-BB4A) uses a titanium DLC case with a blue dial.